I used all Remo heads when I first started playing drums, and eventually switch to mixture of Remo Black Suede on my snare, Aquarian Superkick 2 on my kick, and Evans EC2s or G2s on my toms, and this setup sounds way better. The Remo heads are amazing for snares and good with kick drums, but lack in the toms. They always come out sounding dead and dull. The Ambassador series makes a very good snare head.

The Ambassadors are easily tuned, look great, and have a great tone for any style of music. They offer a great tone and clear resonance, unlike the Attack snare heads I used. The Ambassadors sound good on just about any snare drum on the market, and are very flexible. The Ambassadors also make a good resonate head for the toms.

The main issue with the Remo Ambassadors is that the batter coating wears off and the drum loses a lot of its tone, and the drum is basically impossible to keep in tune after it gets really beat up. These heads have a magic coating which makes them sound good and stay durable on your snare, but once that wears off the drum becomes unworkable and you have to buy a new head.

These are some of the better snare heads on the market, but there are others that sound as good if not better. I prefer the Black Suede Ambassador heads by Remo for their dark, smoky tone, but Evans Power Centers are good as well. Overall, I would probably buy these if not the others I mentioned, hey are good heads. The others mentioned, however, hold there tone for a much longer time than the Ambassadors. The Black Suede is very durable and has a better tone than the other form of Ambassadors.

Recently, my Remo Pinstripe heads were getting to the point of replacement. After looking around and doing some researching, I concluded on the Remo Emperor Clears; I use two of them, one on the batter of my 12” tom and one on the batter of my 14” tom. Like all drum heads and even all drum oriented things, they have their pros and cons.

I’ll start out with talking about the pros of the Remo Clear Emperor drum head. The very first thing that I loved about these drum heads was the look. The simplicity of the clear drum head with the Remo stamp really caught my eye. Very classy yet contemporary looking, I liked it a lot. The next thing that I really loved about these drum heads, and the most important thing of all, was the tone that these drums produced. Being that they’re two-ply they still had the “fat” aspect of heads such as the Evens Hydraulic, or even the Remo pinstripe, but without sounding muffled. I really like that I could get that nice tone out of a drum without it being cut short; these drums can breathe. The last thing that I really liked about these heads is the fact that they’re strong. Being a rock drummer, I sometimes get hitting pretty hard, so the fact that they can withstand the beating is a definite plus.

As for the bad things about this head there would only really be one that I could put my finger on; that being that to get the best tone out of the drums, you need to hit HARD. So if you’re into more sensitive things you would probably be better off going onto the coated emperors. Anything along the lines of jazz would be better off with the coated. Other than that, these heads are great.

The old Pinstripe. Gotta love it. I have played Remo Pinstripes on and off since I started drumming 5 years ago. They are very well known in the entry level drumming scene, but don’t let that deceive you. These heads are great for all types of music, like rock, pop, fusion or even country. But like all piece of drumming equipment, it has its pros and its cons.

We’ll start with the pros of the Remo Pinstripe head. First off, like I said earlier, this is a very versatile drum head. It can be thrown on as a primary head, or even a replacement head, in just about any musical situation. This head produces a very “fat” “warm” or even “wet” tone. If you tune your resonant head well you can get a lot of ring and resonance out of the pinstripe even though it’s sometimes looked down upon for being a “dead” sounding drum head. There are rings that run along the edges of the drum head, in between the two plys, that dampen unwanted undertones that can ring throughout your playing.

Now it’s time to talk about the cons of the drum head. Like I said earlier, there are rings that run along the edges of the drum head, in between the two plys, that dampen unwanted undertones. Now some see this as a bad thing. This can sometimes dampen the drum too much, thus giving it the “Dead Head” reputation. What they mean by a “dead head” is that it’s hard to get good tone out of the drum without cranking it to the point of good resonation.

Overall, this is a good drum head for what it is. Two ply’s with a dampening ring around the edge. Some look to it for an easy solution for annoying ringing, but then there are some that look at it as a great drum head. Wherever you stand, you can’t beat the price of the Remo Pinstripe.

I’ve always trusted the name Remo when it came to drum heads. When I bought my new Pearl kit, it came with a “Pro-Tone” drum head which NEEDED to be replaced. Looking around at my local drum shop, I stumbled across the Remo Powerstroke 3. After hearing nothing but great things about this head, I decided to purchase. Once I got home, I threw it on, and now I’ll tell you what I thought.

Once I got this head out of the box, I noticed that it was very heavy and sturdy compared to most other bass drum heads that I’ve played with, which at the time, I didn’t know what to think. After removing the old head that I had on my bass drum, I threw this one on and got to tuning. At first I tried to crank this head tight and leave the front head relatively loose. The sound was pretty good, but not exactly what I was looking for. At the time I didn’t really know what exactly I was looking for, but I just know that that wasn’t it. After messing around with both heads I cane across the tuning of having the front and batter head medium tight. This was the sound! Very boomy, punchy and powerful; Just the right sound for the heavy rock music that I am playing.

One little downside I found out about this head is that it doesn’t go very well with any muffling, so if you’re looking for more of a “tight” or “quick” sound, I wouldn’t recommend this bass drum head. This means that this head would not produce a good sound for say Jazz, or Acoustic music, being that it is very loud and sustained.

Overall, I would recommend this drum head to any rock enthusiast. It gives you a very loud, boomy, sustained sound that you will just love.

If you're looking for a modern version of that classic calf skin sound there is (in my opinion) no better sound to cost benefit out there on the market today.

These heads give a very warm and dark sound, reminiscent of old jazz recordings. They lack a bit of a focused attack, but feel extremely nice under the stick and give a nice response. When played with brushes these heads give a particularly nice response, one that I think is superior to coated drum heads, as it is warmer and more mellow.

These heads work well as resonant as well as batter heads- I have a fiberskyn on my 16 inch jazz bass drum as a resonant head and it really gives it a lot of body and depth. The warmth of these heads is really unbeatable and can really give a nice aura to a jazz piano trio gig.

As a batter head the fiberskyns lack a bit of a sharp attack but make up for it with a nice fat spread an quick decay. I play them on my 14 inch snare and 10 and 14 inch toms and they give a great sound that can't be beat when going for an authentic acoustic jazz sound.

These heads also work well in orchestral work and I have seen some guys play them on R&B and Motown gigs and they fit quite nicely. I've never seen them in a loud rock and roll or metal situation, but I highly doubt these heads would give the desired sound (but if you can make it sound good then thats all that matters!).

If you like these heads, try the Evans J1 etched heads- they're similar but don't last as long (and they're more expensive!), although they do get a better sound.

These are very nice drum heads that the Remo corporation developed to sound more like the calf skin heads of long ago (well it wasn't really that far ago, but it definitely feels like it!).

At the time they were developed these heads were definitely the closest thing, but there have been more recent developments in head making (some by the Remo corporation themselves) that have not necessarily made the Renaissance heads obsolete, but have given them a place all their own.

First off, these heads sound UNBELEIVABLE on tympani and I personally don't think there is any better head out there. They really do give the feel and sound of calf skin on tympani better than any head I've ever tried.

As a tom head however, the Renaissance heads leave a bit to be desired. They do give a warm and focused sound, and if you want a good attack to balance the two, then this is the head for you. But for my tastes they are a little bright and while they give a warmer, darker sound than regular coated heads (and definitely more so than clear heads) there are better products (in my opinion) currently on the market for achieving that warm dark sound characteristic of calf skin.

The most notable is the Remo fiberskyn heads, and secondly are the Evans J1 etched heads.

One thing to try is using these as resonant heads on your toms- I've done so and like (but don't necessarily love) the results.

These heads are great for orchestral use and for playing in acoustic jazz situations, but I don't see them as being very applicable in genres outside of the two aforementioned- absolutely not rock and roll and absolutely not metal, but could possibly fit into an R&B band and probably wouldn't fit into a funk situation (but feel free to experiment and surprise me!).