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"Drummers have long appreciated the benefits of tuning, tonal range, and overall sustain that is made possible with extended collars found on modern timpani heads. Evans has developed a way to deliver those same benefits to drum set tom, snare, and marching tenor heads. The Evans Level 360 collar's ease of fit allows the drumhead to have constant contact on a level plane all the way around the drum's bearing edge, resulting in faster, more accurate tuning, with more tonal sustain."
Evans has manufactured its heads with the new Level 360 Technology since September 2012 without the addition of the new logo, so a lot of what is out in stores already features the new collar. The company did this "under-the-radar" in order to help stores circulate through inventory.
Evans is currently utilizing the Level 360 design on all drum set tom and snare heads as well as marching tenor heads on sizes between 6 to 20 inch. Artists who are endorsing Evans Level 360 drumheads include Keith Carlock, JoJo Mayer, Dafnis Prieto and Billy Cobham.
Ben O'Brien Smith is percussion product specialist for D'Addario, the company that owns Evans Drumheads. He demoed the Level 360 heads at NAMM 2013. Watch the video and see how the subtle change in the collar design actually makes a significant difference.
Truly revolutionary?
Evans is very confident about their change in manufacturing processes and shape design, calling it no less than a "technological revolution". This is quite a claim. One might wonder how the new Evans design differs from the collars that Aquarian and Remo have been using on their drumheads for years.
Evans claims founder and pioneer Chick Evans invented the world's first synthetic (or plastic, or polyester), weatherproof head in 1956. But according to a 1953 patent, Dupont came up with the idea three years earlier.
Ultimately the synthetic heads changed the drum world completely because until then drumheads were made from animal skins. Those hides were porous and absorbed humidity and sweat, resulting in detuned drums.
One year after Chick Evans' synthetic drumhead, Remo Belli launched the Weatherking drumheads made of a polyester film called Mylar.
In 1960 Remo was granted a patent for these drumheads due to the invention of "an improved securement of the edge of a sheet to a drum ring". This patent forms the basis for all current drumheads produced using an adhesive to adhere the polyester film inside the aluminum channel.
All Remo heads are engineered with two built-in alignment mechanisms called the collar and the step. The formed collar makes certain that the head stays centered on the drum shell. The step makes certain that the head will be level on the bearing edge.
Following the expiration of Remo's patent, all major manufacturers of synthetic drumheads adopted some variation of this configuration. For instance, Aquarian came up with the Sound Curve collar design in the 1980s. This collar design offers a flatter surface for the bearing edge and according to the company, Aquarian heads do not need to be seated and show no wrinkles, even with loose tuning. Aquarian's patented Safe-T-Loc hoop prevents the head from slipping inside the hoop so it does not de-tune and will not pull out.
So, there's more than one company out there that makes great drum heads. They all strive to be innovative and develop technologies that bring out the best in every drum and drummer. As a result, you can choose the best drumhead solely based on your personal preferences. And we're convinced that's a good thing.
