Evans new Level 360 drum heads

I picked up an 8" coated G2 this morning to put on the brand new add on tom for my Ludwig Epic kit. I do have to say that it tuned up really quickly. I have a clear G1 on the bottom of the older style. My 10" next to it has an older G2 that I put on in November and I have been fighting with it a bit to get it fit between my new 8" and my 12" mounted toms.
 
I just picked up a 14" coated g2 level 360 from my local GC. I wanted to get a 10,12 and 16 as well but they only had the old ones. I think trying to buy these all in one shot will be online and calling to verify as well.

Now the question....do I put this new G2 on my tama b/b floor tom or on my Saturn floor tom???
 
I just picked up a 14" coated g2 level 360 from my local GC. I wanted to get a 10,12 and 16 as well but they only had the old ones. I think trying to buy these all in one shot will be online and calling to verify as well.

Keep in mind that there are plenty of heads out there with the Level 360 collar that don't feature the new Level 360 logo. Our heads have been in production with the Level 360 collar design since September of 2012. We did this "under-the-radar" in order to help stores circulate through inventory.

Cheers!
 
Keep in mind that there are plenty of heads out there with the Level 360 collar that don't feature the new Level 360 logo. Our heads have been in production with the Level 360 collar design since September of 2012. We did this "under-the-radar" in order to help stores circulate through inventory.

Cheers!

Thanks for the reply! Is there any way to tell if I have the new head if the new logo is not stamped on there?
 
I'll have the chance to A - B the new design on a magazine review/test this coming Monday, so I'll chime back in here when I come back from that. I'll run some on our review kit, & as that kit has edges that aren't the common industry standard, I'm interested to see how they behave.

Ben, I have a direct OEM question for you. The Evans collar has always sat a few mm lower from the bearing edge than Remo or Aquarian. Is the overall tensioned distance from bearing edge to collar the same as existing Evans heads or more in line with the distance used by Remo/Aquarian? This matters to us, as the external rering on our Origin drums needs to take any increase in that distance into account. We already have to create a bigger clearance in respect of Evans heads, so I certainly wouldn't want to see that increase.

As most here know, we supply genuine Evans heads as standard on all our drums unless otherwise specified.
 
Re: Availability

I ordered from Musicians Friend, a few days after NAMM. Received a 360 logoed, Evans Coated Power Center Dot 13" size for my Mapex Phosphor Bronze snare.
 
I had a chance to play with my new Level 360 G2 head yesterday on two different drums.

First drum - a recently acquired vintage 14" Ludwig Supra. My new G2 level 360 was tight on the drum, so tight that I had to apply pressure to get it to fit and that made it wrinkle in some spots from simply trying to fit it on the drum.

Seeing how bad the fit was I decided not to go further and install hoop and lugs. Out of curiousity I measured the drum shell across all lugs and at some spots I discovered an 1/8th of an inch difference. This seems to be normal for many drums in my experience.

So I pull a new Evans power center reverse dot head out of he box that i've had sitting around for a couple months and that fit better where it did not need force to fit on but it was on the verge of being too tight a fit.

Anyway...the Evans PCRD head worked out for my vintage supra.


Second drum I tried the new G2 level 360 head was my 14" mapex Saturn floor tom. The fit was better on this drum but I could not spin it freely around the drum, there seemed to be a couple rough spots that messed up my attempt to free spin it slowly around the drum.

In regards to sitting without rocking motion it sat better than the remo vintage emperor that was on there previously but still had a slight rocking motion.

It tuned up like any other head but don't think it tuned up faster and better. I believe the whole point if this new collar design was to get the head to sit flat on a shell without rocking motion while able to spin freely as well.

It failed on my vintage supra and did ok on my mapex saturn.

Final thoughts, I feel let down.
 
Re: Availability

I ordered from Musicians Friend, a few days after NAMM. Received a 360 logoed, Evans Coated Power Center Dot 13" size for my Mapex Phosphor Bronze snare.

I spoke w/ Musician's Friend just few minutes ago, on the phone. The gal was just about completely clueless of the "Level 360". Shen then spoke to her manager...and after: I quote "There's no way we cant tell if it's the new head design or not, as there is no date stamped..."

I knew this brought up about abut at least 3 talking points (new logo, etc) but I knew I was drilling a dry hole. I said, "The manager does know what I'm talking about w/ the new head design, correct?", "Yes, he knows...there's just no way to tell.. unless when you get it and you can see they are not..." I responded, "That is the point of this entire phone call. I will have to look elsewhere." I am not near a drum shop. I shop online...Google Evans Level 360 and it still does not lead you to any online suppliers... what to do here....?
 
what to do here....?

By LOCAL ! ! Brick and Mortar stores are the way to go even if it involves a bit of travel. Knowledge and servicing of the products that you use and they sell, can only be found at a "real store" These box stores flat out suck. They employ "clerks" for the most part. Hi, can I help you ? are you ready to check out ? That's all they know. Oh ! ! I forgot ! ! "May I see your receipt ? " Go into a Brick and Mortar store and ask a technical question or product availability question and you will most likely get and hear more info than you need.
 
Final thoughts, I feel let down.

Hmm, I think I found some Evans marketing material in an old magazine... let's have a look...

snake-oil.jpg


Hmm..... :)
 
Which models are affected?
All 6-20" film-based drumheads- batters, resos, snare heads, snare sides, marching tenors, etc. Next up will be bass heads...

So let me get this right because I'm thinking of buying a bass drum EMAD head soon. This drum shop I go to will start selling Evans heads next month. I'd imagine everything they get there will be new, so if I buy an EMAD there, will it have the Level 360 now? Because Ben, EvansSpecialist, said bass drum heads will be coming later.
 
Last edited:
I have a new Genera on my home made wood shell drum. I slapped it down, it fit perfectly, I tightened it up, which went quickly and uniformly. If you hand tighten the tension rods evenly, then tune each lug an equal number of turns, it just tunes up almost right on the money. I'm impressed.
 
I bought a 8", 10", and 14" onyx heads about 3 months ago from the local store. It was stock that's been there for a long while. They didn't have the 12" in stock. So, I threw them in the closet and forgot about them until yesterday. I went to the store, bought a 12" onyx, brought it home, and started installing them on my Pearl Export toms. I noticed the new 12" I picked up was in fact the new 360 design. But, it seemed to fit the shell no different than the others. But, I did notice how much easier it was to tune. I had to play around with the other size toms just a bit to get the sound I wanted. The 12" went where I wanted it to almost effortlessly compared to the others. I was kinda shocked though that it had the same wobbly play as the non-360 heads.
 
So let me get this right because I'm thinking of buying a bass drum EMAD head soon. This drum shop I go to will start selling Evans heads next month. I'd imagine everything they get there will be new, so if I buy an EMAD there, will it have the Level 360 now? Because Ben, EvansSpecialist, said bass drum heads will be coming later.

Bass drum heads won't be until late 2013/early 2014.

I bought a 8", 10", and 14" onyx heads about 3 months ago from the local store. It was stock that's been there for a long while. They didn't have the 12" in stock. So, I threw them in the closet and forgot about them until yesterday. I went to the store, bought a 12" onyx, brought it home, and started installing them on my Pearl Export toms. I noticed the new 12" I picked up was in fact the new 360 design. But, it seemed to fit the shell no different than the others. But, I did notice how much easier it was to tune. I had to play around with the other size toms just a bit to get the sound I wanted. The 12" went where I wanted it to almost effortlessly compared to the others. I was kinda shocked though that it had the same wobbly play as the non-360 heads.

Chances are that the Onyx heads that you picked up a while back did in fact have the Level 360 collar. As I mentioned, we've had this in production since mid-to-late 2012.
 
I saw some new 360 Coated heads at the shop today.
The collar was lower, and there were no "ridges" in the area going into the hoop.
It was a smooth curve of material going into the hoop. Similar in look to an Aquarian head. Evans film, and coating is different from Aquarian, so they sound different, even if the collars look similar.
Tapping on the 360 head, the tone was a bit brighter, and cleaner than a couple other non-360 heads were. Those heads had the slightly crimped film at the edge going into the hoop and the sound was shorter on the tap.
 
Interesting, Karl, I just installed a coated G1 on a new snare today; I think I ordered the head from Amazon last June. It's just like what you describe, with a smooth edge going into the flesh hoop. The slightly older spare coated G2 I have (saving for the next head change on my Acrolite) has a scalloped crimping where the head enters the hoop.
 
Back
Top