Remo SN-0013-00 Silentstroke 13 inch drumvel

Waow, I am amazed (‘blown away’ - if you’ve heard the expression) by by how well these heads perform. I almost cannot believe how much controlled tone I am getting at such low volumes (paired with standard resonant heads). The stick feel is not identical, but it’s very close - there wasn’t much if any of the dreaded ‘bounce’ that sponsored reviewers often mention. I laid into the heads hard, as is my playing style (although hesitantly at first) and they are definitely more durable they appear or feel. Perhaps like most of you, I wanted to be able to practice my full acoustic kit indoors. I live mid way in a row of attached town houses with minimal wall insulation. I didn’t want to drive my neighbour crazy (I imagined pictures falling off picture hooks), and my electronic kit just doesn’t excite me. So far I’ve only tried these on toms, if durability bottoms out on the snare or kick I’ll slap a falam slam or clear dot on for good measure. I mentioned the amazing tone - I tuned the wrinkles out of my tom resonant heads (remo ambassador) and tweaked them up fractionally, until I could begin to hear the thump sound disappear and the sweet tone just coming through. For the mesh I did much the same, tweaking them up only a fraction until they gave a little rebound and they made the reso heads sing a little. Tuning took a little longer on the 13” than the 10”, but I thing the 13” reso head might be getting old. I evened everything out and then ..... waow. I watched almost every review and although remo silentstroke rated ok, they weren’t always a clear winner. Despite that I liked what I was hearing and gave them a go. I have pretty much always played remo heads, not that they are superior to the others, I just like the consistency and the stick attack they give. Perhaps that familiarity swayed me to buy the Silentstrokes, but having played them I can say these sound awesome, and I’m ‘sticking’ with them. I would 100% recommend these especially paired with ambassadors.

I bought these heads in 8”, 12” and 13”, I already had a 14” on a snare, to be used with the Sonor Martini kit as a permanent practice set up at home. Along with this I also use Zildjian’s low volume cymbals. The heads are great! It’s so good being able to have a (really) good, permanent practice kit that actually sounds good. I wish these things had been about when I was starting off on the kit. The heads are maybe not great for fast sticking exercises but you can keep a practice pad handy for those sort of things. For a fun and realistic, full kit set up these are perfect.



Practice is now fun again!