Remo 14" CS Coated Black Dot Snare Reviews

Powerful snare sound

I play rock with this snare drum head, from classics to contemporary stuff, and the sound delivered is excellent. Tight and powerful, this drum head is great for rock and other genres such as pop and metal. Highly recommended.

good head

Excellent had as always from remo but at this price you'd be mad not to get one!

Best. Ever. Period.

I tried many snare heads before. This is the best one for rock. Ever. Thick sounding, focused but open enough, quality is more than excellent. Whatever your preferences are, this will not dissappoint.

Remo CS black dot snare drum head

This is a drum head with a long established history. I bought my first one in the early seventies and have used them consistently ever since. It is basically a coated Remo Ambassador with a reinforcing dot glued to the underneath. As well as strengthening the head and extending it`s life, the dot has a profound effect on the sound, boosting the mid range tones and giving the snare drum a punchy "thwack" at low to mid tuning and a hard "pop" when tuned high. The dot also goes some way to negating "centre play out" - this is when a snare drum loses some of it`s impact when struck in the centre of the head. All round, this is a very versatile drum head. Every video I`ve ever seen of the Rolling Stones shows Charlie Watts using CS black dots and that`s good enough for me!

The REMO Control Dot is a well engineered head, designed to have a killer 'fat' spot within the 'dot' area. At the edge of the dot the head produces a less-fat, and cleaner/brighter sound. As you get closer to the edge you get a timbale-like sound, making this a versatile head if you're likely to play (let's say) rock, latin, and jazz at the same gig. The head also produces a great rim-click, and has plenty of volume overall. The head really has, to be tuned well to get any kind of satisfying sound, otherwise it's a bit ring-y. Tune the bottom (of your snare) head to 'A' while the batter head is removed from the drum. Make sure you get a clean 'A' at each lug-point (worth the effort), then put on the batter head, tuning correctly to a 'C', or higher if you want. Mess around with the snare tension, and before you know it, your snare will sound better than ever. This is not a conventional head, and it does take getting used to the different sounds, but a sweeter rim-shot you've never heard ... my guitar players even noticed. Remember, the key is in the tuning ... snare side, than batter. Have fun, it's a great head!

After playing around for a while...

With various skins and not finding the right skin for my snare this gem came along and made my drum SING! Got a great crack and tone. Seems as though it will be very durable and continue to sound great for a while.

I'll be sticking with this skins for a while to come I think.

Great sound!

Used this on a few different snare drums and it's probably one of my favourite Remo heads. Nice and respnsive with plenty of attack. Being a single ply it's a bit more open then say an Emperor, but the dot helps to stop it becoming overly ringy like the ambassadors can be on some drums.

This head is my preferred choice for wood snare drums, which by nature can be a bit dry, so this helps give them some life.

For metal snares I like something a bit drier like a Powerstroke 3 or a Evans Genera dry as they tend to be a bit more ringy by nature so need something to control it. Though I'm sure the Remo CS would work great on metal snares with a bit of extra dampening using some moon gels or something similar.

One complaint I do have to make about Remo though is the quality of their coating. From my experience and that of many others recently it seems that the coating is flaking off very easily these days, with a few studio sessions enough to have the head looking absolutely wrecked compared to a coated head from Evans/Aquarian etc. For this reason I'd find it hard to recommend this head to anyone that's looking to play and gig alot and isn't able to afford regular head changes.

The best snare drumhead.

I am using Remo 14" CS Coated Black Dot Snare drumhead for more than 5 years on different snare drums and am still really happy with its sound and look.

At first i had to get used to the look of the dot in the middle, but it actually is quite useful and helps aiming the middle of the drum.

Of course it also creates a great sound - without noisy resonance, but not too muted either.

The quality is very good too. Remo is definitely one of the best drumhead manufacturer, so this product has just the best quality and will do a great job.

I cannot speak for all kind of snare drums, but its definitely worth a try. Enjoy!

Great all round snare head

On my vintage Hayman wooden snare I use the CS batter and ambassador on the snare side which gives a good open sound without too many ringing overtones and a nice clipped punch with the damper on.

Dynamics are good, the head is light enough to allow for some delicate playing, including brush work on the textured surface, but has enough weight for some fairly hefty playing when required.

In short I like it.

Another gem from remo

I like this head a lot, I use it primarily on snares. It works a treat on my Brady Jarrah head. It wouldn't be a jazz thing as it's on the heavier side of things. The dot centre is perfect for back beats and really gives a focused sound and you can play out to the side if you want some more ring. Works nice in the studio often reducing the need for moongel

A nice head!

This head, on the snare has a nice crisp sounding centre and also enough sensitivity and contrast around the edges.