a small detail to add: Vintage A is two ply head

I use the same setup and have for almost 40 years I have used this setup on Rogers and Ludwig both 3 ply and 6 and it is still the very best head combo i have ever heard for rock and blues..

Remo all the way on 3ply Ludwigs. I really like a coated A's over coated A's. I do use some moongel to tame them down a bit.

I'm having the same problem. I've re-headed two kits in the last year with Remo Emperors and the coating wearing off.

Wow, so many reply's. Great!

Well as if I read it here....everything is Remo :) And coated ambassador on resonant side

But then the discussion is: Ambassadors, Vintage A's or Emperor on batter side.....

I must say, I've tried the vintage A's on modern drums and aslo on snaredrums.....and didn't like it at all.....too dead sounding.....so if i don't like them on modern drums...is there still chance I will like them on vintage? :)

Never tried Emperors on any drum in my life :)

About the coating problem from remo...well I had this problem ones with one head.....but I have the impression that the other brands kill the sound a little bit with their way of putting the coating on the heads......it may be lasting longer, but the sound is not that good.....

So...still discussion Amby's Vintage a or Emperor :)

It's not either/or in my house. I mix and match to get the best sound possible from a particular shell layup. Ludwig 3 ply shells are not all the same nor will they react the same to a head. The same can be said for Slingerland 3 ply shells.

Ludwig 60s shells were some of the sloppiest layups in American drum history. Some were magic, but a great number were dogs. If you allow the shell to dictate the head choice, you can make most any of these old drums sing.

I have many examples, ... here's one ...

Just picked up a very sweet 76 Luddy Big Beat in Butcher Block. The shells are the 3 ply clear inner sharper edge. Because the wrap is a bit thicker than some, you would think you'd have to lean towards a larger stock head with a thinner hoop. But because of the era layup, the shell is seriously in round (extremely rare if not impossible for a 60s Luddy layup).

12 - clear emp batter over Aquarian satin finish texture coated reso

13 - clear emp batter over Aquarian satin finish texture coated reso

16 - clear emp batter over Remo coated emp reso

Test each drum for the best sound. If you don't, you'll never really know.

I started a thread about it and a lot of people have had a similar thing happen with Remo skins recently.

Hopefully they sort it out soon.

They have changed the way they apply the coating, I believe - in comparing older skins to new skins.

I put a new Emperor on a 14" tom and the coating on the center of the head was gone within hours. Someone should send Remo an email.

I recently had a studio date and brought multiple drums to the session. I found that the drums that sounded the best to me, nice overall tone with both the high and lows accessible, were the coated Emperor over coated Ambassador.

Must be I have to try the Emperor/ambassador combo.

Thats the combo I like.

And a few people have emailed Remo, but I think it would be worthwhile for more people to let them know. The response I received sounded like they believed it to be an isolated issue. I saw the problem across 3 drum kits, 9 heads, and 6 months.