cliff wrote:
Rob,
One thought occurs to me. It may not be relevant, and if it is, you may already be aware of it.
Being that the Ambassador X heads are 12 mil thick vs standard Ambassador at 10 mil (same as the G Plus), and that they are coated, which will add more deflection resistance, the same drum dial tension on both will not be the same pitch.
The drum dial only measures deflection of the head, and a thicker head (12 mil) will require less tension to provide the same resistance to deflection as a thinner head (10 mil), and the coating ads some resistance as well.
I have used G Plus clear batters (12 mil) over G1 resonant heads (10 mil), and found that the 12 ml head needed to be about 2 tics on the dial above the 10 mil head to be at the same pitch. With a coated batter and a clear resonant, the difference may be even more
I approached it by:
• installing the 10mil head, finding its DD reading at a given pitch
• removing that head
• installing the 12 mil head, finding its DD reading at a given pitch
• determining the difference using that info to set the heads to equal pitch, as a starting point
Not sure if this applies to what you are doing, or not, but I know that when I tried 12 mil over 10 mil, at the same starting readings, the effect was much as you describe your displeasure with the Ambassador X
Thanks for the time you took and give me this great reply.
Last night I followed your advice and tuned the tophead of my 8x10" (aquarian coated single ply) 2 ticks higher (77) compared to the reso (clear sonor-amb) (75). I did the same with the 8x12" tom which has the ambX on top. The problem is completely gone. I have to finetune, but the toms sound great. I'll make some Q3 or H2 files and post it.
Thanks again Cliff and Gregory. Glad I found this forum
_________________
SQ2Tigerwood, Steve Smith kit, SClassix scandi,Teardrop rosewood, Swinger blue ripple,snares: D505, D554, Steve Smith snares, SQ2 13x6.5 scandi, Benny Greb signature, Artist cottonwood, Lite