Heads, along with cymbals, are most likely the most replaced aftermarket item there is for acoustic drums. This is probably because they are so insanely important. I might be wrong, but I’m not. Accept it. Now, because they are so important and popular, there are new types and brands of heads coming out seemingly every day. This is both awesome and frustrating. If you have skills, knowledge, or a teacher, mentor, or know someone cool at the local music store, then choosing heads should be a breeze. For others, this decision is not so easy. That is why, especially to improving beginners, I am reviewing a set of batter heads that I got and seemed to work very well. I got the clear Remo Pinstripe heads (which I had to buy separately because my heads are strangely sized, 10-12-16 inch toms, but you could buy a pre-pack if you have standard sizes). The point is I love them.
One thing you have to know about these heads is that they won’t immediately make pro-sounding quality out of your drums. For instance, I had terrible stock manufacturer resonant heads on mine even after I bought these new batter heads and mine improved some, but I knew they more potential than they were showing. The high tom in particular had the undeniable low quality sound of overtones and junky noise in the background. I tried putting Moon Gel on the resonant head, which helped some, but not enough. I eventually solved the problem by buying an Ebony Remo Ambassador head for this particular tom to try it out, which I found a complete success. The Ebony head is a bit thicker and helps significantly to take out that high-pitch background noise. Back to the Pinstripes, though, I have now played on these heads for some time and have had no trouble. I am not exactly an expert at tuning heads, but I did not have much trouble at all tuning these bad boys to my toms. I spent no more than thirty total minutes removing old heads and replacing them with the brand new ones. The awesome thing about putting on new heads is that you can tune them however you want. As long as every bolt is equally tightened (which I can’t stress enough making sure you do this), you can tune the head a little looser or the traditional super-tight sealed head. I personally prefer a very tight batter head with a resonant head turned just far enough so that there are no wrinkles. Anyway, these are great heads, especially if you are replacing your horrible original heads with new ones, because these are affordable, good quality, and reliable heads.
Remo is a great brand for percussion equipment. Guaranteed. I approve of every one of their products I have used (which is quite a large number). I have been jamming and rocking out on these heads for quite a while now (probably several months now), and sound quality has remained constant. Something you need to know, however, is that different heads produce different sounds. I personally play mostly rock, blues rock, hard rock, and alternative metal, and these heads sound awesome for me. I have heard from my expert witness at my local music store, though, that they work for just about anything. In other words, there is nothing to lose in trying these heads except some terrible sounds you would love to get rid of. So, overall I would give these heads a 4.8 out of 5.
