Is it time to change drum head?

[drummerboy60]

The coating on my snare drum head is coming off and am wondering if it is time to change the head. My snare head came with the drum. It is a evans snare batter head. Also what would be a good evans head to buy for my gretsch maple snare?

Keep drumming

Gregg

[BigFatDrummer]

What type of Evans head are you currently using and do you like the sound you have? If yes, stick with that. If no, what don't you like about it an what sound are you looking for?

[Pearl MCX Man]

That depends on you. Do you do a lot of brush work if not then the new Evan's EC frosted with reverse dot is a great all around head with lots of tone on the surface no matter where you hit it. Excellent for rim shots and ghost notes. This is it pictured. Another great coated snare head Evan's Genera HD I have used this head and sound great..

[rogersdrums]

The coating on my snare drum head is coming off and am wondering if it is time to change the head. My snare head came with the drum. It is a evans snare batter head. Also what would be a good evans head to buy for my gretsch maple snare?

Keep drumming

Gregg

the coatings always wear off in time. If you need a coating then it's time. If you don't need it but want to know if the head is shot take head off and look at it from the side, if it is spooned inward or shows dents, it is time to replace. The standard evans head that came with your drum is most likely the evans g1 coated. I just replaced that same head on my gretsch hammered brass with a remo vintage ambassador coated. I had that head laying around for years and tried it on a lot of my others snares and hated it. Tried it on my Gretsch, love it! I also replaced the snare side with a ludwig which are the thinnest out there.

[Russ]

Used to use Evans exclusively. My top picks for snare heads from Evans:

Powercenter reverse dot
G1 coated
G2 coated
Genera hd dry
ST dry

[wolvie56]

That depends on you. Do you do a lot of brush work if not then the new Evan's EC frosted with reverse dot is a great all around head with lots of tone on the surface no matter where you hit it. Excellent for rim shots and ghost notes. This is it pictured. Another great coated snare head Evan's Genera HD I have used this head and sound great..

I am using one of these also. It's an excellent head. My moon gel is at 3:00 though. I've been beating it for 6 months now and it's showing minimum wear and tear. It has built in muffling as well. An excellent head. One of the best heads out there in my opinion. To reply to your question, I've seen where people play a coated head where there isn't any coating left on the sweet spot. If you like the sound, keep the head. It's really not a big difference.

[DwDrummer4Life]

Some other ways to tell if your heads are dead are if your heads cant hold their tone and seems like you have to re-tune them each time you get behind the kit or if they have some major dents forming in them and is just beat to crap (minus the regular wear and tear marks) and starting to warp

[Russ]

You can go at things from a timeline point of view also. 3-6 months that head should be gone and replaced. I heard of some guys that replace them every couple sessions, seems excessive to me but I guess when they are hit hard enough over long periods of time it loses it's characteristics. You'll hear the difference if you compare it against a newer one.