Lighted Drum Heads

Look at dans drumheads he has a nice selection..

I just got a PRR one from him. He has a large selection on eBay at a very good price.

www.stores.ebay.com/DansDrumheadsNMore

The best and biggest selection can be found at Tomar Ind., in Michigan. 

I'll second Hot Water's reply. Tomar has been around for decades. Good stuff.

Neil

Here is a suggestion, that should work, but I have not yet tried:  Lighted drumheads come with a single bulb behind them. This is true of any manufacturer, be it Tomar, GGD, Lionel, MTH, etc.  That bulb gives a distinct and unrealistic bright spot right in the center of the drumhead.  The center is too bright, and the rest is too dim.  I could never get combinations of diffusers or reflectors to even out the illumination.

I suggest pulling out the bulb, and replacing it with a cut sheet of the Miller engineering EL Panels. Get the experimenters kit #2502:

http://www.microstru.com/Experimenter-Kits.html

That will give a nice soft uniform glow to the drumhead.

If anyone tries this, let me know how this works

Here are a couple of photos of a Tomar drum head I installed on the back of my Golden Gate Depot B&O heavy weights. BF

My drummer informs me that the best drumheads are US-made Remo.

Pete

Here's an S Scale Tomar drumhead.  The "hot spot" from the LED is obvious, even with the diffuser:

It was hard enough positioning the surface-mount LED with very the fine wires attached, I don't know how hard an EL panel would be fit or how bright it would be. 

It used to bother me, but most prototype drumheads were light by several lamps, (7-9?)and they weren't evenly illuminated either.

Rusty

Hi All

I would like to thank all who replied to my question,it will be a big help in selectong the right drumhead for me

Thanks Mike

FYI - Dan will do custom drum heads

Mikey,

Marty R, is right on the money. I've been doing business with Dan Maher for years, eight years to be exact. Yes, even before he started selling on eBay. He created many signs for the buildings on my layout. My last count was an even dozen in waiting to be installed. I found them to be ideal on my Std Gauge observation cars. His custom work is great. All you need is to send him a photo or describe what you have in mind.

Dan's drumheads all appear to be mounted on a round frame or case, like an image on a 5 cent piece; the Tomar drumheads frames can be in different shapes as dictated by the drumhead image. My PRR drumhead from Tomar is applied to a keystone-shaped frame - much nicer and attractive than a keystone symbol on a round frame.  I know they have square drumhead cases too, to match square drumhead logos. If your drumhead will be round, then there is no difference, but with other shapes Tomar may be the better choice.

Tomar are closer to scale and much better looking than any others. Don