Description
A great all-round drumhead that can cover most styles of music, the Evans UV2 has a slightly warm and full tone. The real drawcard of the UV2 is its extra-strong coating: If you’re sick of your drumhead coating chipping away, this is the head for you. Read our review of the Evans UV2 to find out more.
The Evans UV1 was a big hit when it was first released. Evans followed up a few years later with the UV2: The same ultra-durable coating, but this time on a two-ply drumhead. The Evans UV2 is a coated drumhead made with two plies of 7mil film, giving a total thickness of 14mil.
Evans UV2 Drumhead Coating
Unique to the Evans’ UV line of drumheads, the top coating is UV-cured, and designed to stick hard to the head. This means that the coating won’t chip away like regular coated heads, and it actually does work.
Even after long-term drumming, you can expect Evans UV2 heads to look almost new, with no chipping and flaking. If you’re sick of your drumhead coating slowly disappearing, the UV2 will keep you happy. During our Evans UV2 review, the drumheads looked like new even after hours of use. That’s no surprise though, as our UV1 review gave the same results.
The Evans UV2 is very responsive to brushes, thanks to the nice texture that the coating has. The lack of chipping and wearing of the coating means you’ll also be able to play with brushes for a lot longer than with regular heads. Usually, as the coating wears away or loses texture on regular drumheads, they become less responsive to brush playing.
Evans UV2 Drumhead Sound
Okay, let’s get into the sound. The sound of the Evans UV2 is on the balanced to warm side. The tone is definitely not bright, but not so dark that you lose definition. When tuned right, you’ll get a full well-rounded tone.
The coating takes away some of the harsher brighter edge, pushing the sound towards the warmer side of the spectrum. Similar to most two-ply heads, they’re a good all-rounder as long as you’re not doing a lot of really light delicate drumming (the UV2 takes a little bit of force to fully activate).
You can expect a moderate amount of sustain and overtones from the Evans UV2. The UV2 performs similar to a coated Evans G2, a Remo Emperor, or an Aquarian Response 2. Like those drumheads, the two plies make the sound a little more focused and reduce the sustain compared to a single-ply drumhead, but you can still get a nice long sustain when you hit them harder.
To reduce the sustain, you can easily add some dampening to the drumheads, otherwise leave them as-is to ring out. If you’ve tried the UV1, the UV2 is slightly less open with fewer overtones.
At 14mil thick, and with the extra-strong coating, these drumheads can definitely handle some heavy hitting. This makes them a nice choice for louder styles of music. Evans advertises these drumheads as ideal for rock and metal, but they would also fit well with funk, RnB, country, moderate/high volume jazz, and many other styles (as long as it’s not super low volume). If you’re hitting medium or hard, the Evans UV2 can get the job done.
When it comes to the attack, the Evans UV2 is middle-of-the-road. They definitely don’t cut through like a clear drumhead, but they’re not so dull that the attack is lost. It seems like the special coating gives a slightly more pronounced stick attack, which can help your drum sound stand out nicely.
Tuned tight, you can definitely get a big loud crack on the snare drum. On toms, you can expect a well-rounded sound with a noticeable stick attack that is not overpowering. They can handle very low tuning, meaning you can achieve a deep rumble (especially on floor toms) if you need this sound.
Evans UV2 Final Word
For a great all-round drumhead that will last longer than most, the Evans UV2 is an excellent choice. The sound is well balanced, with a slightly warm and full tone that can fit into most styles of music. Due to all of the above, they’re a great drumhead if you just need one set of heads to keep on your kit long-term. They’ll last a long time, and have the right sound to fit most drumming situations.
The Evans UV2 is available for snare drums and toms, and comes in sizes 8″ to 18″. See their latest price here.
