Review: Remo Silentstroke Low Volume Drum Heads

How Do They Sound?

First off, let’s take a look at the sound and volume level reduction with these drum heads. Our sound demo video shows you what a drum kit outfitted with Remo Silentstroke heads and Zildjian L80 cymbals sounds like compared to a drum with traditional drum heads and cymbals.

Tuning & Tone

These drum heads don’t really respond to tuning the same way traditional batter heads do. You can adjust the tension to change the feel, which is the ideal way to adjust these. Tighten up the tension until you get the feel you prefer. Adjusting tension doesn’t affect the tone or pitch in the same way as a traditional batter head.

The tone and pitch ends up mostly coming from the bottom resonant heads on the drums. You’ll be able to hear the different pitches of the toms as you go down the line, even though it’s very quiet. You don’t get the sharp attack, strong vibration and the ring out that traditional batter heads provide.

If you take the bottom resonant heads off your drums, tone will be almost absent except for the sound of the sticks hitting the mesh.

Volume Reduction With Silentstroke Heads

The amount of volume reduction will depend on your play style, but most drummers should expect around a total 70-80% reduction in volume from their traditional drum heads. The difference is quite drastic when comparing the two.

Personally, I can’t play traditional drum heads at all anymore without some sort of hearing protection, I get too much distortion in my ears from years of being around loud music. But with Silentstroke heads and Zildjian L80 cymbals I find I can play normally without any hearing protection at all. It’s kind of weird when you’re not used to it.

Feel & Playability

This is the area where these heads are the strongest. I find they provide a very similar feel to traditional drum heads, even though they can feel a little more bouncy. Playing around the kit feels almost the same as when I have traditional drum heads on.

The kick drum head even feels really good since it has similar movement and rebound as a traditional kick drum head. The feel is a positive when contrasting to the harder kick pads you might find on something like an electronic drum kit. If you’re trying to decide between an electronic drum kit or low volume acoustic drums this could be a factor worth considering.

Another positive factor in terms of playability is that if you go this route with mesh drum heads, you’re basically still sitting behind your familiar acoustic drum kit with all the same drum sizes and positioning that your used to. The familiarity can translate well when it comes to practicing at lower volumes and then switching back to traditional drum heads for performances or other reason.

Durability of Mesh Drum Heads

The Remo Silentstroke drum heads are made with single ply mesh. They have a softer, somewhat cloth like feel when they aren’t mounted on drum and not at high tension. When installed on a drum with normal head tension, mesh heads tighten up and feel much more durable and resistant to being hit with a drum stick.

Mesh drum heads can be susceptible to damage from excessive force or damaged drum sticks. Worn out drum sticks with lots of splintering will wear out mesh drum heads faster than newer, undamaged sticks. If you don’t play excessively hard and use undamaged sticks, you’ll get just as good of life out of your mesh heads as you will with traditional drum heads, maybe even longer since you don’t have to worry about tone with aging.

Installation

Putting these on your drum kit is as simple as a normal drum head change. There isn’t really anything special to consider when installing these. Whenever I’m putting these on a kit, I’ll adjust the head tension to feel about the same as what I’m used to with traditional drum heads, and then it’s good to go and they’re ready to play.

Remo Silentstroke Heads Have a Wide Selection of Sizes

These drum heads can be found in all of the typical drums sizes which is great. It’s actually quite a nice range of size options, so even if you have odd drum sizes on your kit you won’t be left out. Here’s the sizes available:

Bass Drum Head Sizes

16″
18″
20″
22″
24″

Where Can You Buy Remo Silentstroke Heads?

Many drum shops have them in stock if they carry other Remo drum heads. You can find a Rock Pack at Amazon for a pretty good price, which has 10, 12, 14, 16 and 22 inch heads all bundled together. Guitar Center also has individual drum heads and bass drum heads.

The Verdict

Remo Silentstroke heads are a great option for mesh drum heads. These are an excellent pick for drummers who need the most volume reduction possible. These are even quiet enough for apartment drummers in most cases. They aren’t overly expensive either, so they won’t break the bank if you decide to try them out.​