Let me start off by saying that these heads sound awesome right out of the box. They don't tune-up as easily as an Aquarian head, but they're almost identical in sound.

The only problem I have with Remos is their coating! Their coating process is horrible. As a snare head, the coating starts to chip off almost immediately. The first time this happened, I thought it was a defective head. Since then, it's happened more than a few times on heads purchased at different times over the years. The problem isn't as bad on tom heads. It's the repetitive snare hits that seem to really test the heads.

Remo really does make a great sounding head. I guess that's why they're the industry standard. That doesn't mean they make the highest quality product. In fact, maybe that's why their quality control can slack a little. People just keep coming back for more.

Last year, I finally switched to Aquarian coated heads on my snare. I've played the Aquarian head for 6 months now and the coating still hasn't worn off. It's smoothed out a bit, but it's still intact.

Please do not listen to these people who say that Ambassadors are not a quality head. Obviously they don't know how to tune a snare drum. I've got the 14 in head on my yamaha stage custom snare and let me tell you, when you tell this head to jump, it doesn't ask "how high?", it aims high right off the bat! I turn it medium-high for my reggae jazz combo I have going on and sometimes play it open or with a wallet on the snare. Either way, this head can do it all. And it's super durable...especially when you play the drums with some finesse instead of whacking away like a caveman.

Ambassadors have been the go-to head for jazz and funk players for many decades, but I think Remo's quality control have gotten significantly worse in recent years. I have bought a ton of Ambassadors and Fiberskyns recently that have peeling coating, creases, and dead spots around the edges. Sometimes you will get a good sounding one, but youre better off just going with comparable Aquarian or even Evans so that you know you're getting a reliable product.

I bought a 14" for my snare, and a 16" for my floor tom. My floor tom is kind of low quality, but the new head saounded WAY better. On my snare, it sounded excellent until I took it off and tried to reseat it. Definatly a good buy.

I used to think that if a snare drum didn't sound good with a Remo Ambassador on it then it was not a good drum. I was wrong, it was usually the Ambassador drum head that was the problem, not the snare drum. I know, the Ambassador is regarded as the industry standard but just because it's traditionally the most popular head and been around since the beginning of time it doesn't mean it's the best. To me, it's an average snare drumhead, at best. It has always sounded too bright and then sounds flat in a short period of time, no matter how I tune my snare drum. I quit wasting my money on Ambassadors about 5 years ago and now use Evans reverse power dot heads or Evans G Plus 12mm heads which are a little bit thicker single ply heads and the difference is obvious compared to an Ambassador. I will say the Remo CS reverse dot head is very good and that's basically an Ambassador with a black dot on the reverse side, but it's the dot that gives the drum sound more focus and pop and will make the head more durable so to me, it makes a huge difference. The coating on the Remo Ambassador seems to wear off quicker than the Evans G1, which is Evans version of the Ambassador, and certainly much quicker than an Aquarian texture coated head which I've never experienced the coating coming off on those heads and those are decent 10mm batter heads also. I would even take an Attack single ply coated head over an Ambassador. Perhaps back in the 60s and 70s the Ambassador was the best but now there are so many other batter side snare drumheads that are much better.