Pawn Shop Heads

[markert]

OK, Lets discuss some trivial yet perplexing topic.

I often will buy old school snare kits (maybe 10 lug Ludwigs or old Olympics) at local pawn shops, lets say for $50 or so. Here's why: it seems that the older the snare head (I mean OLD, like from the eighties) the better the sound. I will play these drums and love the sound until the head finally breaks and then, when I change the heads, I can never get the sound back. So, I just put the snare back into the case and buy another one. In the long run, its almost cheaper than experimenting with 3 or 4 different heads at $10 a pop. What gives?

 

[Tim Brown]

Maybe you like the sound of old lifeless heads?

No seriously, they may have used a diferent formula for the head material-and perhaps you liked the old formula better?

I know that I used to use Silverdots (we're talking 14 years ago) and they were a very thin head with a Silverdot on it-then I began getting a really thick version of the head; I couldn't find the really thin version any longer...after that, I just quit using the Silverdots.

So, I guess that Ludwig had changed the actual model, but kept the look of the silverdots. (these may have been striders [Marching heads]that took over the "silverdot" look and was used to replace the formerly thin head.

Tim

 

[RichB]

Markert, I know exactly what your talking about. When I was in the school band (cough) in the early '70's the Remo wheather king heads used to break in real nice. Kind of clear in the middle with that brown ring around it. Can't seem to acheive that now.

Tim, always used to use those "Silver dots" some 20 years ago until YES...thay got extremely heavy!

 

[markert]

RichB:

I love it when an old post sneaks back up on you. Yeah, you nailed it on the head (no puns intended) with the description of the clear, worn out area in the center. The only solution I can see is to have a hoard of pimply teenagers bang the hell out of my drumheads before I put them on my snares. We all know of course that band geek drummers were just working out frustrations since us football players got all the chicks in tight skirts.

Just kidding - I suffer from sucky timing, poor technique, and drum corp rudiment envy.