Brand new Ludwig Kit...do my heads really suck?

So I put the Ambassadors on my kit and all I can say is wow! I feel like Ludwig should have taken a few bucks off the kit and shipped it with no heads. I only played them for 15 mins and the dents in the heads looked worse than the heads I've had for over 5 years on my other kit.

Now they sound like the awesome drums I thought I was getting. Definitely a different sound than my Birch drums, but they have nice tone and the tuning range of the heads is much broader. Recommendation is that if you order a Ludwig kit, try to get them shipped with no heads!

Cheers.
 
Recommendation is that if you order a Ludwig kit, try to get them shipped with no heads! Cheers.

Haha, I know what you're saying, but they'll never ship them with no heads. The mounted heads help protect the bearing edges and keep the drums in round.

In any case, I'm glad you like your new Ludwigs with the Remo heads.
 
When buying almost any kit these days, unless they come with original Evans/Remo/ Aquarian heads (not "made by" versions), you should factor in the cost of new heads, & I mean both batter & reso (at least on the toms).

On higher end kits, I think this is nothing short of a disgrace. I get the realities on real budget stuff.

The price that OEM's can get genuine make heads for is very low, yet the cost to the retail consumer is high. Let's take a 12" tom as an example: The difference in cost to the OEM of fitting two "made by" or no name heads compared to the genuine article is about £5 / $8, so about 1 - 3% of the cost of a high end drum.

Even taking such penny/dime pinching aside, why the hell wouldn't you want to present your fine instruments such that they sound as good as possible? Is it that the customer has already paid for them, so who gives a damn/let them carry the cost? You can bet they don't record their corporate product videos using those heads, or if they do, the recording is processed to compensate.

FFS manufacturers, stop treating customers of your upper range instruments like idiots. If you must penny/dime pinch to that degree, at least offer your customers the choice to have their new kit delivered with high quality heads & charge a sensible premium for doing so. Releasing your high end instruments with such heads makes many seriously doubt your integrity when asked to believe your marketing claims re: striving for the best possible sound, etc. If you're "cheaping out" on something as fundamental & influential as the heads, what else are you watering down - eh?

Sorry, mini rant over, but it really bugs me, because it's the uninformed that are getting suckered here. Just add $200 to the cost next time you're comparing kits that offer anything other than genuine Remo/Evans/Aquarian heads.
 
I agree KIS,
One of the factors that inspired me to purchase my Mapex Saturn kit was that It came with Remo Emperor/Ambassador heads. It was great to unbox the kit and simply tune and play without spending more money on heads.
 
I know the quality of the Ludwig heads is always in debate, but at the same time I totally understand why they use them on their kits.

Are there any manufacturer that ships top end kits with less than regular USA-made Remo or Evans though?
 
I actually had an opposite experience very recently. I just got a new set of Ludwig Vistalites in the big-beat shell pack. The toms came with clear Ludwig "Heavy" heads on top and bottom. These are basically Ambassador-weight clear heads. They tuned up well and sounded very good with the factory heads. Of course, I did what all drummers do, and wanted to buy all new heads for the new drums. So I bought an Evans EMAD 2 for the kick batter, and clear G2s over G1s for the toms. The kick turned out killer with the EMAD. It was all boomy and bouncy with the Ludwig factory head. However, I rushed in and changed all 6 tom heads, only to find that I did not like the G2s, especially on the 16" floor tom. It just seemed to rob the drum of volume and sustain ... so I switched all 6 heads back, and quickly got them back to where they were, when I liked them. Maybe it just depends on the drum, but my general conclusion was that my new drums like the ringing sustain of single-ply heads, and in this case, the "Heavy" Ludwig heads fit the bill.
 
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This stuff is so much about sound preference. I replaced the Ludwig heads on my kit when I bought it, but I actually thought the heads my Supraphonic came with sounded great.
 
This stuff is so much about sound preference. I replaced the Ludwig heads on my kit when I bought it, but I actually thought the heads my Supraphonic came with sounded great.

Ain't this the truth! So many people like to use particular heads, it seems it would be a fruitless venture to try to please everyone. There is a certain logic to putting a reasonably inexpensive head on new kits - experienced players are likely to change them out for what they want, and new players likely can't tell much difference or know exactly what they're hearing anyway.

Seems people either change heads right away or play stock heads until they are long past dead...
 
I actually had an opposite experience very recently. I just got a new set of Ludwig Vistalites in the big-beat shell pack. The toms came with clear Ludwig "Heavy" heads on top and bottom. These are basically Ambassador-weight clear heads.

I was under the impression that Ludwigs "medium heads" were more on par with the weight of the Remo Ambassador single ply 10 mil heads. The medium heads are what came with my Classic Maple toms. If I had a Ludwig "Heavy" head I'd mic it to check its thickness for you.

Dennis
 
I was under the impression that Ludwigs "medium heads" were more on par with the weight of the Remo Ambassador single ply 10 mil heads. The medium heads are what came with my Classic Maple toms. If I had a Ludwig "Heavy" head I'd mic it to check its thickness for you.

Dennis

No, the Ludwig mediums are 7 mil (Diplomat) and the heavies are 10 mil (Ambassador).
 
I used Ludwig Medium Coated for a little while, and I found the amount of tension needed for me to get the sound I wanted was WAY less than I used on any other brand head. The Heavy model as well, but I just didn't dig the tone of their film as mch as Remo's.

The Heavy is nice for the snare, and on my 16x26 I do like the Heavy coated a lot, but they don't do anything for me on toms. On my 18" and 20" deep bass drums I like the Coated Ambassador better.

DW's USA heads are Remo, but they use (or used--they change stuff so much) Ludwig's crimp hoop method.

Remo offers heads with the crimped hoop, but most people don't know about them because they don't advertise it.

Have fun with your kit drums360!!
 
No, the Ludwig mediums are 7 mil (Diplomat) and the heavies are 10 mil (Ambassador).

I did some drum head thickness measurements tonight. I measured the Ludwig "Medium" heads in both clear and coated and also Remo Ambassador clear and coated. What I found was the Ludwig "Medium" clear head measured about 7.5 mils, where as their coated medium head measured just shy of 10 mils. Incredible, this means that their coatings are in the ball park of 2.5 mils. No wonder that most of them supplied with my kit sounded a bit dead to me and very inconsistent. The Ambassador clear heads were about 10 mils thick and their coated heads were only about .5 mils thicker. I see a potential reason why many people have problems with their coating wearing prematurely. I'll check Ludwigs "Heavy" heads when I'm able to get a hold of one just for grins and giggles.

I should have checked some Evans G1 heads but ran out of time.

Dennis
 
Oh yeah, Ludwig's coating is pretty thick.
It's one of the reasons that bass drum doesn't need much muffling to tame it haha!
I once tried a Coated Silver Dot...holy cow.

The Med's seem like an "Ambassador weight" because of that coating. The clear is pretty thin when you move the film with your finger compared to the Heavy clear.

If someone liked a more articulate sound, Heavy clears on the bottom are nice. Nice tone, not too long a sustain (depending on tension. A little cleaner sound than a Clear Ambassador.
The thin's I thought were a bit too dry and short (compared to a Dip. weight), but I know some people dig that sound.
 
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