Maker

Remo

The company that replaced calfskin

Remo Belli's Mylar drumhead, introduced in the late 1950s, ended the era of calfskin and made drums that stayed in tune through weather and travel. The company went on to build world percussion with synthetic shells and heads — djembes, frame drums, and the tunable Roto Toms — and remains the largest drumhead maker in the world.

Models

  • Remo Diplomat

    Drumhead · United States

    At 7.5 mil the Diplomat is thinner than an Ambassador, giving a brighter, more open sound at low volume — the usual choice for jazz toms and for snare heads played with brushes.

  • Remo Emperor

    Drumhead · United States

    The Emperor is two plies of 7 mil film, which shortens sustain and raises durability against a single ply without the dead quality of a heavier double ply.

  • Remo Pinstripe

    Drumhead · United States

    Pinstripe heads bond two plies only at the outer edge, leaving a small air gap that damps overtones without muffling the fundamental. On toms it produces the fat, controlled sound of a great deal of 1970s and 1980s rock.

  • Remo Controlled Sound

    Drumhead · United States

    Controlled Sound heads carry a reinforcing patch — the familiar black dot — at the centre, adding durability and attack where the stick lands while leaving the rest of the head free.

  • Remo Powerstroke 3

    Drumhead · United States

    The Powerstroke 3's underside inlay ring damps the head's edge, which is why it appears on so many bass drums: it gives a controlled thump with no further muffling needed.

  • Remo Ambassador

    Drumhead · United States

    A single ply of 10 mil film, clear or coated, and the head against which every other drumhead is described. The coated Ambassador on a snare is close to a default in recorded music.

  • Remo Silentstroke

    Drumhead · United States

    Silentstroke heads are woven mesh rather than film, cutting an acoustic kit's volume by most of its output while keeping the rebound. They also make an acoustic kit triggerable.

  • Remo Fiberskyn

    Drumhead · United States

    Fiberskyn puts a fibre coating on a synthetic film to approximate the tone and texture of calfskin without its instability, and is used on hand drums and vintage-voiced kits alike.

  • Remo Practice Pad

    Drum hardware · United States

    Remo's practice pads use a tensioned Mylar head over a muffled shell rather than a rubber slab, which reproduces the rebound of a tuned drum more closely than rubber does.

  • Remo Roto Tom

    Hand percussion

    Roto Toms have no shell: the head sits on a threaded frame, and rotating the drum raises or lowers the pitch continuously. That makes them the only drum a player can glissando in performance, which is why they turn up in orchestral scores.

  • Remo Frame Drum

    Hand percussion

    Remo's frame drums cover the tar, bendir, and general hand-drum formats in synthetic heads and Acousticon shells, which is what put frame drums into schools and workshops at scale.

  • Remo Buffalo Drum

    Hand percussion

    The Buffalo Drum is a wide, shallow frame drum played with a soft beater, widely used in drum circles, therapy settings, and film scoring for its low, breathy tone.

Categories

  • Drumheads

    The consumable that changes a drum's voice more than the shell does. Single and double ply, clear and coated, with and without built-in muffling.

  • Concert Percussion

    The percussion section's non-pitched instruments: concert snare and bass drums, tambourines, triangles, crotales, tubular bells, and the stands that hold them.

  • Hand Percussion

    Congas, bongos, djembes, cajons, timbales, frame drums, and the small instruments that live on a percussion table: tambourines, cowbells, shakers, and claves.

Representative model

  • Remo Ambassador

    Drumhead · United States

    A single ply of 10 mil film, clear or coated, and the head against which every other drumhead is described. The coated Ambassador on a snare is close to a default in recorded music.