This will be a short review. Good and short because I really am impressed with these heads. I play at least three nights a week with a big rock and soul band named FreeWorld on Beale Street in Memphis and a good number of well-known drummers sit in on my drums. It’s a pretty hard-hitting gig and the guys that sit in don’t hold back. Though I prefer single ply heads on recording sessions and lighter gigs, I have used all sorts of two ply heads on my Gretsch drums over the years for the louder gigs. The two-ply heads last longer. They also all start denting up immediately and I’ll use each set as long as I can until they just won’t tune up anymore or are looking like the surface of the moon.
I was pleasantly surprised with Evans’ new UV2 heads. I could tell right off the bat that the coating was very tough. I was a little worried that they would have too sharp of an attack sound, but that fear was allayed quickly. I put a 13” and a 16” on the toms of my four piece vintage Gretsch USA custom kit. I usually tune double ply heads very low to get a very full and resonant sound, no muffling, so I did it with these heads and used them for several weeks. I was very pleased with what I was hearing and feeling. Very easy to tune. Then, a few weeks later, I tuned them up into the medium high range and the drums just opened up. That was the sweet spot that brought out the resonance of the drum without losing any low end from the shell. All other double ply heads that I tried to tune medium high produced a very dull sound.
The coating is super heavy duty. No dents yet and I’ve been using them for two months now. They also tend to stay cleaner than most coated heads. No ground in dirt like you see with other coated heads.
So, I’ll be using these for quite a while and will probably replace them with the same model. i think they will be lasting for a lot longer then the other double-ply coated heads I’ve used in the past. I’m wanting to check out the single-ply UV heads too (hint, hint, Evans).
Here is the short definition of this model from Evans: “UV2 is rated to withstand the physical abuse of even the heaviest hitters, its potent UV defenses eliminate premature chipping and flaking. The impact assembly boasts two 7mil plies of heavy-duty film, strengthened using our proprietary ultraviolet coating. UV2’s surface provides superior impact resistance and tonal integrity—for the whole of its unprecedented life span.”
Since I have not done a video yet, here is one showing almost no wear on a UV2 that was on a drum for a year. Pretty impressive.