Evans EC2 full review before you $$$$

Perhaps many of you are thinking about trying out these heads.  They are new so they are a little pricey.

First of all, they seem like just a standard G2 with those little strips of material underneath that look a bit like tribal tattoos... but on closer inspection I could see that they feel thicker and sort of more pre-tensioned than standard G2s... and the dampening material looks like super thin duct tape strips.

Once I set them properly on the toms it surprised me how little give the glue had... like they were designed to NOT REQUIRE careful methodic seating.

Once on, a few turns and IMMEDIATELY there was good tone... very, very deep and noticeably louder than coated G2s or Pin Stripes.

And then I started tweaking...
This is what brought to me a certain light about this product... these heads are DESIGNED for drummers who might not be very experienced at tuning.  They give you great sound RIGHT AWAY, yet they lack the subtleties and nuances you can get with standard G2s or Remo Pin Stripes if you have serious tuning experience.

In tone they fit between that of a coated un-muffled head and a clear head with a muffle ring... smack in between... they cut off overtones, YET THE TONE IS NOT AFFECTED.

To make this statement more understandable I'll put it in an example:

If you use a muffle ring, you know how it will affect the sound... we may take advantage of it and TUNE a certain way to get a certain tone or character... this "tampering mentality" many of us develop provides lots of room for experimenting.

These heads are not DESIGNED for that... they are designed to sound deep, focused, loud and powerful with little overtones OUT OF THE BOX... and that's it... another positive is that they have a HUGE RANGE... about twice the range of Pinstripes and a lot more than Powerstroke or even Emperor.

The dampening rings are cool, because they are designed to dissipate ring, yet NOT MUFFLE the heads...

These don't sound like they are muffled, rather more like your toms are deeper and bigger.  They have a certain dark tone, reminiscent of Emperors, yet they sound a bit more plasticky to me.  Not as good for tuning REALLY low, say Lars Ulrich low, as Aquarian Performance IIs.  Although, they do go SERIOUSLY low and also they like to be tuned medium.  Too high and they sound a bit choked, not as choked as Emperors, but they loose some sustain.

My verdict is, if you want great tone out of the box, for big tom sound a great tuning range and nice durability these might do it for you.

Can you get a BETTER more complex tone than what you might with Evans G2s or REMO emperor?... NO, if you are GOOD at tuning... and most definitely YES if you are a reasonably competent yet not a SEASONED tuner.

I really like them and may have just found my new replacement for the old pin-stripes.