Hopefully people with experience can clear this up for me.

first off a calf skin head can't take the tight tuning of a plastic head, but the calf head will de tune due to humidity and heat/cold changes. plastic wasn't once a living thing calf heads are or were.

I guess that clears it up then, thing is I've heard a few examples and they are quite tight sounding, i guess that's because the temp change tightened the head up?

I have an old Radioing drum kit which has all its calfskin heads. I will be swapping them out when I have time because although they sound sweet with them on, I miss the sound and the durability I've become used to with Remo's. I'm not sure how long they would last, and they are old slingerland printed heads. My experience of them so far whilst messing around with them home here is that they really do change significantly with temp and humidity.

When I was young I was in my local county schools orchestra. We had a set of Tymps that had calf skins on. I remember it being protocol that they were de-tuned after every session before being put away because any change in temperature and the skins could split. They were really strict with us on that.

Like vm2k says above, calf heads will expand or contract depending on humidity. I experimented with calf for a couple of years and finally decided to go back to plastic.

Calf heads ideally should to be de-tensioned after every playing session, since they might otherwise crack if conditions get less humid. Thus, for every playing session you need to tune your kit, which does take a little time and effort. On the other hand, calf has far less overtones than plastic and tunes up much more easily.

In the end I found that I prefer the ease and perhaps also the sound of plastic heads. Calf imitation heads, like Remo Skyntones or Fyberskins or Evans J1, are very very nice, with many of the characteristics of real calf, I think.

/Magnus

I don't think there's an age old commandment/fatwah not to use skin heads. People are still selling them and drummers still using them. If you are planning on moving a kit from gig to gig, calfskin heads will require more care than plastic. I wouldn't leave a kit with calfskin heads in my car on either a very hot or a very cold day. I wouldn't expect to move my drums from a cold car to a steamy venue and expect them to hold heir tuning. I had to fuss with skin heads on the tenor and bass drums in a pipe band when I was a wee sprout. They sounded and played great when set up--just needed consistent care. Snare drums I have played since had a warm tone and excellent feel for brush work. I am thinking about trying them again on one of my stay-at-home drums.

I think it is debatable whether the sound of calfskin is worth the additional fussing they require. I'm sure some will disagree and, granted, there are modern companies that are producing modern calf heads that are more durable and predictable than those from the past. Older heads may have a certain characteristic sound but they tend to be inconsistent in thickness and may not have been properly cared for throughout their life. Therefore if you want to use calf today best to get a new modern calf head rather than an older vintage. Also if you are lucky enough to play in a consistent environment (ie. Concert hall, school, casino, theatre) you will have more success at achieving a consistent and satisfying sound.

I really dislike the modern calfskin that came with a snare I purchased last year. Seemed hardly used but it sounded like mush. No matter how tight I cranked it.

My experience with the calf skins on my RadioKing are that the bass drum is fat and deep with short decay. Gorgeous! The Toms, and particularly the floor tom have a sort of (but not entirely) souvenir shop african drum sound to it. It's the immediate stick sound. I guess some would hear that as warmth. Oh it's warm alright, but I think I would prefer the stick sound from a coated Amby or Emp, even a fyberskyn, followed by that decay from those old shells.