Pinstripes give an excellent voice to Concert toms. But Silver dots & Black dots are dead & plastic sounding. (of course every style & brand of head has their fans)

thanks for the quick response. clear pinstripes was my gut feeling as well.

mike

Mike - 'try' blk. or silver dot clear heads before dismissing them completely. I've had several vistalite kits and there wasn't one of them that didn't sound better after throwing a set of clear black dots on the toms. Just try it out is all I'm saying. Make up your own mind.

John

My Vistalites have Evans EC2 SST (the new version) and they have a nice balance of attack and tone. Pinstripes would work, except for the inconsistency between Remo's 2-ply heads. You have to tap a lot of heads to make sure you've got a matched set, or you'll have a dead tom or two or three.

Or four.

If Remo's fixed their QC issues, then I apologize. But I've heard nothing to that effect in the 11 years since I stopped using them.

Bermuda

Should concert toms be tuned tight or loose? I've got a set of 13-16" and am leaning towards a more dead sounding Steve Gadd kind of sound. Thinking Aquarians studio x coated with power dot underneath.

I'm not sure there are enough adjectives to fully describe how much I hate CS & Silver Dot heads.

All the Vistas I've owned over the years get Aquarian Force II heads on top. I really like them on acrylic drums.

The classic sound was tuned a bit loose, just above a wrinkle as they say. Sometimes you'd hear a little head rattle on recordings (check out Joni Mitchell's "Help Me" intro, the late John Guerin on drums.) But they can be tuned however the music requires, just as you'd tune your snare, kick and double-headed toms accordingly.

Bermuda

Hey, what about Evans Hydraulics to stay true to the era? ;)

I just got a set of clear Vistalites that were outfitted with new Evans Hydraulics and I can't say I like them. Part of the problem could be that the resonant heads are a clear Ambassador on the 12", a Ludwig medium on the 13" and a Ludwig heavy on the 16". I'll probably replace all with Diplomats or the equivalent.

I will say that the snare sounds pretty good with the Evans Hydraulic/Ludwig CS Snare combination that it came with.

I play without mics 95 percent of the time, so I'm looking for some sustain that will be masked by others' amplification.

The Evans and Aquarian models mentioned earlier: Please compare and contrast to Ambassadors. I'm also thinking of using Ludwig Weathermasters ... does anyone have experience with those?

In all cases, I'm looking for clear heads. Perhaps I'll be sacrificing a bit in sound, but what's the point of clear Vistalites without clear heads?

Sorry for the slight detour from concert toms, but we were also talking Vistalites.