Remo Clear Pinstripes

  • Thread starter Disco Mystic
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I don’t really care for them on toms or kick, but I really like a Pinstripe on a snare. On the yacht rock gig I use a 1980s Pearl Brass snare with a clear Pinstripe batter. It takes the ring down on that snare just enough, fattens it up a bit without having to tune the head way down, and still maintains the crispiness I want for ghost notes. I’ve tried a lot of heads on that drum and a clear Pinstripe just works. Bonus: they last forever.

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I use a coated pinhead on a 12x4 cheapo snare....which makes it now sound like a drum....not a basketball. As well a 22" clear pinhead is the spare bd head for one of the 22 bd's. That's all...;)
bt
 
I have them on my 70’s Vistalite kit. 13 and 16 inch toms.
I don’t like the stick feel. The tone is “okay”, but I would prefer something else.
 
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I can remember when they first came out. Only the Black Dots preceded them as a 'new' design from Remo. While I've played them on other folks drums, I've never had much luck with them. Other than the early coated version on a snare drum, Clear Emperors are better for me. Back when the codes on the boxes were very similar between the two, I was in Pro Drum looking for Emperors and all the boxes had Pinstripes in them. It was either Stan or Jerry who came over saying "They did it again"!!! and was taking them out of the boxes and throwing them on the floor. I almost 'hear' Bob calling up Remo and giving him a hard time about it.!!
 
I bought a set. On sale at Sweetwater for $55 for 10-12-16. Put them on my SQ2 birch kit and they sound better than anything else I've tried on there. Absolutely a breeze to tune. They give a really nice low tone without the slappy sound you sometimes get from Clear Emperors, especially on the FT.

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I havent tried the new version of Pinstripes, if there really is such a thing. The last set I had was from the late '90's and they just never sounded good to me. So much slappy attack and plastic sounding. No fundamental tone at all. Maybe the new recipe is better than the old, but I never liked them.

That said, I would be willing to try a coated pinstripe if it helps to remove the attack and hopefully allows some tone in to the sound.
 
Tommy D said:
I havent tried the new version of Pinstripes, if there really is such a thing. The last set I had was from the late '90's and they just never sounded good to me. So much slappy attack and plastic sounding. No fundamental tone at all. Maybe the new recipe is better than the old, but I never liked them.

That said, I would be willing to try a coated pinstripe if it helps to remove the attack and hopefully allows some tone in to the sound.
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I don't think it's far fetched to think that what they're selling now as pinstripes might be different than what you had in the 90's. From the sound/attack you're describing I'd say these are the antithesis of that. That said, people do hear differently. I've always found that unwanted overtones emanate from the outer edges not the center. Look at bass drum heads like the EMAD, PS3, and EQ4. They have the dampening at the edge like the pinstripes. I like a nice solid tone without overtone tails up or down. It has to be musical and not a thud or boxy sound. I'm pretty picky and will go through different heads to find what I want to hear.

Maybe the kit you had them on didn't take to them? It's not unusual for me to have a kit sound great with say clear emperors and another kit not sound good at all with them. Just as kits are head dependent heads can be just as dependent on kits. My Star Walnut kit sounds fabulous with clear emps. The SQ2 birch not so much. The new TAMA SCM came with clear G2's and they didn't cut it but the clear Emperors I put on did. Aren't they supposed to be very similar heads? Go figure.
 
Disco Mystic said:
I don't think it's far fetched to think that what they're selling now as pinstripes might be different than what you had in the 90's. From the sound/attack you're describing I'd say these are the antithesis of that. That said, people do hear differently. I've always found that unwanted overtones emanate from the outer edges not the center. Look at bass drum heads like the EMAD, PS3, and EQ4. They have the dampening at the edge like the pinstripes. I like a nice solid tone without overtone tails up or down. It has to be musical and not a thud or boxy sound. I'm pretty picky and will go through different heads to find what I want to hear.

Maybe the kit you had them on didn't take to them? It's not unusual for me to have a kit sound great with say clear emperors and another kit not sound good at all with them. Just as kits are head dependent heads can be just as dependent on kits. My Star Walnut kit sounds fabulous with clear emps. The SQ2 birch not so much. The new TAMA SCM came with clear G2's and they didn't cut it but the clear Emperors I put on did. Aren't they supposed to be very similar heads? Go figure.
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The kit I had them on was my Tama Rockstar DX. Power tom sizes and luan shells with Tama’ slightly rounded/slightly pointed edge. It’s kind of the perfect kit to have them on. But they just sounded plastic like and never musical.
 
Tommy D said:
The kit I had them on was my Tama Rockstar DX. Power tom sizes and luan shells with Tama’ slightly rounded/slightly pointed edge. It’s kind of the perfect kit to have them on. But they just sounded plastic like and never musical.
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Ummm. Luan power toms eh? Ok then!
 
cribbon said:
I believe they were Remo's answer to the Evans hydraulics epidemic in the mid-late 70s. I hated the hydraulics, but I needed something beefier and more durable than Ambassadors, and Pinstripes fit the bill. Even though I use other heads from time to time, I still consider Pinstripes as my default tom batter head unless I need something different.

I never considered using them on a snare drum until I saw/heard Richard Bailey using a coated Pinstripe on his brass piccolo snare. It's an easy way to fatten up a snare drum without having to tune it down.
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I think you were reading my mind. I hated Evans Hydraulics also. I used Pinstripes for a long time and the equivalent Evans EC2. I don't care much for Evans heads in general, particularly their bass drum heads, but the EC2 is a good head. Aquarian Response 2 is the equivalent, just doesn't have a visible ring. These heads aren't much different than using a muffler O-ring on a standard head. I used coated pinstripes on the 14-inch snare for a while to compensate for overtone ring. Also used muffler O-rings on the coated Ambassador. But I finally decided I was just compensating for not tuning the snare properly. If the snare is tuned properly, it will ring true and not sound annoying.
 
Clear Pinstripes were my go-to on-the-road tom batter head, back when I was touring frequently roughly 20 years ago.

I wanted something that was long lasting, easy to tune up and weathered the weather quite well. They didn't sound stellar, but they were fine through the PA. I was playing lots of outdoor festival-style gigs during the day in the summer sunlight, and then indoor club gigs at night. Durability and predictability were important traits.

These always did the job. I haven't used Pinstripes much since, but if I'm ever in the same situation, I'm re-heading my kit with a new set of Pinstripes right before I hit the road.
 
Disco Mystic said:
Anyone using them and if so on what kind of kit and what sound are you looking for? Thanks in advance for any replies.
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I started using them again back in February. Hadn’t used them since the late 70s. I’ve started using concert toms again in my set up and there’s nothing like that classic pinstripe and concert Tom combination.
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I have a set on the toms on a new series Pearl President kit that is a 13/16/18/22 configuration. I was just saying the other day how I always dogged on those heads for being so "one dimensional" but I had a set laying around and put them this kit. Got the 13 tuned medium and floor on the lower medium side, and my god, they sound and FEEL killer on those shells.
 
My current kit came with them factory, but I've always upgraded to them on all my kits. I've always played rock/metal.
 
cribbon said:
I believe they were Remo's answer to the Evans hydraulics epidemic in the mid-late 70s. I hated the hydraulics, but I needed something beefier and more durable than Ambassadors, and Pinstripes fit the bill. Even though I use other heads from time to time, I still consider Pinstripes as my default tom batter head unless I need something different.

I never considered using them on a snare drum until I saw/heard Richard Bailey using a coated Pinstripe on his brass piccolo snare. It's an easy way to fatten up a snare drum without having to tune it down.
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That was when Evans was located in Dodge City, Kansas and they used that white ceramic collar which seemed to conform and stick to the drum shell. Those were fun to get off and they were just about the deadest sounding head you could buy!

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