Vintage 1960's Remo Emperor drum heads

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If Remo introduced Emperor heads in the late 50's ,but didn't use double ply technology untill the late 60's , what thickness were emperors in the early to late 60's?
 
Are you referring to the new vintage coated emperor heads? heres what it says on the Remo site:

"A reissue of the first Remo Emperor® drumhead that changed the art of drumming in the late 1960’s. Constructed of "2-plies of 7.5-mil polyester films," they feature sensitivity and snare response of the Coated Emperor, accentuated mid and low frequencies and increased durability".
im using one rite now on my 8x10" birch shell as an experiment the tom doesnt have that"bongo"sound to it and im thinking of re-heading my whole set with them except the snare and BD.
RJ
 
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I have some old 50s emps on a radio king and they're thick!!!
 
RJDrums said:
Are you referring to the new vintage coated emperor heads? heres what it says on the Remo site:

"A reissue of the first Remo Emperor® drumhead that changed the art of drumming in the late 1960’s. Constructed of "2-plies of 7.5-mil polyester films," they feature sensitivity and snare response of the Coated Emperor, accentuated mid and low frequencies and increased durability".
im using one rite now on my 8x10" birch shell as an experiment the tom doesnt have that"bongo"sound to it and im thinking of re-heading my whole set with them except the snare and BD.
RJ
Click to expand...

No.

I'm talking about before they went to 2-ply. They came out in the late 50's with diplomat, ambassador,Emperor weights. They didn't start making 2-plys until 1969. I could care less about the new Emperors. Except for maybe as a snare head on my supra. If Ambassadors were 10 mil thick ,what were pre-1969 Emperors?
 
I'm not sure what the 1969 date has to do with 2-ply heads, but they were making 2-ply heads long before that, I'm sure. The vintage Ambassadors are 2-ply. And I'm pretty sure that is because they had 2 ply Ambassadors early on. Anyone else with a good memory here? (Old enough to have played Remo heads when they came out?)

I started replacing my calf heads with Remo Ambassador heads in the early 60s. I would put the Remo heads on top of the toms, then eventually on the bottom as well. When I bought new drums in 1966, they had plastic heads on them. They were Remo "WeatherMaster" heads. Those were the Diplomat weight heads with plastic hoops. A budget line. They actually sounded pretty good, but I replaced them with Ambassadors as they wore out. I'm not a Diplomat guy on toms....
 
TommyWells said:
I'm not sure what the 1969 date has to do with 2-ply heads, but they were making 2-ply heads long before that, I'm sure. The vintage Ambassadors are 2-ply. And I'm pretty sure that is because they had 2 ply Ambassadors early on. Anyone else with a good memory here? (Old enough to have played Remo heads when they came out?)

I started replacing my calf heads with Remo Ambassador heads in the early 60s. I would put the Remo heads on top of the toms, then eventually on the bottom as well. When I bought new drums in 1966, they had plastic heads on them. They were Remo "WeatherMaster" heads. Those were the Diplomat weight heads with plastic hoops. A budget line. They actually sounded pretty good, but I replaced them with Ambassadors as they wore out. I'm not a Diplomat guy on toms....
Click to expand...

Actually tom, "REAL" vintage ambassadors were not two ply. They were a layer of one 7 mil ply & one 3 mil ply glued together, "not floating like todays vintage re-issue ambassador".This was because the thickest layer of mylar at the time was 7 mil. Remo came out with a single 10 mil ply not too long after that. Remo didn't come out with a 2-ply floating head until the summer of 1969. I learned about this from the Traps magazine issue with Bonham on the cover. They do a long interview with Remo and it tells all the facts about the early history of Mylar heads. Now that fact about Remo coming out with 2-ply floating heads in 1969 was told to me by the Remo company themselves.It says this right on the website as well.
http://www.remo.com/portal/products/3/8/50/734/co_vintage_e.html

I have run accross real vintage 60's "Emperor" heads in drum shops that did appear to be single ply. As far as them being thicker than Ambassadors at that time I don't know. I asked to buy that perticular Emperor head off the used bass drum and they would not sell it to me.

Why do I care about this? I guess I'm just curious.Heads do make a big difference in sound.
 
I'm pretty sure this head is from the late 50s, early 60s and feels to be one solid piece of plastic. It's really thick also. I have an emperor from either late 60s or 70s that is flimsy as some ambassadors. These heads really have that authentic "sing, sing, sing" quality in them.
 
I CAN say, just from memory, that an Emperor WAS thicker than an Ambassador in the 60s. Whether it was 2 plies glued together, I do not know. I can tell you that they were used for marching heads in the mid 60s because that is what we used in my marching days...And according to this timetable, which I do not dispute at all, the 2 ply heads didn't start until I was finished with marching. We had heads that had sparkles in them in 67 or 68. I never thought about it then, but that had to be done by putting the sparkles between the plies of plastic, right? Anyone remember those?
 
the sparkled heads i remember from the late 60's/early 70's had the sparkle sprayed on the bottom (inside) of a clear head...i think these were Evans but not certain...i do remember that it didn't take long for the sparkle to start flaking off inside the drum...looked cool though........
 
The original Emperors (as well as the current re-issue) are thicker/heavier than the current standard/modern Emperors-is that correct?
Someone posted the original Emp/Amb weights/thicknesses vs. the modern ones here, does anyone know where that post is? I can't find it..
 
The sparkle heads I am referring to are definitely Remo and in the 66-68 era. The sparkles were not sprayed on the bottom, and didn't come off. They must have been in between layers of plastic and sbecause of the timetable presented in this thread, I am assuming that the underneath layer of plastic was glued on and very thin, with the sparkles in between. BUT, I don't know anything for sure, except what I just said. :icon_smile:
 
I get very confused re the early 60's Ambassadors and Emperors. I can tell you that the sparkle heads were made by Remo. They were called Sparkle Tone heads if I remember correctly. I still have several and they are single ply with sparkle applied to the bottom of the head. I can't remember if they made an Emperor version with double ply or not. They do sound like thicker heads due to the sparkle.

Here's two bass heads that I have......

Rogers0022.jpg

Box0135.jpg
 
Very cool, Powertone!

The ones we had were Emperors and they were used as marching drum heads. Anyone seen those?
 
Ok. Here is what we know, and what I suspect. The early emperor had the snare side thickness of a ply, glued to the underside of a 7m ply. I think the Emperor "sparkletone" heads were just that. A thin ply glued under the sparkles and an Ambassador thickness head. I wish I had one. I remember putting the gold sparkletone heads on the snares, tenors and bass drums. I also remember taking them off and putting smooth white, or coated Emperors back on after they got trashed.
 
TommyWells said:
Very cool, Powertone!

The ones we had were Emperors and they were used as marching drum heads. Anyone seen those?
Click to expand...


You know Tommy, those sparkle tone two ply marchers do ring a bell. In fact, just looked in the head box and I have a green one. Two ply it is. It is marked "Rogers Colorflake Parade Batter". Dude you have a great memory! And I didn't even know that I had one!

I also another 14" green sparkle that is also marked Rogers, but this one says Tom Tom head. However, it is a single ply. Wonder if it is a thicker ply?

I do remember that they dented very easily, so probably had a limited life span in any drum line.
 
Parade Batter! There's the 2 ply version. I guess the sparkle was sandwiched and glued?

Powertone: Can you tell if the underneath ply is just glued on? (I'm thinking it is, if it's pre 1969.) man, this got deep. :cool:
 
TommyWells said:
Parade Batter! There's the 2 ply version. I guess the sparkle was sandwiched and glued?

Powertone: Can you tell if the underneath ply is just glued on? (I'm thinking it is, if it's pre 1969.) man, this got deep. :cool:
Click to expand...


Hi Tommy. Fun stuff. I believe the sparkle was glued on then sandwiched with the second ply. The underneath ply looks to be a true second ply. Not just glued. Glad it brought back some memories of the marching days.
 
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