Well Barrett, mine has done a great job for five years now and it still sounds great, although it has a small dent somewhere in the center. :eek:

Have you guys (Jon too) tried the Premier CS heads on toms?
They're not easy to get, a bit rare, although the Premier Genista (birch) kit has them standard when new.

These are the best tom heads I've heard so far, not as strong as pin stripes, but a much nicer tone and attack.

A head with a couple of dents will have a lousy tone anyway, so very hard hitting drummers with a bad technique are a problem.

IMHO an engineer must be able to tune drums right? It's not very difficult to tune drums and make them sound at least decent.

a little more on the axis....nothing touches it in craftsmanship, quietness and overall build quality. If it works for you personally, you can't go wrong.But as a "studio pedal" I think that a couple 2 3 pedals to choose from (for the price of an Axis ) would be the way to go...drummers either love 'em or hate 'em. BTW, I played the buffed out double Axis with the trigger mod installed (killer!) for a couple of years then on a lark used a friends p 880 (pearl) it just worked right for me from the start. and I traded in my pedals and got two double pedals in the trade (at West LA music ) I'm not finnicky at all about pedals as I fly all over and am subjected to all kinda stuff (the DW 5000 is the standard rider friendly pedal BTW) but I was constantly noodling with my axis' pedals. Good luck!

nah, the pedal would be JUST for ME. i kinda believe that drummers should all use their own pedals. i dont want to record a drummer with a ****ty pedal either. i think pedals are just too personal to rely on a "studio" rental.

Amen. I always bring a pedal and cymbals and usually a snare drum if I'm playing someone else?s drums.

All the guys who work out here bring their own snares, cymbals and pedals, but a couple prefer my old Ludwig snare to their own snares.

Let me put in a plug for the Remos too. Everything else I've run into for 30 years has been a step backwards from what I could get using the appropriate tuning and damping with regular coated Remos. They do need to be replaced often and the thinner, better sounding ones need to be replaced more frequently. Damping methods may include "O"-rings, a wallet, scrunched up tissue paper, little squares of cloth or felt, tea towels and others. While this kind of damping may not be appropriate for live gigs and doesn't look good, it sure gets the great sound in the studio.

I was very disappointed by the lack of quality I saw in the Gretsch booth at NAMM a year ago so it's good to hear that they apparently are still making some great drums.

I'll be interested in seeing how they are now, too - one of my regular drummers just switched his endorsement from Pearl to Gretsch

Since Kaman got involved in distribution they have added a bunch of imported drums that are like all the other drums in that range. They sound pretty good for the money, but are nothing special. The American made Gretsch drums still kick ass. It's basically the same drums they've been making since about the '40s or early '50s.