Remo ColorTone Drum Heads
92
| OCTOBER 2018 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
GEAR REVIEW
C
o loured drum heads? Why not?
In the 1920/30s era of calf vellums,
the Ludwig and Slingerland factories
employed highly-skilled artists who
for 12 dollars would actually oil-paint idyllic
pastoral scenes on your front bass drum
skin! With the advent of plastic after the late
1950s heads were coated white, largely to
reassure cautious drummers that they were
not that different from natural cream-coloured
animal skins.
Once plastic was accepted widely then
transparent/clear heads became popular also
– just the Mylar fi lm without a coating, offering
a touch more sustain. But it was inevitable that
bright colours would eventually be tried.
Remo’s fi rst foray came in 1967 with the
Sparkltones. These were sprayed underneath
the top ply with sparkles in fi ve colours: green,
blue, red, silver, yellow/gold. Remo’s UK
authority Jeff Davenport tells
Rhythm
that,
“As a result they were quite thick and limited
initially to the marching community.”
Then in 1974 Evans made a splash with its
oil-damped Hydraulic heads with their
patented UV coloured coating. Initially favoured
by Steve Gadd, the Hydraulics have enjoyed a
long, if marginal, popularity, with their black,
red and blue colours. More recently, Evans has
added Black Chrome heads to its roster.
Today, Remo’s Starfi re heads, in refl ective
chrome or gold, are chosen for front kick heads,
or for resonant heads generally, particularly as
the 12 mil thick laminate has a controlled sustain.
Nicko McBrain is a famous fan.
Build
So we arrive at the new ColorTones. These are
available in six colours – Translucent Red, Blue,
Green, Yellow, Orange and Smoke. And so far
in three types: Emperor, Powerstroke-77 (P77)
and Powerstroke-3 (P3).
The big advance is in the way the colour is
achieved. Jeff Davenport explains that the
so-called Skyndeep imaging technique is,
“a kind of sublimation process where the ink
is printed within the plastic rather than being
From £17.50 to £72.60 Responding to customer
requests Remo fi nally manages to mass produce
full-toned and dynamic coloured heads
REMO COLORTONE
DRUM HEADS
WORDS: GEOFF NICHOLLS
“COLORTONE IS A SIGNIFICANT
DEVELOPMENT BECAUSE WITH
SKYNDEEP IMAGING REMO CAN
NOW MAKE COLOURED VERSIONS OF
ITS ESTABLISHED CLEAR HEADS
WITHOUT CHANGING THE SOUND”
SIX VIBRANT COLOURS
ColorTones come in six translucent
colours - Orange, Yellow, Red, Green,
Blue and Smoke
layered on top. The colouring is done at the
Remo factory”.
Remo has actually employed Skyndeep
since 2007, particularly on world percussion
heads, but Jeff reveals that customer requests
were behind the reintroduction of coloured
drum kit heads. Particularly – and
unsurprisingly – from owners of all types of
Perspex/acrylic kits. “There has always been
demand for coloured heads in a popular,
musical open-sounding drum head,” he
explains. “To do it successfully for the mass
market using DuPont Mylar has been the
diffi culty to overcome – they’re not easy to
mass manufacture!”
Also try…
1
EVANS
HYDRAULIC
HEADS
We say: “Evans’ unique
oil-damped Hydraulics
have long sported the
UV-coated coloured
look. In Black, Red, Blue
and Glass.”
2
REMO STARFIRE
HEADS
We say: “Heavyweight
damped resonant heads
in refl ective mirror
chrome and gold are
ideal if you want to
dazzle your audience.”
RHY286.gear_remo.indd 92 9/5/18 3:46 PM