GEAR REVIEWS AQUARIAN
REFLECTOR SERIES HEADS by JJ Jones
Long ago a new snare head of mine lost most of its coating only 45 minutes into a recording session. I vowed to find another brand. A drum shop employee suggested Aquarian, and the rest was history—I used their coated Studio-X series religiously for years. The coating never comes off! More recently I switched to their clear Performance IIs, wanting a thuddier, more ’70s sound with less overtones. So, when I happened across a video last month of Eric Moore playing Aquarian’s new Reflector Series, I knew I had to give them a try. Aquarian sent us a set of Reflectors: 10" 12" 14", 14", and 20", along with a 20" Reflector Super Kick II, bass drum head. The heads, tuned using the “perfect fourths” method on my Gretsch Renown Walnut drums (rich, low-end projection with four plies of walnut sandwiching two plies of maple) has been nothing short of awesome. For the first time ever, I’m using no dampening on my toms save for one Aquarian tTAB tone modifier on the bottom head of the floor tom (more on t-TABs later). This means I’m getting the full sing of the drums but with virtually no unwanted overtones. cont. >
ISSUE 29:
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