Picking the right drum heads for your kit is a massively underrated aspect in gear selection. It’s also relatively cheap, and makes a bigger difference than most know.
High quality heads that fit your style can make a $45 kit sound like a $1,500 kit. I’ve experienced that countless times myself. Plus, they’ll give you versatility when tuning your drums. The name of the game is high quality heads that also fit your style of play. They’re a relatively cheap way to up your game instantly!
When you’re done reading, you will be familiar with:
- What is a Batter Head? What is a Resonant Head?
- What are High Quality Heads? What Should I Avoid?
- 2-Ply vs. 1-Ply Heads
- Coated vs. Clear
- Get the Right Size
- Types of Tom Heads
- Snare Heads
- Kick Heads
- Final Words
- FAQ
What is a “Batter” Head? What is a “Resonant” Head?
The first thing you need to know is the difference between these two names - they’re named after the function they serve.
Each drum has a side that you hit (or “bat”), and a side that “resonates.”
As you might guess, the “batter” head goes on the side of the drum that you hit, and the “resonant” head goes on the other side, ringing slightly due to air produced from the batter head. The batter head will tend to need replacement more often, as well as more precise tuning (and re-tuning). It’s typically thicker, and more specialized. Due to these differences, it’s the more “important” of the two heads. Now that you know which is which - make sure you use the right heads on each side of the drum (switching these will ruin your sound).
What are High Quality Heads? What Should I Avoid?
Quality drum heads make your kit sing. It’s one place you definitely shouldn’t pinch pennies, if you can help it. You wouldn’t be reading this if we didn’t think this was a massive way to improve the quality of your kit’s sound.
The big three companies for drum heads are Evans, Remo, and Aquarian. That said, there will always be newcomers to any type of gear that have less renown but still make quality products. For instance, the esteemed cymbal company Meinl now makes drum heads (as well as drumsticks). I’m always skeptical of companies keeping their quality up when dipping into so many different products - but my drum kit is a very high-quality Yamaha, and they also make motorcycles and pianos, so take that insight with a grain of salt.
At the end of the day - just avoid stock heads that come with a new kit. That goes double if it’s a lower-priced kit (DW kits tend to have upscale stock heads, for instance - but even still, you’re probably better off finding new heads by one of the top three companies).
2-Ply vs. 1-Ply Heads
Just like your favorite toilet paper, drum heads can come in 1-ply and 2-ply varieties. Resonant heads are always 1-ply, since they need to be thin enough to resonate the tone produced by the batter head. But batter heads can be 2-ply, which adds durability, and decreases the sustain of the drum. As such, aggressive and punchy styles of music tend to lend themselves more to 2-ply heads, regardless of which drum they’re on.
Coated vs. Clear
Another thing you need to consider is whether you want coated or clear heads on your drums. “Coated” heads have textured, sandpaper-y white finish on them. Typically speaking, coated heads will reduce sustain slightly (as well as the attack, but less so), and lead to a “warmer” sound. They tend to be less aggressive overall, with a more “controlled” sustain with a steady pitch.
Resonant heads should be clear for every drum, just as they need to be 1-ply (and for the same reason). You have more wiggle room in the batter heads, although you also can’t play jazz brushes with a clear snare batter head, as there won’t be any texture for the brushes to scratch up against.
For an extra vintage sound, you can also opt for throwback textures like Evans’ “Calftone” and Remo’s “Fiberskyn” heads. These seek to recreate classic tones by mimicking animal skins (and they’d be classified as a sort of “coated” head, albeit with a more “natural” feel).
Get the Right Size
There’s nothing worse than going to your local music store and getting the perfect heads for your kit, only to find out you got the wrong sizes. So, make sure you measure your drums before you go to the store (or order online).
Drum heads (and the drums they sit on) typically come in 10”, 12”, 14”, and 16” sizes for snares and toms - and kick drums tend to come in 18”, 20”, 22”, and 24” varieties. Notice these are all even numbers - however, drums can also be in odd-numbered sizes (I’m presently gigging with a 13” snare drum). We get these sizes by measuring the diameter of the drum. Since this measurement is taken from the bearing edge of the drum, not the hoop, make sure to round down to the next whole inch if you measure your drums from the hoop.
Types of Tom Heads
Since each one of these companies will have a vast variety of heads to choose from, you need to ask yourself - how do I want my drums to sound? Do I prefer something short and punchy, or something that will sing? You may also want to dabble with different companies based on these preferences.
Punchy Toms
The go-to tone for most rock, metal, and pop drummers requires punchy toms with little-to-no sustain, and a focus on attack. I personally have gravitated towards Evans heads, since they have a solid amount of this variety that I like (but feel free to try out any brands). As we mentioned, punchy toms are likely to use 2-ply heads. The Evans EC2S are 2-ply, and have a built-in o-ring to muffle overtones; the same brand even takes it a step further with their Hydraulic line (these 2-ply heads feature a layer of oil between the layers for an *extra* dead sound). If you play loud venues that aren’t well mic’ed, you might not want to go that route as it will kill your projection (and you don’t forget - you can always mute drums with tape or moongels).
Jazzy Toms
Jazzy toms need to maintain pitch well, and have controlled sustain and attack. Most drummers in classic jazz situations will opt for coated heads for these reasons, although fusion drummers might go both ways.
Snare Heads
Snare heads are a little more complicated than tom heads, as those pesky snare wires make everything a bit more difficult. For instance, we don’t even call the bottom head a “resonant” head in this instance - it’s called a “snare side” head. It serves a similar purpose, but needs to be extra thin to interact with the snares. While thinner 1-ply batter heads will likely start at 10mm thick, a snare side head can be as thin as 2mm! Still, most any quality snare side head will do the trick - as with all your drums, the real customization will come in the batter head.
Swing Batter, Batter
The Snare Batter head is arguably your most important drum head. Backbeats are played on the snare, jazz comping is done on the snare, and the snare drum is part of the classic “kick-snare-hat” stripped-down setup we all know and love. It either needs to cut through the noise in louder music, or it needs versatility and sensitivity in other genres. And those pesky snare wires and ultra-thin “snare-side” head ratchet the importance of choosing a quality batter head that much more important.
If you’re not sure what you want, look for the most popular head by your chosen brand - this will be the default “standard” head for the most well-rounded sound and feel. If you like snares with a big crack and controlled overtones, you might want one with a “power dot” in the middle, or with a black coating. All of the big brands have these varieties (and they can be available on tom heads, too).
Kick Heads
As with all of the other drums, we need to focus more on the batter head than the resonant one. In fact, many drummers play without a resonant head on the kick (including myself). Assuming you do want a resonant head on your kick drum, you’ll probably want a porthole on it (a roughly 5-inch-diameter hole put into the resonant head, placed towards the side) - this will make the drum lose some low end, but add clarity, attack, and definition. Plus, it makes mic-ing the kick easier, as well as adding the ability to add pillows or other dampening materials inside the kick if you’d like. You can buy a resonant head with a porthole already included, or cut one yourself.
Kick batter heads can come in the coated or pseudo-calfskin varieties (just like other drums) for that open, jazzy sound. But for many of us who like a punchy kick, we’ll again go with 2-ply, thicker heads for more durability and projection. Products like Evans EMAD heads even come with a plastic ring around the edge of the head that can hold foam mutes in a variety of sizes to further control the sound.
Final Words
In short, there’s a huge variety of types of heads you can get to really customize your sound. Even within the realm of “punchy drums,” you can find countless examples. At the end of the day, it’s worth mentioning that this is one area where you get what you pay for (which can be tough to deal with, since kick heads can cost $60 - but, if you find a type of head you like, you can also buy a full set for your kit at a discount - just make sure they’re all the right sizes for your kit).
FAQ
I’m still so confused
Totally understandable. One thing that helps me, as an Evans customer, is that they list the attributes of each head like the stats of a character in a sports video game, with a slider for each attribute. These include:
- “Attack,” on a scale of “balanced” to “defined”
- “Sustain,” on a scale of “short” to “long”
- “Tone,” on a scale of “dark” to “bright”
- “Durability,” on a scale of “average” to “extended”
My heads are pitting - what can I do?
If you’re curious what “pitting” means, it refers to tiny dents appearing in the surfaces of your batter heads after playing. This might be due to hard hitting with sticks that have small, defined tips (like a ball tip). Try going with 2-ply heads that also have reinforced center dots for more durability.
I’m using nice heads, but my toms still sound bad - what gives?
You still need to tune your drums to the best of your ability, but higher quality heads give more wiggle room and a wider range of workable tunings.
I have stock heads on my kit, and it sounds fine - is that okay?
That may be the case; if so, stick with them! Until they start to sound bad - stock heads tend to also lack the durability of higher quality heads. But the more time you can get away with the stock heads, the more time you have to figure out what you want to get down the road.
