EvansDrum Heads - Hydraulic Black Tom Drumhead, 12 Inch

These heads are fairly easy to tune, they sound good and they should last a long time.

Hydraulics are an acquired taste. They wouldn't be my first choice as far as best sounding heads go, maybe not even top 5, but man these things are durable. They also may be the easiest heads to tune, thanks in part to the Evans 360.This was my first time trying one out on my snare batter. I use a 12" metal snare from an old Mapex Venus kit, mainly because of its small footprint. I play exclusively live with a mic, and though I normally need to muffle the snare, this head was good to go as soon as I tightened the lugs. Nice controlled sound. One could argue that it sounds a bit muted or "dead", but through the mic it sounds pretty awesome. After 6-7 shows, my previous G2 would have quite a few indentation, however this head still has a taut, flat surface.Loving the blue color too. I picked up some glass heads for my toms. Everything blends very nicely. I'm thinking about trying out hydraulics on my roto toms soon. Though rotos commonly use single-ply, I'm thinking they may sound decent through a mic. Only thing I'd be reluctant about is the kick, but that's mainly because I love the EMAD so much.Overall, I recommend these if you:- are looking for a specific dampened sound- will be playing them through mics- value durability over an open sound- have trouble tuning your drums, especially if the shells are out of round

Love these heads! Look awesome and sounds great!

Excellent heads sound great and last

Love it, sounds great!

So, quality head by a well known company.Came quickly and without incident.Price was good.I bought this 14" head to see if i liked the sound of hydraulic heads on my Yamaha Stage custom birch kit.It definitely had a bit of a deeper fatter sound .... however, more so with medium tension and not much stick rebound.I like my heads a bit tighter ( i prefer the sound and i get better stick rebound )Overall, the difference in sound from my one ply Remos to the Evans hydraulic ( both at a bit higher tension ) was negligible.I was not particularly "blown away" by this head and i still had to use muffling with it.It also has a weird feel to it at medium tension .... kind of like hitting with a drum stick .... a slice of American cheese with the plastic wrap on it is the only way i can describe it.I'm not by any means saying this head is garbage .... i'm just saying that it wasn't for me and to spend $200+ to replace all the heads on my kit didn't seem worth it for a very "slight" difference in sound than my current Remo heads. I can muffle my Remos and get practically the same "fat" studio type sound as the hydraulics.Maybe others would notice more of a significant difference from their current heads .... i didn't.Again, not bashing the head or the brand.All this being said .... since i like to experiment with my kit , i decided to try the hydraulic on my snare drum.I will say that it gave my snare a bit of a deeper "pop" which i like. My snare is only 5.5" deep , but now sounds deeper than with the original Remo single ply head i had on it. So, i kept the hydraulic on my snare and like my snare sound better now than i did b4. So, it's all good. The blue is very cool as well lol.`

Great product

These heads are truly awesome! I'm in my mid 40's and just started playing less than a year ago. I purchased a 5 piece Tama Imperialstar as my 1st kit, not knowing how much time I would spend playing. Love it. Can't get enough, try to play every day. One of the first things I learned, a statement from the Evan's website, a bad or poorly tuned drum head can make the most expensive kit sound horrible, and the right batter head and resonant head can make the most inexpensive kit sound amazing. I have watched countless tuning videos and podcasts trying to get that right sound, I was always close to the sound I was looking for, but never 100%. Always needed some gel, some tape, come sort of dampening material on the drum head. Not with these heads. I have the hydraulic blue on all of my toms (10, 12, 14, 16) and on my kick (22). I paired the batter heads with the Evan's EC resonant heads, the sound is amazing! The attack is great, durability is unheard of (can barely tell a drumstick has even touched the heads), and the sustain is great. If you get the batter and resonant heads in tune to each other, you get an incredible 5-6 second sustain with no overtones or annoying ringing. I tune everything by ear so it took a little time, maybe 3-4 hours to install all the heads and perfect the tuning. Evan's describe these heads as having a fat 70's sound, I would describe the sound as deep and full without projecting any bright, tight or fragile tones like all of the other heads I've tried. I haven't tried yet, because my kit sounds perfect to me, but I think I could easily increase the pitch, remember to start with your most difficult tom 1st and work 'out', increase the pitch and achieve that higher, tighter and brighter sound. So, it may be the most versatile and durable head on the market. I would recommend these heads to anyone, but since I'm cheap, I would recommend setting up your most troublesome Tom with a new batter and resonant, to see if this is the sound you are looking for. Then purchase the rest of the heads for your kit.