White coated Vs Smooth white heads the difference is the coated have more warmth the smooth has more attack, John henry used coated white ambassador on his front head on bass drums and emperor coated on the batter side of his bass drums.

yes Vintage is correct and the emp is a 2 plya bit more boom if you will while still warm the emp is a great head on a 26 it is what i use and i use a ammbassador on the resonant side both coated and a felt strip on both sides to cut the ring a bit you are moving alot of air so crank up the tension on the resonant and the batter...

All good advice. Also keep an eye out for a calf head in decent shape on eBay or the forum. They are great as reso's.

Never seen a photo of Bonham with a coated front head...please post one. All the photos of the thermo-gloss and green sparkle that I have seen have a smooth Ludwig head on the front. FYI in the early '70's Ludwig shipped bass drums from the factory with a DB 1000 smooth white head on the front and back; unless otherwise specified. This comes directly from the 1971 catalog. The DB 1000 is the same thickness as a Remo ambassador, 10 ml.

Yes! I use a 50's Ludwig (still has the ole logo on it) calfhide for a reso on my punny 20" haha 50's Gretsch bd....the batter is an EMAD. The drum sounds amazing. I tried calf on both heads and plastic on both...nice but the used calf on the RESO takes my vote.