Read our review in Modern Drummer Read our review in Vintage Drummer From Our Customers: Dear Wayne, I just had to write you and let you know how excellent your product is!! A good friend gave me a slightly used 14" earth tone head to try out on one of my snares. I put it on my Ludwig 'Limited Edition' Black Beauty and was amazed at what I heard!! I have used Remo most of my career and lately Evans also and they just don't come close. Sooo.... I recently ordered your heads for my new USA Custom Gretsch kit (10", 12", 14", 16" and a 20") batter heads only. I again had tried Remo and Evans heads and was not at all happy with the sound I got. I was disappointed in the sound of the Gretsch kit! Even thought about selling it. But now with the Earth Tones on the kit.....what a transformation! They now sound exactly like my "ear" knew they should (without waiting for the wood to age). Even the musicians I work with noticed the difference and commented how great the kit sounded. Your heads give the drums such a full sound and great stick response. I play Top 40's, Jazz and Blues using brushes and blastics as well as sticks. Brush work was never easier or sounded as good! The last recording I did at Full Sail in Orlando drew the comment from the Head Engineer that it was the best snare and kit sound he has ever heard. I told him it was the Earth Tone Heads!! I put a new 14" on my 7X14 Noble & Cooley and it's never sounded better. The lows and mids just jump out without losing the highs. I can't wait to put these amazing heads on my other snare drums, especially my 1936 Slingerland Radio King and my Craviotto "Lake Superior" Birds Eye Maple!! I lightly sanded the inside of the heads just to get out any rough spots (au natural) and tuned the heads a third above where I like them. After a day of sitting I retuned them and played a gig that night. I only made some slight adjustments after the first show. Amazing! I never got that from plastic heads. I have learned one thing though....If you want the drums to sound really great....you have to put the Earth Tone heads on the resonant sides of the drums also. Thank you Wayne for making these phenomenal drum heads available. I feel like I'm 13 years old again playing on my first kit (a 50's Ludwig Duco set w/ calf heads).... only more more preferable! God Bless you and have a great New Year. May 2009 be your best year ever! Warmest Regards, Scott Hazen now with "Little Mookie" and the Half Pints (West Coast Blues) Deltona, Florida Dear Wayne, Don't know if you remember me or not. We met at the last PASIC show and I got one of your beautiful heads for my concert snare drum. Just wanted to let you know that I am absolutely in love with my drum BECAUSE of this head! The sound of it is just perfect... I have never had my own drum, a beautiful cherry shell custom-made Black Swamp, sounding better. I am looking for a way to get a bunch of heads now for the various drums at the "U", as I feel that my students "need" the opportunity to have these amazing sounds available to them as well. There is simply nothing quite like the sound of skin on drums, and these particular heads are simply amazing... I am hoping to be able to do so very soon and will contact you about it in the near future. In the meantime however, I just wanted to send you this in case you wanted to use it in your "testimonials" as coming from another satisfied customer, this time both in the performance and educational circuit. Your product is just MAGNIFICENT! Thank you! Fernando Meza Director of Percussion Studies University of Minnesota Hi, Want to tell you that I have had the Earthtones on the drums for about two weeks and love them. Found that even on rainy days they can still be cranked up for great tone. Used them in a studio the other day that obviously had plenty of humidity and the drums only had a beautiful deep tone whereas the standard calf skin would have been lucky to keep a decent tone. The recording engineer loved the way the drums sounded and found them quite easy to record. They sound great with piano trio or the improvisations of the Northwoods Improvisers. Love'em! Sincerely, Nick Ashton Northwoods Improvisors I thought I would let you know that I received my first Earthtone head from you yesterday and used it on a snare drum for a recording session this morning. I was thrilled with how it sounded and felt. Two of the three tracks we recorded were with brushes and it was wonderful to play on a surface that was so even and natural sounding. The head went on very easily and even though it was a rainy day here in Toronto I had no problem with the tuning. I played for over three hours and the pitch of the drum never varied. With plastic heads I find that when they are new the surface is too rough, but after only one or two playings the surface quickly becomes too smooth. The Earthtone head was perfect and since the surface isn't sprayed on I expect it will feel, and sound the same for a long time. The recording engineer commented on how warm and fat the sound was. We had a conga player on the session and he said he noticed that the sound of my snare drum seemed to blend better with his congas than ever before. Now all I need to do is get busy and order heads for all my drums. You'll be hearing from me very soon. Thanks, Brian Barlow Toronto, Canada Well, it's happened. I "feel the real", and there is nothing like it. As a personal aquaintance of Wayne, I can name many instances of his confident promise to me: "You will like what you hear" he'd say smiling...and all I can say is Mr. Rogers, you were right! You have forever changed my expectations of what a drum should sound like. I will admit as a first timer to skin heads that I was skeptical, but they eclipse everything I've played before! I put one of these beautiful heads on a 13" Pearl piccolo snare, and I can promise you that the Remo I had on before will never be used again. The snare had an unbelievable pop and a rich tone that I fell in love with. Both sticks and brushes sounded awesome, and the attack was crisp and precise with a range of tonal response. I beat the hell out of that head during a show later that day, and then more that night in practice. And it held up perfectly. So, Mr. Rogers, I want to thank you for showing me the light of Earthtone. I can promise you that the rest of my drumset will be getting an upgrade to these heads ASAP!!!!! Thanks again from a satisfied drummer! Stephen Spagnoli Hello Wayne, I am the sole owner of a drum building company. I do mostly Rope Tension Field Drums. These are for ancient fife & drum corps, and also for Civil War reinactment groups. I've been purcheasing Earthtone heads for drummers that don't like to tuck their own heads, and I decided to put one on my own marching drum. It's 16" diameter drum. The flyer that comes with the heads mentions something to the effect of these heads not being as rugged as a two-ply plastic head. Well I beg to differ, the corp I'm in is the oldest in the U.S. and we play loud and hard, and that head I put on at the begining of the season has taken a severe beating, hard hitting and bad weather, and it's still real good. I put this on in place of a Fibre Skin, a huge better difference. I love the heads, and I am going to try them on my trap set, and when I sell the drums I build. Mark W. Forsell Folks, Had a chance to try the new heads for a few days now . . . another satisfied customer . . . I'll be ordering more soon. Many Thanks, Marc Clarke drummer for Live Wire Choir Official Paiste endorser Dear Wayne and Earthtone, These heads are great! I have really been enjoying them and the warmth they have been giving me. I have them on my 10" and 14" toms, bottom and top, my 22" bass drum (batter only, I still need a front head with a mic hole and I couldn't imagine cutting one in these heads, that would be blasphemous) and my 14" snare drum. I never imagined my drums would sound this way. Each time I play them I have to smile at the great sound and organic tone that they give me. I have always wanted to use skin heads but have found the price and consistency prohibitive. Earthtone has taken care of that, much to my delight, and I'm sure to the delight of drummers around the world. Thank you. Joshua Reed Wheeler I recently put a full set of Earthtone heads, top and bottom, on a 1960s Gretsch kit. These wonderful heads have all the warmth, depth, resonance, supple feel, brush response, and funky appearance I love in natural skin heads, with the added benefit of being preset on cleanly sized metal hoops. Equally amazing is that they're reasonably priced. Thank you, Wayne, for bringing this timeless sound into the twenty-first century! Hal Howland (Howland Ensemble, Joshua Breakstone, National Chamber Orchestra) Hal Howland Home Page Wayne... Just finished three days in the studio with these beautiful heads and I had to tell you that I tried the hide and the past became the future!!! These heads are so warm and wide the sound was so focused there was no problems with tuning or staying in tune just a great feeling every time I made contact...and how wonderful they feel with brushes, man o' man..Earthtone top and bottom..the new bottom snare head is very cool...and the more color in the head the more beautiful they look...I can't say enough..now I know what some of the old timers were talking about when they went on about the feel of real skin heads only now without all the hassles that they had to deal with. I want to thank you and your company for the trouble and the time to make this possible..I've been waiting and wondering..now you're here....keep up the fabulous work... Lynn Coulter (Rita Coolidge, Walela, Mason South) As a player of Original Root-African-Reggae music using a custom wood-hoop drumkit, I had been looking for a drum head that would do the drums justice as well as complement the music that I play. Earthtone drumheads are by far the best-sounding heads on the market. They instantly did what I was looking for - they transformed my drum sound into a more earthy and natural tone! I have found the Earthtone heads to be very durable and easy to tune - they work great with my busy touring schedule. They also transformed my metal snare drum into a much better and unique-sounding drum. Try them and you'll see! Thanks Earthtone! Asa Redmond Ithaca, NY The Sim Redmond Band Double Irie I-Town Records Wayne, I received the set of Earthtone heads this past Friday and immediately mounted them onto a thin-shelled maple kit. I purchased tops and bottoms for the rack tom, floor tom and both sides of the kick drum. What a difference the Earthtone heads made. The harsh plastic sound was gone. So this is what real drums are suppose to sound like. Mellow, deep resonance and easier to tune than I thought. I'm anxious to try an Earthtone head on my deep snare. Thanks for a great sounding product. Mike Sheahan Phoenix, Arizona I've had my Earthtones for one week, and I'm blown away by them. I've never played real skins before, and the difference is night-and-day. My 70's-vintage Gretsch kit never sounded quite this full and rounded. My 6 1/2 x 14 Tama snare automatically got that fat Bonham sound; then, when it's cranked up, it has a very cutting sound (great rimshots) and still a lot of tone. I'm using no muffling whatsoever. I haven't put skins on my kick yet, but that's still to come. And I can't wait to try the Earthtone snare-side skin. Great work, guys! Where were you 20 years ago? Michael Smith I just wanted to tell you that your Earthtone heads are incredible! I found out about you guys by doing a search for calf drumheads on the Internet a few months ago. I ordered a set of batter heads (12, 16, 20) for a 60s Gretsch kit that I have. I was blown away by the feel of the heads. For jazz and other types of music where dynamics and subtleties are important, the Earthtone's are definitely the most responsive and expressive heads I've every played. I was also surprised at how well they stay in tune -- not much different than a synthetic head. After reading the Modern Drummer review, I was surprised to hear that using them as resonant heads in addition to batters made a difference. I just placed a second order for the bottoms of the toms and the front of the kick. I can't wait to hear how they sound. Keep up the great work! Best wishes, Jeff Berlin Boston, MA www.hybrasil.com © 2012 Earthtone. All rights reserved.