Snare Drums

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Bdrum

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I'm courious of the different snares that people like.
I prefer wood.
My friend is looking into the new Pearl 20 ply.....Now thats insane. :p
I've played on a copper freefloater and loved it. :cool:
 
I have a few snares, I'd have better ones but can't afford them. lol.

Pearl Elx (wood) 14x15.5 its a nice snare, can be tuned quite low for a big deep sound.

Premier 2002 (metal) reeeealy nice old school drum, i have it tuned high for an amazing crack!

Also a Mapex Black Panther (metal) which is my standerd snare which is suited for all styles, i really like it, soft enough for jazz but still got a nice solid sound.

The 20ply snare by pearl, thats the new referance snare right? It looked amazing, i haven't had a chance to try it out yet.
 
hm... I havent gotten the chance to play many snares, so I'm not too experienced. But I really like the Melody Master snare that Tama makes... I might not like Mike Portnoy, but his snare drum is really good. But the Sonor Vintage snare and the Paiste Spirit of 2002 snare both look really cool.
 
This may be a little off subject but, we've got a wooden KD snare and several different sized metal drums and...we also have a Premier HTS marching band snare. Lately I've been experimenting with mixing the lower pitched wooden snare with triggered samples of the marching snare....mix them together. Getting some killer "bark-n-thwack" sounds.
 
I have a Premier Heavy Rock Nine that is a 9 inch deep brass and maple shell snare. It is really cool. For a more pedestrian sound, I use my Pearl 8 inch deep maple free floater. I also have a chrome-o-wood Ludwig from the 70's that has a cool smack to it.
 
drummerdude666 said:
I have a few snares, I'd have better ones but can't afford them. lol.

Pearl Elx (wood) 14x15.5 its a nice snare, can be tuned quite low for a big deep sound.

Premier 2002 (metal) reeeealy nice old school drum, i have it tuned high for an amazing crack!

Also a Mapex Black Panther (metal) which is my standerd snare which is suited for all styles, i really like it, soft enough for jazz but still got a nice solid sound.

The 20ply snare by pearl, thats the new referance snare right? It looked amazing, i haven't had a chance to try it out yet.
Click to expand...



by Pearl Elx do you mean the snare that comes with the pearl export?
 
Yeh, but the export SELECT. lol. its no different to the export series but it has laqured shells rather than a wrap. It's a wierd snare, for people who can't tune it its not at all forgiving so you'll get a really nasty tone out of it, if you know what your doing you can get a nice deep tone. But it's always struck me as a silly thing to do - to supply a snare thats hard to tune with a budget kit.

Right now i'm borrowing a Ludwig Black Beauty from my drum teacher to record this song that needed that snare sound, and holy crap, it's so so so so so sodding nice. Makes you want to sell everything you own a buy a £1500 snare drum :eek:
 
Over the years, I've picked up quote a few snares. I'm kind of a freak about them. As far as cheap and versatile, the Chad Smith model gets a lot of nice sounds when tuned differently. I prefer brass, but those are a bit pricey. A nice, thin maple snare gets some nice, warm tones. Pearl's master snare is a good example.

A twenty ply snare is going to be good for one thing, snapping your head off. Ayotte makes up to a 50 ply I think, but I doubt they sell too many.
 
Right now the only snare I have worth mentioning, is a 14x6.5 Pearl Ultracast (3mm thick Aluminum shell). Oh man, what a great fucking snare, great range. I think I'm going to get a 20ply Masterworks 13x6.5 snare, and/or maybe a black beauty in the next few months. But right now I'm loving the Ultracast.
 
my favorite snare is my 1979 ludwig supraphonic. Nice vintage tone
 
Variety is the spice...

I've got several snares, mostly not that notable or "special", but it's nice to be able to have them setup and tuned differently for a change of pace or genre. That said, you can get a variety of sounds out of a good snare just based on tuning and heads, but I really like to find where a snare wants to be tuned and leave it there rather than trying to coerce it to sound like a different snare.

-Sonor Force Maple 14x5 in natural birseye - this is my baby, it's very versatile in tuning range, but I've got it high and tight with an evans coated inverted powerdot. I also put gibraltar cast hoops on it that create a much more solid rim shot and less ring than the stock power hoops, they stay in tune better, but are harder to get into tune initially. One of these sold on ebay for like $250 this year which is a steal. You can't touch a german made Sonor for anywhere near that.

Note- the Evens coated inverted power dot is one of the coolest heads I've ever played. It has a nice dry center, and you can still get a lot of articulation there, but the edges have a more coated embasador sound with more open ringiness. Plus since the dot is on the inside, it still works with brushes. This head is magical I'd highly recommend trying it out for most styles.

-Slingerland brass 14x7 (Tiawan)- this thing rang like a timbale from hell when I got it, but I immediately swapped out the rims for some cheap pacific Maple hoops that sound pretty good, and have held up surprizingly well. They really tightened up the sound, and I even kept the single ply head even though I'll probably go with something thicker when I replace it. This thing really speaks in live situations, and has a huge woody cross-stick. I often use a moon-gel or a 1/2 in rem-o on this snare to tame it down a little. I've taken this snare out to blues jams that get loud and always get good comments on it, plus it looks slick.

-Old-school Slingerland 14x5 steel - this is my Rock snare, I keep it tuned low, and usually only use it for that rock gated BAP sound which is where it seems to like to be tuned- kinda floppy and loose.

-Gresch 12x4 popcorn- this is generally my left side snare and it's got a mount for my hihat stand. It's tuned high and ringy, but I also sometimes drop a 2 inch rem-O type ring on it and it makes a nice mellow "marching" kind of sound. It was cheap, and I think it's some kind of a maple mohoghany sandwitch, but it sounds a lot better than most of the taiwan wooden snares I've ever heard. It could be a main snare for funk.

Rupps drums had a sonor snare on ebay for a while that is like 64 plys or something rediculous like that. I went down and played it and it cracked like a Desert Eagle 10 millimeter. Kind of a one trick pony, but it will cut through a loud band.
 
i want a deeper sound but still have some crack


as close to chris laytons sound (SRV drummer)
 
Export

drummerdude666 said:
Yeh, but the export SELECT. lol. its no different to the export series but it has laqured shells rather than a wrap. It's a wierd snare, for people who can't tune it its not at all forgiving so you'll get a really nasty tone out of it, if you know what your doing you can get a nice deep tone. But it's always struck me as a silly thing to do - to supply a snare thats hard to tune with a budget kit.

Right now i'm borrowing a Ludwig Black Beauty from my drum teacher to record this song that needed that snare sound, and holy crap, it's so so so so so sodding nice. Makes you want to sell everything you own a buy a £1500 snare drum :eek:
Click to expand...

I bought a export snare and was suprised with the quality for a cheap snare.
I'm keen on marching snares as far as sound goes.I love a crisp sound with
an ear cracking rim shot. If I could put a marching snare on my kit I would, but it wouldn't sound right. :D
 
Bdrum said:
I bought a export snare and was suprised with the quality for a cheap snare.
I'm keen on marching snares as far as sound goes.I love a crisp sound with
an ear cracking rim shot. If I could put a marching snare on my kit I would, but it wouldn't sound right. :D
Click to expand...

I wouldn't go that far either...but I've had some interesting results mixing the snappy crack into my mixes behind conventional kit snares.
 
So True

Yes, with the mix ...but I guess you have to hear it live first. :p
 
I just don't like piccolo snares. Dunno.


It's nice to have at least a couple of choices.
 
I have 10 different snare drums. Each one I use for different recording.
 
Brad_C said:
I have 10 different snare drums. Each one I use for different recording.
Click to expand...

which one gives you the deepest sound


which one would you use to recreate the Chris Layton (SRV drummer) sound
 
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