DRUMANDSTAGE FORUM

Gotta admit, I wasn't familiar really until Matt Laug mentioned them in his rig rundown. He uses Coated p4s on tops and clear P4s on bottom. Seems pretty excessive but he does have to try to make his DWs sound like Phil's Sonors, although that seems like a strange way to get there.

At any rate, I play my toms wide open. No sound reinforcement and I like to be able to put a little bit of a swing into things without getting over bearing. I think these may be worth a try for my situation. Anyone tried these, or just wanna render a random opinion?

Two ply 7mm with a ring. You're looking at Pinstripe specs. These are for hard hitters. These things work for Churches, small settings where people are right in your face. And of course if you're playing arena's. Everything works there.
In the age of the internet, everything is mic'd and processed. Just know what you're buying.

Good points, and the reason for the query. I may just be trying to talk myself into or out of spending money.

I think back to my original head choice on the SQ1s and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Thanks for the voice of reason. I am not ordering these.

I'm happy. I think you would have hated them. Heads aren't cheap these days.

These look great to me, but the problem is that I've never been a huge Emperor head guy. And these are (basically) just Emperors with the added ring. I do like coated Ambassadors though, and the new (to me) Ambassador X heads look like something I might want to try as well.

tcbetka wrote: Tue Oct 07, 2025 8:47 pm

These look great to me, but the problem is that I've never been a huge Emperor head guy. And these are (basically) just Emperors with the added ring. I do like coated Ambassadors though, and the new (to me) Ambassador X heads look like something I might want to try as well.

Yeah, these are Emps on steroids

Indeed...

Jules wrote: Mon Oct 06, 2025 9:27 pm

At any rate, I play my toms wide open. No sound reinforcement and I like to be able to put a little bit of a swing into things without getting over bearing. I think these may be worth a try for my situation. Anyone tried these, or just wanna render a random opinion?

I could see where these would be very useful in the studio where you really need to control the sustain (and don't want to use tape, gels, etc) and you like the Emperor sound.

Outside of that, I don't see where I personally would use them as they're too controlled for me and I like my drums to sing a bit.

I just watched the Matt Laug video which prompted you asking about these... Those toms sound about as dead as they could possibly be.

Kinda the bang opposite of what the Vintage Series is all about. Get a set of thick tea towels, or a set of the BFSD Quesadillas and a couple of bits of gaff on the reso head if you want that sound I think, that way at least you can swap back to an open setup within 2 mins.

Well, of course having them top and bottom as he does will suck all the tone away. But, they actually sounded somewhat melodic in these videos. Moot point though. I will not be experimenting with these; they have been ruled out.