A
marching snare drum head which debuted in the late 1980's and was popularized by
DCI.
These heads were white or black, made entirely out of woven
Kevlar, could withstand thousands of pounds of torque tension; they were tunable to an extremely high, almost undiscernable tone; they featured an extremely high snare responsiveness level; and they were (no I'm not kidding) bullet-proof.
I took an old
Premier snare drum home from my high school drum room once. It had an old black Falam on it. Not believing the rumors, I set it out in my backyard and shot the sonofabitch with a .22
The bullet couldn't penetrate the head.
Falams are now thought to be the direct cause of many drumline members from this time period having serious bouts with
tendonitis and
carpal tunnel syndrome.
Originally manufactured by
Ludwig Drums.