[mjfpercussion]

Hi. I'm Rev. Matt, new to the thread and have decided to be just as serious about drumming as much as I am about keys, hand percussion and acoustic and bass. I want to know your opinions on Evans ECs for top and bottom and how to tune them in order to eliminate the need for MoonGels. Right now all I have are the EC tops and a scattered mix for the bottom. The 4x13 snare has the EC with powerdot and a hazy-I think-300 on the bottom; and the 4x14 will have an EC on the bottom along with the EC reverse powerdot.

[Der Trommler]

First off what is the end result you are looking for? What type of shells does your set have?

I have tried many many different heads and I landed on the evans EC2's on my toms, ST Dry on my snare drums and EMAD2 on my bass after not being satisfied with the others. In order to offer you some suggestions we will have to know the answers to the questions above though.

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[mjfpercussion]

The end result I'm looking for is the same sound I get when I put my Evans rings on the top heads. I also have the Mini-Mads that go on the bottom. I play a Mapex Mars kit. I'm looking for a focused sound and the same sound quality at the low volume levels as the high levels without a muffled sound.

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[Der Trommler]

By your description I would say we want the same type of sound so I will give you a push in the EC2 direction. The overtone is nice and controlled but not so much that the drum has no tonal quality.

To test the toms I would choose one of the toms right in the middle of the range and put an EC2 on top and then try a G Plus reso (I prefer clear for batter and reso myself) and see if that does it. If the sustain is still too long or the tone still too bright try a EC Reso. ( I use the EC2 batter and EC Reso on my DWs and they have excellent tone and shortish sustain without the nasty overtones other heads can give you. )

In the case of your Mars kit, I wouldn't think you would need to go as controlled as the EC Reso given your shells have Mahogany plys as well as Maple. The Mahogany gives the shell a deep rich sound naturally.

I use all types of metal and wood snares and prefer the ST dry batters and Hazy 300 resos and this allows me to crank them up for a nice crisp crack as well as play them loose for a classic jazz sounding snare.

As for my bass I have a monster and I like it to sound like a monster so the EMAD2 is my choice there.

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