EVANS ES B14HBG DrumHead 14 in.

Sound I was looking for

awesome sound..easy tuning

I was searching around the drumhead market for a preferably black or any color besides white. I chose to finally go with black to put on my new Black Ddrum series 7/14" snare drum. I then decided to go with the cheapest of the black drumheads from any drumhead manufacturer and that ended up being Evans. I am not disappointed. I love the sound, color, along with the type of texture this head has. I love the way the head hold up. I will definitely continue to purchase this drumhead for my snare.

I purchased one of these coated black hydraulics along with a hydraulic black tom batter to experiment with reducing overtones on a 14"x6.5" steel snare for recording. This head has a deep, controlled sound with less sustain and overtone than other more typical snare heads I use. Tuned low, it's easier to get a generic 70's "fat" snare sound, but it also offers a nice focused "crack" if you tune it up. Extra muffling is still needed if you want to completely eliminate ring, but I usually find that unnecessary, as the ring disappears in the mix. I've also had no issues with retaining snare sensitivity. Compared to the tom batter version, it's a bit dryer with less attack, but in general it sounds very close. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I think the dryer sound of the coated black hydraulic head sounds superior for this snare, but the hydraulic tom batter did have an interesting punchy quality that I will be testing on other deep snares. Very happy with the purchase.