buying a good snare

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_brian_

_brian_

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I've just started playing the drums seriousley for recording purposes. My first kit is a mapex vx voyager & I'm the first to admit they're not great drums. But I wanted to start playing!! I also was of the opinion that if I bought a descent drum kit It may stunt my want to try different tunings & setups etc (because I would have been more cautious in case I did something wrong and ruined something). So I'm wanting to start upgrading, and I thought the best place to start would be a snare as the Mapex one is dreadful!! I am looking for a very versatile drum that can especially be tuned really low as well as sounding ok tuned high. By the way I have no way of trying before buying so please don't suggest this as I would have already bought a snare if this was possible. There are no drum shops around, and the general music shops have shocking drum stocks. The most amount of cymbals I've ever looked upon in a shop would be around th 15 mark :eek: . It's pretty pathetic around here & I can't afford to just jump on the train to London. I was looking to spend around £150, is that a rediculous budget or do you think it's possible to get something in this price range? Please leave make & model ideas .I'm not too sure about the *size* of the snare either so any info on that waould also help. Some snare samples would be really excellent!!

Cheers
 
Here's what I really like....

Your style of playing may demand something different. I have a whole bunch of snares that I use for different types of music and applications. Other than my very first "good" snare which I still use and it's comfortable (Slingerland 14"), my very favorite snare for all sorts of applications is my Yamaha Custom Studio Birch with the wooden hoops, 14".
It has great sound and response. It's very similar to the Anton Figg model, but I like mine even better.
 
sadly i can't afford a snare for every conceivable style of music, mabye some day :cool: That's why I really am after a versatile drum. The music that I write I think would suit a lower tuned snare (I like a more mid range thud than a chirping bright sound) - i mean even the mapex snare i've got sounds ok if i tune it high enough!!
 
I would recommend a 14" wood snare, as deep as you can find (Pearl World series are great.)

This way, you'll get a warmer sound which is a bit more resonant and will hold up well at a lower skin tension, but a decent 'crack' when you tune up.
 
well on the cheap side i have heard good things about the pacific snare with wood hoops(5.5"x14") and the Pork Pie Little Squealer Snare Drum(7" x 13"). Also the tama artwood is also supposed to be good
 
Stick to a 14" snare. And something between 5-6-5" inches deep. In other words stick to a standard size.

I second the Tama artwood suggestion for your price range.

If you can wait a while, and save up another £100 or so, I'd recommend grabbing a Pearl Free Floating Maple snare. I don't think this is the best snare by any means, but I think it's a great standard with many many uses that you're likely to keep for a long time.
 
Used (60´s or early 70´s) Ludwig Acrolite.

Best option, IMHO.

:)
 
i recently tracked drums on an album, i took my ludwig supraphonic snare and a couple of others along to the studio, but when i got there they had a Pearl Steve Ferrone snare sitting in a corner, so i figured i'd try it out, and from the first hit i knew i wanted to track using that snare... here in the US they go for around $250... not sure how much one would be in the UK... things are always a bit cheaper out here...
 
The Steve Ferrone snare is £293 (rrp £408) so the sale price is around $577 :eek: outwith my budget!! By the way I haven't ruled out ebay!!
 
mapex black panther snares are definatly an option, should i not be worried about inland revinue & customs for importing this kind of thing though?
 
_brian_ said:
what am I to expect from an aluminium drum? I've never heard much about them.
Click to expand...

There was this band, called Led Zeppelin...

I keed. Aluminum is brighter than most wood, with a ping to it, IMO. The 5x14 Supraphonic (the Acrolite's big brother) is the most widely recorded snare ever, so these drums are pretty much what you think of when you recall a recorded snare sound.

I'd second the Acro/Supra option, used. I got my mid-seventies Supra for like $150 at a Guitar Center.
 
i've checked out pretty much all the snares that were mentioned and they look to be readily available on ebay - which is a bonus. But I still don't have any idea as to how they sound, perhaps this was my fault not giving you all enough info!! I checked a few youtube videos but most of these guys imo have their heads too tight! I'm not really looking for a lot of ring, its for recording purposes so would prefer if it was relatively quiet. And the sound I'm looking for would have to be described as being thick, fat and dark :eek: - and no that doesn't describe my preference in girls:D
 
all those ill drummers on mtv use lots of vents and moongels!
get a drum like that :rolleyes:


but seriously most drums above entry level will work fine for what you want with the right head and tuning
 
gdavi1 said:
all those ill drummers on mtv use lots of vents and moongels!
get a drum like that :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Sorry way over my head, don't watch mtv, don't know anything about vents or moon gels. i guess what i'm trying to say is that most snares - even my crappy mapex snare can give the snappy high pitched ringy sound if tuned high enough. i've got that sound - i want to ensure i can get a dark, low, dead sound now - because that's something my snare can't do, i can deaden it but it just can't sound good tuned low, it's flabby and has no characture.
 
Where in the UK do you live mate? There are a lot of good drum stores across the country, and it would be really good to check one out.
 
twsknight said:
Where in the UK do you live mate? There are a lot of good drum stores across the country, and it would be really good to check one out.
Click to expand...

Scotland - North Ayrshire, you'd think Glasgow would have at least one good drum shop but I spent a whole day wandering about these so called music shops and couldn't find one stocked with a descent amount of cymbals (i wasn't looking for a snare at the time). The only shop I found was McCormacks and they only had a few hats, beaten up cymbals & 3 dusty drum kits stuffed away in what looked like a storage room. I eventually had to go to Kilmarnock (RGM), again they didn't have a lot of stuff but they had what I was looking for, I had to argue with the stupid woman that owned the shop before I made progress though - wait till you hear this!! She told me that I could not hit the cymbals or even tap them with my finger to see how they sounded. all because she didn't want any marks on them :eek:, have you ever heard anything so stupid in all your life before? After arguing with her she eventually let me play them & I reluctantly bought some. She also told me that ALL of the cymbals on internet websites are in some way flawed be it cracks or whatever. She said that they amount to being reject stock from shops like hers that have not accepted them due to them not meeting a certain standard. She said THAT'S why internet prices are so low and music shops can't compete. Now I really wanted to kick the Sh*t out of her for thinking that I'd be so stupid to take all of this crap in. The only reason I wouldn't buy a cymbal off of the internet is that even the same models can sound very different. Never going back there again, what a sh*t hole. I can't travel much farther I'm afraid :mad:
 
damn, you hit me with a curve ball there. I was going to say that Manchester and London have a couple of shops that are awesome. Birminghams got one that's meant to be good and there are a couple of others around too, but I got no clue about Scotland.

Sorry I can't be more help.
 
Thanks again lads to everyone who posted. Everyone who contributed helped me in some way. :D I'm going to go for a Supraphonic and in failing finding one in my price range a wood Black Panther. It'll take away some of the frustration in tuning the stock Mapex snare I recieved with my kit. I've just had no luck with it whatsoever. It's a 12" snare with 6 lugs. One of the big problems I have is that the 4 lugs that are closest to the snares (marked X)

ppppppO

XpppppppppppX
============
============
XpppppppppppX

ppppppO

are always lower in tuning than the remaining two (marked O). Even when the remaining two lugs are almost completely loosened almost completely they are still higher in pitch!! I moved the hoop round to see if that would make a difference - nope, still the same problem at the same lugs running parallel to the snares, I did the same thing with the head with no change. I guess the hoop has been badly manufactured? Is this quite a common problem with low-end snares?
 
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