Coated Ambassadors as resonant heads?

[Groovemeister]

Err..

I'm not one to disagree with personal preferance (damn Nazi's...) but, I will say that you get a warmer sound out of ambassador resonants than thinner diplomats, no question.

I've tried coated batter and resonant. I wasn't to enamoured with the results I must say. The initial presence from the drumstool suffered for me, and the overall volume did too (as least in a non-miced setting). It might have become a little tad warmer, perhaps, but the negative aspects far outweighed the positives as far as I can remember...

MP

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 24, 2005 06:03 PM: Message edited by: Groovemeister ]</font>

[zmorton]

Most of the music I'm playing is acoustic jazz and I'm hoping that this may "tighten" up the tone of my toms, without getting muddy, leaving just a tad more space in the overall sound for the harmonic instruments.

I'll likely just try it on my 10 first just to hear it.

Interesting about Vinnie and Greg using this set up, I didn't know that.

[mja61]

I tried Coated Ambassadors top and bottom on my toms and bass drum a while back (actually, it was about 10 years ago!) I was specifically going for a sound like Gregg Bissonette on Brandon Fields' "The Other Side of the Story," or Jeff P. on a lot of his early '80s session work.

Overall, I was disappointed and found that I actually got closer to my "desired" sound with thin clear heads (like Evans Resonants). With two Coated Ambassadors, the sound was darker, but not really warmer. They were muddier, but not richer, and they were less sensitive, but also sort of "quit" under heavier playing.

I would describe the sound somewhere between a double-headed tom, and a single-headed tom from the '70s. A Coated Ambassador is effectively thicker than a Clear Ambassador, so I think the overall volume, projection and cut of the drums was diminished. It also seemed like I had to "muscle" the toms a little more to get as much punch as I was used to from those drums, so it may not be a bad option if you want the drums to be less obvious in the mix.

And I agree that Gregg's drums always sound great!!

[mja61]

PS -

I saw Gregg live a couple years ago, and he was using Clear Ambassadors as bottom heads. Sounded killer, as usual.

I remember an interview with Larry Mullen, Jr. from about 20 years ago where he discussed putting a hole in the bottom tom heads. He said he did this for miking purposes, and that it "effectively makes it a single-headed drum."

[funkydrummer]

Stanton Moore from Galactic does this as well. His drums (esp. the toms) have a nice, warm sound to them.