sounds like you had a great experience, congratulations on the heads, and great review as usual. cant wait till mine come in the mail as well.
I will be the 1st to admit I wasn't a big fan of attack. My bias is due to older models sounding lifeless, and some 1-ply clears I heard being bright and thin sounding with no body---like a stock China-made drumhead for example. You know the disclaimer "YMMV" Your mileage will vary? Well, it will. The chances of your drums sounding anything like mine or reacting anything like mine to drumheads in the same way are slim to none. Your kit may result in too much brightness from these. Or, you may think they are too thuddy.
Let me describe my platform....the kit I am using so you know why I wanted improvement. I have a mid 80's Tama imperialstar. The shell is mixed woods with a coarse interior coating and re-rings. There is a roundover bearing edge as well. This makes the drum punchy and focused. They are not like modern drums that are all "bright cut". They have decent cut, but not that edgy "I need to tame it down" cut. They have a shorter sustain than modern starclassics, but enough sustain so they are not what you would classify as "pure thud". (Hey, they mic up nice!)
I originally chose pinstripes as a baseline. They did a pretty good job delivering punch and depth, but still needed moongel, at least a dab. This sound was a pretty good all-around rock sound/slam, but could use a bit of a lift. (Maybe more open and bright) I really considered G2 clears, because in my experience, they have a better and brighter attack than remo clear emperors or aquarian super 2. Aquarian heads have been ruled out because I consider them to have a 'warming" effect with slower stick response. Aquarian (IMO) are more suited for a kit that you want to tame a bit.
I saw that attack mediums were priced less than g2's, so I ordered the 6/8/10 as an experiment. The pinstripe sounded just plain BAD on my 10" concert tom. It was either thud or "boing", take you pick! I picked on the thud side with a 1/3 dab of moongel.
The attack drumheads looks like a cross between g2 clears and remo powerstroke 3's. But the ridge on them is not the same as a ps/3 ridge. It's like having the brightness of a G2, but with slight control in the vein of a ps/3. The "ridge" looks more like a stamped crease than an add-in ring.
The first thing that struck me was...these heads were LOUDER than pinstripes, no question. There was a nice body to them and something was additionally impressive: the stick response! These heads could be tensioned up normally, without the need for looser tuning and the energy return is superior to pinstripes at any tension.
After installing the 6/8/10, I was greatly pleased by the clarity and power in which these toms spoke. And it was not thuddy OR thin sounding. They sound bold without being too bright, and punchy without being dull. I feel I made the right choice for my specific kit and the sound goal I was after.
My whole kit is getting them, except for the snare which will be 1-ply coated. I am sold, I like what these attack drumheads do for my specific kit. I guarantee you this kit sounds better than was possible with 80's drum heads!
Here is the way I looked at the performance of my kit, relatively speaking.
No matter what I put on my kit, it will never be as bright as a modern 45-degree maple shell, and definitely not oak. But going left to right, you can see how the envelope of performance increased with drum head selection. The higher "brightness/attack" is, means it's also the loudest and most projecting.
I gauged the relative qualities of three drum heads on my kit. And to note: even as bright as attack are, 2-ply heads with that stamped ring will never be as bright/open as a 1-ply ambassador weight head would be.
So, you can see, by going to attack--my summary tells me I gained in every area.
Last edited by Imperialstar; 11-01-2009 at 07:59 PM.
sounds like you had a great experience, congratulations on the heads, and great review as usual. cant wait till mine come in the mail as well.
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I used Attack single ply clears for a while...they sounded pretty bad. Maybe the 2 ply heads are different.
Matt
Last edited by Imperialstar; 10-30-2009 at 09:09 PM.
Incidentally, I have ordered a 1-ply coated Attack for my snare. It's a DW edge, 12x7. Currently it has a remo coated ambassador. I will follow up on how that and the no-overtone kick resos sound.
Thanks for your review Imperialstar. It was well thought out, and had enough detail to let me see how Attack heads might apply, or not, to my own kit. Good job!
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I appreciate the feedback and kudos!
The thing I discovered long ago is that drum heads can sound radically different on different kits. It donned on me years back that it's a good idea to get a solid idea of what sound you are after first. And then you must assess your own kits envelope of performance. And then find the drumhead that will bring out those qualities you want.
As much as I dislike the 1-ply clear attack on Mapex Orion maple, they might sound great on Gretsch Catalina club. That is because that kit isn't as bright and cutting as the Mapex Orion. That, and someone may want the most open/bright sound possible.
I hope people see as I have: Before they dismiss drum heads based on how they sounded on one kit, they should keep an open mind as to how they might sound on another type of shell. Bright? dark? warm? open?
With an open sound and a full kit I say onto you in the words of my forefathers (Roy Burns):
"The drum head is 82% the sound of a drum"
Last edited by Imperialstar; 10-31-2009 at 10:00 AM.
Imp, if I remember right I think that ring design was a Terry Bozzieo idea in the Attack design. Where the heads he used were medium single ply prolly different then other Attack single ply's.
See now you enforced me to put much more thought into my choice of Attack heads. I used pinstrips on my old Durado set no bottom heads and loved the sound with the bands, so did every drummer that played them. But now I have Pearl Exports with bottom heads. The guys I'm playing with tend to adjust with more bottom end in their instruments, which does make my sound sound lower when playing along with them.
So I'm still thinking for me Terry Bozzieo single ply's.
Hopefully a little brighter and louder with more ring to fill the body of the drum sound out front. Reason for saying this is I don't mike so my main concern the sound out front not so much as what I'm hearing but what the patrons are hearing. I can get used to any drum sound behind the kit in a short time, but what they project out front is a complete other story...
Play to win my friend, and make sure you see you won in the eyes of others not that of your own, then truly you've won...
Imp, if I remember right I think that ring design was a Terry Bozzieo idea in the Attack design. Where the heads he used were medium single ply prolly different then other Attack single ply's.
See now you enforced me to put much more thought into my choice of Attack heads. I used pinstrips on my old Durado set no bottom heads and loved the sound with the bands, so did every drummer that played them. But now I have Pearl Exports with bottom heads. The guys I'm playing with tend to adjust with more bottom end in their instruments, which does make my sound sound lower when playing along with them.
So I'm still thinking for me Terry Bozzieo single ply's.
Hopefully a little brighter and louder with more ring to fill the body of the drum sound out front. Reason for saying this is I don't mike so my main concern the sound out front not so much as what I'm hearing but what the patrons are hearing. I can get used to any drum sound behind the kit in a short time, but what they project out front is a complete other story...
Play to win my friend, and make sure you see you won in the eyes of others not that of your own, then truly you've won...
Thanks to a board glitch I'm posting double...
Play to win my friend, and make sure you see you won in the eyes of others not that of your own, then truly you've won...
Ok, I thought I saw developing eye problems....
Exports wouldn't be as cutting as orions, the poplar is a bit mellower like birch. They sound decent (especially mic'd) with pins. My friend has gigged with them for 15 years now, and ec-2 are better, and IMO, attack-2ply mediums will add slam to the exports.
i dont like 1 ply heads, i broke one after playing it for like 5 minutes, i love the clear remo pinstripes, though i have been thinking abour giving the clear emperors a try
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Clear emps (IMO) sound much richer on PDP maple than the stock or 1 ply heads do. They are more open than pins.
Here is something that is normally said of 1 vs 2 ply: "1 ply is more open, two ply brings out more depth"
The effect of 1 ply, optimally for me is to provide a "balanced" sound across the spectrum without choking. This isn't always desirable. In my oldschool way, I prefer a drum that sounds fat and punchy, not wide open and bright. I am not a jazzer, but I can see why some people like wide open, it's just not my goal. What I hear all too often is a 12" drum that sounds pitched like my 10". I don't care for that effect as the drums that sound that way seem kind of wimpy to me. I understand it when you have a 12/16 type 4 pc, but when you have 10/12/16 drums should not "ping" for me.
Last edited by Imperialstar; 10-31-2009 at 07:17 PM.
wish they made 2ply coateds
ZildjianLeague/LP/Aquarian/Mapex/Pearl
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Attack Drum Heads - Attack 2-ply Thin Skin Coated Heads
Attack Drumheads 2 Ply Thin Skin Coated Drum Head
The Attack Thin Skin 2 Ply Clear two ply lamination of medium and thin Dynaflex™ skin. Louder than other 2-ply heads. Funky, wet, melodic tone, with a darker sound than the Clear series.
i cant find those anywhere, but they seem like they would be something i would be interested in. heres something interesting i learned about attack heads.. apparently they are louder than other brands because the metal part that holds the "skin" is actually made of steel versus the aluminum used traditionally by other guys.
ZildjianLeague/LP/Aquarian/Mapex/Pearl
Snares: 4
RIP- Frank, Wolvie, Les Paul
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Last edited by Imperialstar; 11-01-2009 at 12:41 PM.
interesting.. never seen a graph comparison of heads before..
ZildjianLeague/LP/Aquarian/Mapex/Pearl
Snares: 4
RIP- Frank, Wolvie, Les Paul
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The Rudiments
Nice review
Drum head graph has been integrated into 1st post review for clarity.
Great review ImperialStar. I'll def.consider the Attack 2-ply next time. How do these heads compare price wise to the other heads you have purchased in the past? Thanks.
^Thanks!
Attack 101.
This is stuff I learned today by reading the Distributors catalog describing attack drum heads.
Attack, does things differently in a lot of ways I wasn't aware of.
- The film they call dynaflex. That used to be the name for flexible LP records. I have no idea what flavor of mylar it is.
- The collar is made of steel, not pot metal or aluminum like others
- The drum head uses no glue, it's built into a locking collar
- No other company uses the crimped drumhead edge ring like Attack. This is a better idea than a ring+glue. (see photo of 2-ply medium)
- They make a coated, reverse or top dot snare head (Bozzio sig) that comes in 12, 13 and 14". None of the other companies AFAIK make a 12" snare head.
This explains a lot. The stick response, sound and brightness.
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