I too play mostly brushes and am not a hard hitter with sticks. On my old snares I either use Modern Vintage mediums or Remo Coated reverse CS Ambassadors. Diplomat Resos.

Yeah I'd give the Modern Vintage heads a shot. I'm a Remo guy usually but man do I love my MV on my 1940 L&L snare drum!

-Beau

Something I learned in the studio is that fatter sticks, even when played at a lower volume, will give you a fatter tone.

Very good point. An often overlooked but critical part of the overall sound of a drum kit. If you are looking for a really fat sound from your snare you should try a heavier stick. A heavier stick doesn't necessarily mean louder but it will be fatter. Just as an experiment, turn your existing stick over and play the snare with the butt end. See what you think.

It's well worth trying a few heads. There have been some great suggestions that you should investigate. I use the coated CS heads quite a bit for a versatile head that adds some reinforcement, some control for overtones and a little darker tone quality. It's my "go to" snare head for most standard tunings in the pop, rock, contemporary country vein.

Thanks for the tip, stalwart! I've been using 7a that have real small heads. Ill try some 5b sticks as an alternative.

Thanks,

Brian

Thanks, Chappy.

I've ordered an American Vintage head. Thanks for the heads up on size.

I agree for the sound you want, go with the thinest resonant head you can get, which I think is the Diplomat. There may be a thinner one marketed to the orchestra crowd from Remo, but maybe that is only the top head that is thinner... (brain fade is it???)LoLoLoLo

EDIT=> I just checked my book...

Thinnest top head is the M5 Diplomat at 5 mil. Regular diplomat is 7.5 mil but you may also be interested in the Renaissance Diplomat which is also 7.5 mil but warmer, darker and more articulate. (an ambassador is 10-mil for reference)

Thinnest resonant head is the 2-mil Hazy Diplomat.