Tech Speak is a regular segment of the Pearl Drummers' Resources and features articles pertaining to Pearl drums and (sometimes) drumming in general. It is written by Gene Okamoto and Raymond Massey, Pearl's resident nuts and bolts guys.


Drumheads

If this is your first visit to Tech Speak, welcome! If you’re a return visitor, welcome back!

Before I get started with this installment of Tech Speak, I want to thank everyone who e-mailed me regarding the tuning article…thanks for your many favorable comments!

OK, let’s get started!

Drumheads

Today’s subject, drumheads, is a continuation of the tuning article. I originally planned to include drumheads in the tuning article, however, knowing that I had to write another Tech Speak article eventually, I decided to save drumheads for another day. Today is the day. But first…a story.

A True Story

When I got my first set of drums, my knowledge about the instrument was zip, nada, zero. One of the things I assumed was that drumheads lasted forever. Of course they don’t, so when they wore out, I went to the local drum store totally unprepared for what would happen next. It went something like this:

Me: "I need to buy new heads for my drums."
Salesman: "What sizes do you want?"
Me: "I don’t know. They’re about this big." I made circles of different sizes with my hands.

I learned my first lesson: 1) drumheads come in different sizes; and 2) my set wasn’t the only configuration that drums come in.

I went home and measured my drums then returned to the store. I was ready, but I was wrong.

Me: "Here are the sizes of my drums. 13½" and 16½" toms, 21½" bass and 13½" snare."
Salesman: "I think you mean 13", 16", 22" and 14"."
(Lesson 1.5: I learned how to measure my drums correctly).
Me: "Whatever."
Salesman: "OK. Do you want Diplomats, Ambassadors, or Emperors?"
Me: "?????"

I learned my second lesson: drumheads come in different styles.

I took the salesman’s suggestion and bought a set of Remo coated Ambassadors.

So Many Choices, So Little Time

Thinking back, I was fortunate because there weren’t very many choices back then. You had your basic coated heads in three thicknesses and that was pretty much it!

How times have changed! Today you have clear heads, coated heads, thin heads, medium heads, heavy heads, blue heads, black heads, heads with dots, heads with rings, heads with rings and dots, heads with oil, woven heads, woven heads with dots, and everything in between. You also have heads by Remo, heads by Evans, heads by Aquarian, heads by Attack, heads by Ludwig, and others. The choices are mind-boggling.

So what do you do? If you have deep pockets, you can buy them all. Or you can educate yourself about how drumheads "work" and narrow your search before you buy. In the following, I’ll attempt to explain the basics of drumheads to help you choose wisely.

Drumhead Construction

Today practically all heads are made of polyester film, commonly known as plastic. However, prior to plastic, calfskin heads were common. The problem with calfskin was stability (or the lack thereof), they changed tension as temperature and humidity changed thus had to be constantly tuned and re-tuned. With the advent of plastic heads, drummers could tune their drums once and play to their hearts content in any weather condition.

During the late 70’s, a company called Duraline offered drumheads made of Kevlar®, the same material used to make bulletproof vests. As you’d expect, these heads were extremely strong and were advertised as being playable even with a hole in them. They were made of porous cloth thus air was able to pass through them. This made (early) Duraline heads sound very dry (the same principle as taking the front heads off of bass drums). Later resin was applied to the bottom of the heads to plug the holes in an effort to make them sound more "normal." Although Duraline is long gone, Kevlar® is still used today on marching and pipe drum heads.

    Duraline Drumheads

Thickness

Drumheads are basically available in three thicknesses: thin, medium, and thick. Years ago, Remo gave these thicknesses names: Diplomat, Ambassador, and Emperor respectively. These names are so prevalent that if you go to any drum store and ask for, for example, an Ambassador weight head—be it Evans, Ludwig, Attack, Aquarian, or whatever—you’ll get their equivalent thickness head.

Thickness is commonly measured in mils. One mil is equal to .001" or one thousandths of an inch. As a reference, Diplomat batter heads are 7.5 mil thick; Ambassador batters are 10 mil thick; and Emperor batters are 14 mil thick (two plies, 7 mil + 7 mil). Sometimes you’ll see these written as 750, 1000, and 1400: they mean the same thing.

As you’d expect, variations exist between brands and models. For example, Ludwig’s medium is 7.5 mil thick and their heavy is 10 mil thick. In comparison, Remo’s thin is 7.5 mil thick and their medium is 10 mil thick. Moral: go by thickness and not by description.

Batter and Snare Heads

Heads come in two types: batter heads and snare heads.

Batter heads are the ones that you hit hence the name "batter" (as in batter-up in baseball or assault and battery…just kidding). Batter heads are also used on the bottoms of toms and the fronts of bass drums. When used in this manner they’re called resonator heads. I’ll discuss resonator heads in more detail later.

Snare heads are much thinner and are used on the bottoms of snare drums. Diplomat, Ambassador, and Emperor snare heads are 2, 3, and 5 mil thick respectively. To put this in perspective, typical plastic kitchen wrap is also 2 to 3 mil thick.

Another true story: Not long ago, we (Pearl) received a snare drum from a drummer who claimed that it sounded "bad." Upon inspection, we discovered that he put an Ambassador batter head on the snare side. It turned out that the store guy (probably a guitar player*) sold him the wrong type of Ambassador. *Guitar players aren’t the only ones who make this type of mistake, violin players are especially notorious.

Durability and Sensitivity

Drumhead durability and sensitivity are inversely proportional to thickness. Thus, as heads get thinner, they get less durable but more sensitive; and as they get thicker, they get more durable and less sensitive.

Durability is a straight-ahead concept: it’s the drumhead’s capability to withstand punishment. One way to make heads more durable is to make them from strong stuff like Kevlar®. Plastic heads, on the other hand, can be made stronger by adding plies and/or by adding reinforcements. Emperor heads get their strength from two plies (7 mil + 7 mil). Heads, such as Remo’s Controlled Sound and Ludwig’s Silver Dot achieve added durability by a reinforcement "dot" in the center of the heads. There are even heads with two plies and dots for extreme durability.

Sensitivity is the ability of the drumhead to translate the nuances of your performance into sound. Thickness has a profound effect on sensitivity.

Thin heads have low mass which enables them to respond to very light hits. You have to know what you’re doing to play these heads, however: one hard hit and its hasta la vista, baby.

Medium heads offer improved durability with good overall sensitivity thus making them ideal for most applications. As most drums are equipped with medium heads from the factory, you’re probably familiar with these already.

Thick Heads

Thick heads sound thick…"wet" is another description of how they sound. It’s like the difference between hitting a single sheet of paper (thin sound) and a pad of paper (thick sound).

In general, thick heads are more "forgiving" than thinner heads thus allowing them to sound good with less effort. For example, they can be out of tune with themselves and still sound good.

With thick heads, you give up sensitivity (they’re not too good on brush gigs) but you gain durability. They also dampen overtones thus making drums sound less ringy.

Coated, Clear, and Textured Heads

Since the invention of plastic heads, manufacturers have tried to make them imitate the feel and sound of calfskin heads. As plastic is smooth, the first thing they did was to spray a rough texture coat on the heads to emulate the "swish, swish" sound with brushes. Coated heads were "standard issue" for years but as interest in brush playing waned, transparent heads became the norm. Recently, coated heads have had a resurgence of sorts as drummers have rediscovered the slightly muted sound that the coating provides. Within the last ten years, however, new laminates such as those employed on Remo’s FiberSkyn and Renaissance heads have finally allowed plastic to achieve the sound and tactile response of real calfskin heads.

Tinted Heads

Most drummers use tinted heads for looks but due to the different formulation in the plastic, blue and black tinted heads tend to sound darker (no pun intended) than clear heads of equal thickness.

Heads with Oil

The big drumhead innovation in the 70’s came from Evans who developed the Evans Hydraulic heads, two ply heads with a coating of oil between the plies. These heads were very muffled and, especially when played single-headed, defined the popular 70’s "cardboard box" sound. Contrary to myth, if you break a hydraulic while playing you won’t be showered with oil; the oil inside is minimal.

Heads with Dots

As mentioned earlier, dots add thickness and durability to heads. However, in addition, they affect the sound of drums. On snare drums, they enhance low-end frequencies and produce what I call a "tubby" sound. On toms, they improve "focus," the ability to hear each drum and each note clearly. Listen to Tony Williams’ trademark single stroke tom-to-tom fills and you’ll hear how defined they sound…he used Controlled Sound (black dot) heads.

   Remo Controlled Sound Heads

As you can see from the photo above, dots can be positioned on either side of the head. When adhered on the bottom, tone not strength is the primary concern; however, I’ve heard from many drummers that say they get extended durability from "underside" dots too.

Heads with Rings

In my opinion, rings are the most significant drumhead development since the invention of plastic heads.

A picture is worth a thousand words so rather than trying to describe rings, I’ll show you examples of what they are.

   Remo Pinstripe® Heads

   Aquarian Studio-X


   Evans Genera Heads

Hopefully, you can see from the photos that rings are just that…rings. When placed at the perimeter of heads, rings very effectively reduce or eliminate unwanted overtones or "ring" (without significantly affecting the tone of the drum).

Most rings are made of drumhead material and are adhered to the perimeter of the head or crimped into the hoop. An exception is the Remo Pinstripe® that is basically an Emperor (two ply) head with the plies fused together at the perimeter to form a ring.

These heads work wonderfully on all drums but really shine on bass drums. Heads such as the Remo PowerStroke™3, Evans EQ, Aquarian Super-Kick™, and Pearl ProTone EQ (standard on Export and Export Select) are definitely worth the price of admission…they sound great and look clean—no more pillows or blankets!

External Rings

Rings don’t have to be built-in to be effective; they can also be external. After-market rings by Noble & Cooley, Remo, Evans, and others allow drummers to control the overtones of their existing heads. Two types by Remo are shown below.

Remo RemOs
Remo Muff'ls

The RemOs are typical of the first type. They’re made of drumhead material (although other materials can be used such as neoprene) and come in diameters to fit popular snare drum and tom sizes. Additionally, most companies offer snare drum rings in different widths. Wider rings offer more overtone control, narrow ones offer less.

The beauty of these rings is how they work. Since they use gravity and static cling—not adhesive—to hold them to the head, they "fly off" the head, minutely and momentarily, when the head is hit. Then, an instant later, they "fall back" onto the head. When the ring is "off" the head the drum is allowed to ring to its full glory and tone. When the ring falls back, the head is muted. This "off" / "on" / "off" / "on" action works like a gate in recording and produces a natural yet controlled sound. In contrast, old-style "push up" internal tone controls* and newer-style external "push down" tone controls* mute the sound at all times and don’t sound particularly natural. *Additionally, these types of tone controls apply pressure on one part of the head causing the heads to be out of tune with themselves. Rings apply even pressure around the head thus don’t affect tuning.

The Remo Muff’ls are an adaptation of the foam "ring-on-drumhead" concept made popular years ago by Dead Ringers…remember them? However, instead of being glued on with peel-and-stick adhesive like Dead Ringers, Muff’ls are held in place by the head and are thus reusable. For some applications, especially on marching bass drums, peel-and-stick foam is still popular (and guess what, we sell them! TS-14 Bass Drum Tone Strips).

Resonator Heads

Resonator heads are the bottom heads on toms and the front heads on bass drums. They’re called resonator because they add resonance and give "life" to the drum sound. Mechanically, resonator heads are exactly the same as batter heads and, as they aren’t hit, they tend to be thin to medium thickness to maximize sensitivity and resonance.

Personally, I like my toms wide-open with maximum resonance therefore I prefer thin resonator heads. I usually follow this rule: whatever the batter head is, I use a resonator head "one notch" thinner. For example, if I’m using Ambassador batters (or equivalent), I’ll use Diplomat resonators (or equivalent). If the batters are Emperors (or equivalent), I’ll use Ambassador resonators (or equivalent). There have been times, however, when I used Diplomat resonators with Emperor batters. This works for me, however, there’s no right or wrong so experiment* to find what works best for you.

*Speaking of experimenting #1: I once thought that if Diplomat batters (7.5 mil) worked great, then 3 mil heads (Ambassador snare heads) would work even better. So I ordered a set of these and put them on the bottoms of my toms…yuck, awful, PU.

*Speaking of experimenting #2: Once (when I was still in retail), a customer came in and insisted that black Emperor heads on the bottoms of his toms would make them resonate better. I handed him one but instead of selling it to him I insisted that he install it right then and there. Another yuck, awful, PU. There’s a reason why super-thin heads (snare heads)** and thick heads (Emperor weight)** aren’t used on the resonant side of toms...they don’t work.

**Who knows, you might like these…again, experiment.

Bass drum resonator heads are usually medium (Ambassador) thickness -- some are plain but, these days, many feature built-in rings. The rings work very well to control overtones thus getting a good sound often without pillows or blankets in the drum. Also, some have holes and some don’t. The holes allow air to escape and give more "thud." The "thud-factor" is controlled by the size of the hole: the larger the hole, the greater the "thud;" the smaller the hole, the greater the "boom."

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, if you didn’t already, you now have a better knowledge about drumheads. However, like choosing cymbals or drumsticks, you still have to test a few until you find the ones you like. So test away and have fun!

Special thanks to Lloyd McCausland at Remo for teaching me a few things about drumheads that I just passed on to you today.

Also, special thanks to Steve Ettleson at Evans for supplying Evans heads on the Masterworks set that we’re using on the Masterworks Tour…they sound great!

If you have any questions or comments regarding this article or drums in general, I can be reached at geneokamoto@pearldrums.com.

Why do drummers go to drum clinics?

Before I fade into the sunset, I’d like to thank all of you who responded to the question, "What attracts drummers to drum clinics?" Below are some my favorite responses (printed by permission of the senders).

Chris A.: Well I think one of the reasons why drummers are so interested in clinics is wanting to learn more about drumming. Different styles, techniques. I mean if you have a 5-piece kit (standard) and you take 5 drummers they all will be different. Maybe some will know how to make the drum talk and others just sit down and beat them. I know I'm always interested in finding other ways to play: speed, fills, upbeats, downbeats, accents and just other styles. So maybe they go there to learn more or maybe it is to get out of the house...

Chris P.: I want to go to Drum Clinics to learn what someone who has experience in the field has to say about the career I want to get into. And to be blown away and inspired to get better by a great performance!

Kent D.: Drumming is a brotherhood. That’s why you see drum clinics showing such a large and overwhelming following. It’s due to the fact that when you get a couple of real drummers together in the same room, the magical bond we all have through the drums, comes out and we feel that we must share the groove and "one heart beat" with others of like minds and souls. This cannot be said about guitarists because they are in such competition all the time "cutting heads" with their "axes" and not willing to share there knowledge with each other for fear that the next guy would take there gig, and or chops...tsk tsk we are all in this together and we need to get the groove out to the masses so we stop competing and start banging the drum of life to the one beat, and not necessarily that of the same drummer!

Riddim: A chance to interact:

- an opportunity to ask why an artist make such hand such an artistic choice

- to get a feel for the player as a person, since what we play is who we are

For some of us, it's a chance to see other than pocket playing. For many more, it's a chance to see how one physically executes something, which may not be apparent from listening, particularly if the player is ambidextrous. Hope that helps -- and I like your web site and column. Great work.