Snare--Heads / Brushes

What type of head (coatings) for snare would you recommend for sticks and brush work---for the 'jazz'ier side of life?

Regarding brushwork: Are all brushes equal?---best makes?

(Newbie here)

Your advice welcome.

From everything I've been told and what I've learned you'll need a coated "rough" head for the brushes to be effective. Brushes come in more than one flavor. I know there are metal and there are plastic brushes. Metal are a bit harsher and can draw blood. They are also more robust and will usually outlast the head. As far as how one performs over the other, I don't use brushes as intended. I use them to clean out the crud between the hoop and the head. :doh:

I like Aquarian texture coated as it's pretty durable.

Brushes have different materials and different gauges of materials. Mainly there are wire and nylon. Past that there are different thicknesses of wire and nylon. All have their own sound. You should go to a good music store and try them out. The only question you need to ask yourself is, What do I want to hear?

There's retractable ones available to prevent bent wires. That was a good idea for the brushes.

I should have mentioned that a working drummer will have more than one set of brushes, to accommodate different playing situations.

I went to a Jeff Hamilton clinic and one of the questions asked of him was what type of snare batter is best for brush work and he said and I quote: "a coated one". Nothing specific was narrowed down or brand name mentioned.

https://i845.photobucket.com/albums/...psfexhyvds.jpg

But as far as brushes, I found the Chad Wakerman BR-CW Paintstick to be the best of both worlds; a stick/brush hybrid:

https://i845.photobucket.com/albums/...psemfrhmq4.jpg

Here's a demo with Chad playing the Paintbrush:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=ZBhHveePv4I