Evans '56 Calftone Drum Head

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Evans has evidently fixed whatever problems were reported in the past, based on my 3 years' experience with Calftone. They are genre and kit dependent, but pretty much replicate the best recorded drummers of the era with a warm, full tone, moderated sustain, and focus. These are for classic jazz and moderate levels of anything else, but not metal or heavy hitting because the surface architecture must be understood and respected. On my vintag Slingerlands and Ludwig kits, comments the audience about the drums have been rather common--and it is not because I am Philly, Buddy, Max, or Joe. Oh, I've stayed with proven bulletproof head on the snares, the UV1, simply because I want the option of cranking the volume with abandon and because the surface of the UV1 is superb for brushwork. These heads take awhile to open up and draw the tone out of the shells; I tune them somewhat gradually over a couple of days to allow the two plies to expand together--the result is a tough head with no fragmentation.

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Really enjoying all new heads all around. I replaced my whole sound from a lower pitch rock sound to a warmer and higher pitch. I really am happy with the sound and the look of these heads.

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In searching for a tom-tom drum head with a resonant and sustaining fundamental, and without a pesky intruding overtone, I find the Calftones to fit the bill nicely. Some reviewers state that the Calftone coating "bubbles", but we shall see.

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I have a Slingerland snare which is part of their Buddy Rich 80N model kit. The nearing edges are sanded flat, possibly a strange factory cut, or someone's modification. I was not happy with the drum sound at all and tried Evans 360 which didn't help. Then I tried the Evans Calf tone and the drum sounds beautiful. It's very sensitive, has a full bodied tone, brushes sound great, everything was great until... Only a few minutes into brush playing a tear formed, then another at a different spot and then another. These have gotten larger and make brush playing nearly impossible. Well, now the dilemma. Do I try another Calftone or something else. I checked out YouTube reviews and see that I am not alone in this problem. Others have reported that after a few good whacks, the fiberous head material begins to come apart. So to sum up, if my case is not a one time event, the Evans company needs to redesign this head. They have a great sounding head here, but it has serious dependability issues even under normal to light playing.

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As a longtime Remo FiberSkyn player who switched briefly to Evans heads, I embraced the new Calftones with the assumption that they were as durable as FiberSkyns. (I even defended Calftones against criticism in an earlier review on this web site.) As other drummers and I soon discovered, however, this is hardly the case: the top layer can deteriorate after a single gig, making for difficult brushwork. Calftones sound, feel, and look great, but they simply don't last. I've begun to think they were introduced specifically for collectors whose drums spend most of their time in display cases. The Remo Diplomat FiberSkyn is a far superior product.

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