Re: DW Drums Discussion
Hey DW Owners, I wanted to make a post about DW's drum heads & some experimentation real quick.
Back Story
I got my Collector's kit recently, and was really blown away by how good the drums sound and how great the stock heads are.
After putting some Evans G2 Coated heads on my drums, it seemed to kill the sustain and tone of the kit too much, so I took them off and went back to the stock heads. I have always been an Evans Coated G2 guy, but after having that bad of an experience with them on my Collector's, I will never put two ply batter heads on this kit.
I bought some Evans G12 Coated Heads, which are a single ply head but are 20% thicker than a G1 to give the drums more warmth. I really enjoy these heads as I get good warmth but also keep good sustain as well.
Fast forward to my experimentation now.
My 12" rack tom is the hardest of my drums to tune, for whatever reason, it is also the one that I would use the most next to my 14" so I really try to nail the 12" before all others. My 12" tom [Evans G12 Coated Batter & Evans G1 Clear Reso] is tuned to around 133 fundamental note with my Tune Bot. It sounds the best in that range but I would like it a tad deeper.
So I put the stock DW Clear/Coated Head back on my 12", kept the G1 Clear Reso. I tuned my 12" to 136 fundamental note on the Tune Bot and it sounded nice. But I wanted to get a deeper sound out of it. So I decided to tune it lower, and lower and lower. I got it down to around 106 fundamental note where it was very deep and fat but it still sounded like a drum & resonated well.
I put the G12 Coated back on my 12" and the best that drum sounded at a lower fundamental note was 120. When I got the G12 Coated to around 106, the drum sounded papery and flat, unlike where the Clear/Coated head was at with it at that range.
So while I still enjoy the Evans G12 Coated on my Collector's Kit, I now believe the DW Coated/Clear heads can be tuned extremely high OR extremely low, while still sounding great! I know my two floor toms were tuned lower than they are now with the DW Clear/Coated heads as opposed to where they are now with the G12 Coated heads.
It appears that my Evans G12 Coated, and probably other companies drum heads, can only go so low or high before they sound bad, but for some reason....these DW Clear/Coated Heads seem to be MORE versatile, which is what I prefer. The drums record great & sound great in person as well. I will probably stick with the G12's for recording [warmth and what not] and when I play live I will probably swap the G12's out for the Clear/Coated heads, because the sustain on those things is unreal and would probably be best suited for live performance.
Just thought this was interesting that when I compared both drum heads, one sounded good at one level while the other sounded flat and paper sounding, and I figured they might both sound okay at those levels, but that was not the case. The drums that you are tuning probably also make a difference as well.
Which leads me to my next thought....I want to now try DW's Single Ply Coated Heads, as opposed to the Clear/Coated. If DW Coated heads can keep with that unreal sustain from the Clear/Coated but give me some more warmth, they would probably beat the Coated G12's out. I've never been a Remo guy, but these Coated/Clear heads from DW I still think are the best for a Collector's kit, throughout just some experimentation so far, and I know others have had the same opinion as well.
Has anyone ever tried DW's Single Ply Coated? How did they compare to the Clear/Coated?
Last edited by druski_2k5; 07-17-2016 at 07:43 PM.
DW Collectors
Twisted Blue Oyster
Toms: 8x10, 8x12, 12x14, 14x16 [Evans G2 Coated/Evans Clear Genera Resonant/G1]
Kick: 18x20 [Evans EMAD2 White/EQ3 Coated White + Kickport]
Pure Maple Standard Shells
Chrome Hardware
Snare: 6x13 DW Edge Snare - Tiger Oyster - Chrome Hardware
Aux: 5x12 Pork Pie Little Squealer
RotoToms: 6 - 8 - 10 - Remo Pinstripe Clear
Evans & Remo Heads
Cymbals
Zildjian A Custom
Zildjian A Series
Zildjian EFX
Zildjian K & K Custom
Sabian Paragon
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