Supraphonic

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antichef

antichef

pornk rock
Just got a late 1970s Ludwig Supraphonic - 5" x 14" - it was pretty well tuned when I got it. I replaced my Premier maple snare with it - wow - what a difference! I think I can get the Premier to sound better if I try and tune it like the Ludwig (and so maybe this was nothing more than a $190 snare tuning lesson, but perhaps not). Still, the Supraphonic sounds - and feels - really nice. It's got some pitting, but I didn't buy it for looks.
 
My '64 Supra was in such bad shape - all the chrome fell off in sheets. It ended up with barely any chrome so I sanded it and painted it - sue me!

I paid $60 for it 30 years ago and it's what I mainly use.

The Premier has got to be capable of sounding great too - they didn't make any drums that weren't great that I know of. But the Ludwig has a certain sound/feel you can't get any other way. Plus I like the P85 and P83 strainers.
 
antichef said:
Just got a late 1970s Ludwig Supraphonic - 5" x 14" - it was pretty well tuned when I got it. I replaced my Premier maple snare with it - wow - what a difference! I think I can get the Premier to sound better if I try and tune it like the Ludwig (and so maybe this was nothing more than a $190 snare tuning lesson, but perhaps not). Still, the Supraphonic sounds - and feels - really nice. It's got some pitting, but I didn't buy it for looks.
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Late 70's. Is it a chrome-over-brass shell, or is it the "Ludalloy"?

Either way, you can't really go wrong. Congrats. :)
 
Thanks! It's Ludalloy. Diggin' it more and more every time I sit down to play, which is frequently.

I used it as a tuning guide for the Premier snare, which is also 14" x 5" - when I got the two heads to be as close as I could to each other on the two drums, the Premier indeed sounded a lot better than it did before. The sound and feel is different on the Premier, so it'll be good to have both.

I've been trying to ID the Premier set, and the best I've come up with is "XPK" - which is apparently a mix of birch and eucalyptus (not maple, as I had thought) - makes sense, because the plies of wood on my drums have a zebra appearance - light/dark/light/dark.

Anyway - tuning is king! I'm looking forward to trying out different heads and tunings on the Supraphonic, but I'm going wait until I get more confidence as a tuner - I don't want to screw it up.
 
antichef said:
Anyway - tuning is king! I'm looking forward to trying out different heads and tunings on the Supraphonic, but I'm going wait until I get more confidence as a tuner - I don't want to screw it up.
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Record each head so you will have a tuning reference later.
 
I don't know if everybody knows this, but you can tune drums much in the same way that guitarists use the 12th fret harmonic.

Turn off the muffler if you have one. Put one finger in the center of the drumhead lightly, and with a stick in the other hand, tap lightly on the head about 1/2" in front of each tuning key. That isolates the vibration and you should be able to tap around the drum and hear which ones are flat or sharp and you can use your key to even them out.

There's a funny thing that happens. You'll be going along working on a drum, and then at one point the drum will resonate as one thing instead of separate parts. At that point the volume of the drum will jump out at you as way louder and fuller than it was just a moment before.
 
dintymoore said:
Put one finger in the center of the drumhead lightly, and with a stick in the other hand, tap lightly on the head about 1/2" in front of each tuning key.
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I never understood the finger in the center way. Even a slight unconscious change in how hard you're pressing will change how each lug sounds.
 
I've tried pushing down in the center with some force, and I'm sure that I'm not able to keep it constant enough to be helpful (and I've been playing guitar for 25+ years, and have a very deliberate vibrato on a fretboard) - but it sounds like we're talking about the slight touch of an induced harmonic? You could even release the finger without changing the pitch of the ringing sound? I'll have to try it.
 
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