Remo is the brand that Eric has been playing with for years. For Rock, he thinks the Remo Pinstripe clear is very good. The clear Pinstripe heads are not very subtle, but if you hit them effectively they have a fat attack with a good punch. The rings muffle the resonance and the sustain does not last long. That short sustain means you don’t have to mute them with moongel or gaffer tape. They’re sturdy, so you won’t be hitting pits in them so easily.
But a lot warmer Eric finds the Remo Emperor coated heads. The sound is more open and the sustain is longer. Well tuned, the longer sustain is not bad at all, but a bit of damping on the large floor tom is sometimes nice. They are easy to tune over a wide tonal range. They are thinner and more fragile than the pinstripes, so that’s a considerable cost. They must be replaced every few months.
Op de snare gebruikt hij een gecoate Diplomat vel dat hij hoog stemt en flink dempt. Maar hij heeft nooit snaredrum vellen vergeleken. Dus adviezen
For the snare he uses a coated Diplomat head that he tunes high and damps considerably. But he never compared snare drum heads. So advice is welcome.
For his 18 inch and 20 inch bass drum he uses an Evans level 360 head with an EMAD damping ring. In the 22 inch bass drum he has mounted a Kickport.
Tuning
Usually Eric tunes his 12 inch tom to a B flat. That always sounds good with Jazz. And then the next bigger toms in a fourth-sixt chord. That sounds nice when you play patterns. So the 13 inch on a F sharp and the 16 inch floor on a C sharp. With his extensive kit he tunes the 8 inch tom to a tone that has the most beautiful sound and sustain. He tunes his bassdrum low.