This is yet another great invention from the Evans company. This is basically one of their normal snare drum heads with an interior muffling ring around the outside interior edge and several pin prick size holes around the exterior of the head which serve to dry the head out a bit.

The 'dry vents' as Evans calls them will really help to give your drum a low fat sound. They really kill a lot of the higher frequencies of the head and fatten up the sound quite a bit. This head really gives you that60's and 70's, low, fat classic rock sound that you hear on so many recordings (think David Bowie, 'Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars').

This head is particularly suited for classic rock, but it could also work well in funk, R&B and possibly some hard rock and metal situations. This head won't help your drum cut over a lot of overdriven guitars, but it will add some serious punch to your drum.

This head can also work particularly well in jazz situations, when paired with the right drum and the right cymbals. This head can really help you get a sound similar to Jack Dejohnette when tuned correctly.

I like this head, but honestly its not one of my favorites. I really like my drums to open up and have a wide spectrum of sound. This drum cancels a little too much of the high end of my snare drums response to suit my tastes- and no matter how high you tune your drum, you won't be able to get it back.

I would recommend this head to most anyone but especially those of you playing in classic rock cover bands and very loud metal situations, looking for a fat, punchy sound.

Man these suckers are amazing.

Why no one thought of this before is beyond me, and also the reason why the person lucky enough to have patented it is probably retired at 30!

The Evans Emad head is truly a work of simplistic beauty. Back in the day you had to stick towels, sheets, pillows or whatever else inside your bass drum to get a good sound- or maybe one of those annoying Remo muffle rings or any number of other muffling systems- but now all you need is an Emad bass drum head.

The muffling system is built into the batter side of the head, in which you can stick one of several sizes of fitted rings made of foam (of varying degrees of width each). Want a more muffled sound? Just stick in the widest foam ring. Want a more open, long sound? Simply replace the widest foam ring with either the middle width foam ring or the smallest width foam ring- or go without a ring and play the head by itself.

Playing the head by itself gives a great sound too, as the mounting that the foam rings fit into helps to dampen the head a bit by itself. I generally play this head without any of the foam rings to get a big open sound.

This drum head is sure to make any bass drum sound awesome. I play the clear Emad on my twenty two inch bass drum and it gives it an unbelievably deep, fat sound. This really is the quintessential head for funk and R&B in my eyes. It also works great in louder rock and roll and metal situations.

Evans also makes a coated Emad head that works very well for jazz- although they don't come in sixteen inch which irritates me slightly. The coated Emad heads also work well for Motown and lighter R&B situations as it gives a mellower sound and still offers the great controllability as the clear Emad.

This is one seriously awesome piece of hardware. I've got to hand it to Richie 'Gajate' Garcia for coming up with such a brilliant idea and to LP for having the 'huevos' in the industry to mass produce and market it.

This little puppy has really changed the arena of conga drumming. Now you can be a one man band by playing congas while at the same time playing all manner of percussion with your feet. I personally use two Gajate's in my set up when I gig, playing a red jam block on the right and a cha cha cowbell on the left. On the cow bell on the left I usually keep the quarter note and play clave on the jam block on the right. You can then play a simple tumbao over top of these and you really are doing the job of two people. Not to mention the general street cred you get by being the first guy on the block to do with congas what drum set players have been doing for almost a century now (putting percussionists out of business by playing everybody's part themselves!).

But enough about all that- the gajate features a very sturdy design for use with almost any bass drum pedal (although those secured with a metal plate at the base work best). The gajate also features reversible spikes that can be set with the spike part down (for preventing slippage on rugs and such) or with a rubber stopper down to prevent slippage on wooden and slick surfaces (and to prevent the spikes from tearing those surfaces up!).

Your imagination really is the limit with this piece of hardware- anything thats mountable on an 'everything rack' is now playable with your feet- from cowbells, jam blocks, tambourines and every other manner of creation.

Thanks to LP and Gajate himself, the gajate has upped the ante and opened up a whole new world of possibilities for the modern conga player and percussionist.

This is a great cymbal with a very balanced sound. I've been playing one of these for about 6 years now- I actually won it as a door prize at a convention and couldn't have been more pleased.

This is a great splash cymbal- it has a very fast attack and gets right out of the way- perfect for a 10 inch cymbal. Its not as bright as a Zildjian A series but comes very close to the darkness of K series Zildjian cymbals.

This cymbal is very thin, which is perfect for a splash cymbal in my eyes. You can really play into it and get a real nice pop at the ictus (attack) of a note- very warm and particularly dark- and then it just gets right out of the way.

I'd recommend pairing this cymbal with any other cymbals from the HHX line or even a thinner ride cymbal. Also, pairing it with another, brighter cymbal would make for a really great effect. I would try an eight inch Zildjian A custom or maybe an eight inch (or possibly six inch?) Sabian AAX.

This splash fits nicely into a jazz fusion context, most any pop context and definitely into most any Funk or R&B setting. Because the attack on this cymbal is so dark, I wouldn't suggest it for louder rock and roll settings, nor would I suggest if for metal or anything heavy, as the warmth of the cymbal blends very well and would not cut through a bunch of heavy distorted guitars.

For the price, this cymbal is unbeatable and sounds as good as, if not better than any of its Zildjian cousins. If you're looking for a general, all purpose splash cymbal then you can't go wrong with a ten inch Sabian HHX splash cymbal.

The Big Muff Pi is a reissue fuzz box/sustainer made in Russia. Its a very different manifestation of the classic in appearance, in a sturdy black metal casing with chicken beak knobs, and comes with a cool wooden storage box. It has 1/4" input and outputs, which are annoyingly on the opposite sides from where you would expect them to be, like other effects boxes.

Dialing it in is pretty easy and self-explanatory with just a gain, tone, and volume knob. I never used the manual.

I have to admit, I don't understand what the fuss is all about with the Big Muff, or fuzz pedals in general. Its thin, hissy, buzzy, fuzzy. It is not thick, pleasing, or even musical sounding to my ears. I played with it for a while, using my Les Paul style guitar through a small tube combo, and found no usable sounds. I don't think theres anything wrong with mine, I just think the overall tone of it makes me cringe.

I will stick with my TS9 Tube Screamer for creamier sweet sustain, and other pedals for more heavy distortion. This Big Muff just does nothing for me.

These are really nice hi hats- especially for the price. I've owned a pair of thirteen inch Zildjian K's for about four years now and really enjoy playing them.

These hi hats have a very versitile sound- suitable for most all pop music situations, some jazz and some heavier situations. They have a stick attach that has a nice chick to it without being too bright that fits nicely into a lot of funk playing, although they aren't as tight sounding as some funk and R&B situations call for.

The open sound of the cymbals is very middle of the road and a nice balanced sound- not too bright, not too dark. These fit very nicely into louder, less acoustic jazz situations as they have a warmth that blends well with ensembles and other cymbals. That same sound however is not quite sensitive and warm enough to fit optimumly in a completely acoustic jazz situation- they are a little heavy and leave a bit to be desired in the sensitivity area when played with the foot. These cymbals sound best when played in a moderate dynamic setting. The stick sound isn't quite bright enough to cut through very loud rock bands and the open sound is a little too dark. Like I said before, these cymbals fit into a lot of situations well, but aren't IDEAL for many situations except for louder jazz situations and some funk and R&B settings.

Always listen to your cymbals before you buy them however. Even though these cymbals are mass produced they don't always sound identical, cymbal to cymbal (even the same size and line). I tried two other pairs of thirteen inch K Zildjians before settling on these. One pair, when played open to half open had a very 'gong-y' sound to them, and the other had a brighter stick sound.

Digitech's RP line are computer chip driven multi-effects floor units boasting effects like flanger, phaser, rotary speaker, tremolo, envelope filter, chorus, delay, and reverb along with amp simulations of popular amps. Some have an expression pedal for assigning an effect to like the RP300A.
The RP300A features 1/4" input and stereo output jacks, headphone output, jam-along 1/8" input, and it includes an AC adapter to power it.

Let me just say, the presets might impress you in the store, but when you get home and really start playing you will want to start creating your own presets, which is fairly easy. Don't be deceived by the advertising, you can only use one effect at a time and not 12, but fortunately the effects are seperate from the compressor, delay, and reverb; so for example you can dial in your compressor settings, then your amp model, your effect like chorus for instance, then your delay settings, and then finally your reverb. But using chorus and phaser at the same time; you can't do that.

The effects are fairly good, maybe not as realistic as if you had individual stompboxes from Boss or DigiTech for each effect, but they certainly aren't junk by any means. They are quite usable, and they have up to 4 parameters to edit for each effect, which can be tedious but gives you more control. If you want LESS paremeters to edit and more simplicity then maybe the RP200 or 150 is for you.
I played a handful of instruments through this, mostly a Fernandes LP Junior style guitar and a custom Telecaster. I dug the clean sounds of the Blackface model with my Tele, and the Rectified model for distortion. I soon became addicted to swirling delays and whooshing flanger and phaser effects, and the spacey vintage vibe of the rotary effect. I was on an effects high for weeks. The compressor definitely comes in handy for getting even sustain as long as you arent heavy handed with it.
Ultimately, the amp models can sound a bit synthetic, and the effects don't sound analog, they are fairly obviously digital, but I think running into a good tube amp would greatly improve the sound from what I was playing it through: my old solid state Peavey combo.

I would imagine the speaker cabinet models would help in making this sound better for going direct into a PA system, but I still wouldnt want to unless I had to. Some comment it becomes thin.

These drums are wonderful drums. I've owned a set of four for 2 years now and absolutely love them.

I personally only think there are three better sounding drums out there today- The vintage Gon Bops era drums, drums by Isla percussion (http://islapercussions.com), and the Giovanni drums by LP.

The Classics give a very warm and round sound that is great for both popular music and in folkloric settings. The heel toe is very dark and rich and the slaps on these drums can cut through anything (even the slaps on the tumba!). I think they're the best drums in their price range- whey you look at sound versus affordability they are really unbeatable.

Older Gon Bops drums are much more expensive and difficult to find (and not always in the best of conditions!). The drums at Isla are also very expensive, although they are easily available, but they're each made to order and you have to wait for them and put down a deposit. The Giovanni drums sound much better to me than the Classics (they're made of Ash as opposed to Oak) but they cost a lot more (roughly $500 as opposed to $400 for a conga) and if you're like me and you're on a budget then they're just a little to pricey.

The only thing I don't like about these drums are the colors- there's not a really nice stained natural finish. LP has a 'natural' finish, but its very white looking to me and looks particularly ugly with the gold hardware (again, just my opinion). The only thing closest to a nice stained wood color is the red wine, (which I own) but they can look a little red from drum to drum.

These drums price and availability coupled with their great sound make them my most recommended set of drums.