Snare advice

[thereformant]

I just broke the head on the snare that came with my 7 year old £200 kit. Now the dilemma I have is whether it's worth reskinning the snare, or bearing in mind that is sounds like arse anyway looking at a cheap replacement.

So my question is what kind of price point does a decent entry level snare come in at? I'm fine with going second hand (so if you have something cheap feel free to offer).

[thebeagle]

For anything rock-oriented, I'd be hard-pressed to recommend any other snare than a Mapex Black Panther; you'd score one secondhand for lnot much more than a ton on evilBay with a bit of patience, and I've been blown away by every single varient on it I've heard.

Beyond that (and on the cheaper side, as I've never been able to justify dropping Black Panther money on a snare), the ones I've had which I've particularly liked have mostly been Premier (an APK, an XPK and the Artist Birch I've currently got), as well as a 12" Pearl Firecracker (often billed as a 'side snare' but I was using it as my main and it sounded awesome). Be talking around the fifty quid mark secondhand for those, which is about as low as I think you can go without buying...not crap, exactly, but something you could definitely do better than.

Oh, and don't do cheap ddrum particularly, the one I had literally fell to bits.

[Jazzy_Jefferson]

I just broke the head on the snare that came with my 7 year old £200 kit. Now the dilemma I have is whether it's worth reskinning the snare, or bearing in mind that is sounds like arse anyway looking at a cheap replacement.

So my question is what kind of price point does a decent entry level snare come in at? I'm fine with going second hand (so if you have something cheap feel free to offer).

BEFORE you rush out and spend your hard earned....

Heads are the MOST important thing. You can make a shit drum sound good with the right heads and tuning.

A great drum will sound shit if you cannot tune it, or it has old/rubbish heads.

SO, the question is, what sound are you wanting to acheive? And what snare do you currently have? Size and material?

cheers

[Jazzy_Jefferson]

Oh, and there's a farkin lovely Ludwig Black Magic Snare for sale in the classifieds I am sure we could work out a deal for you

[thereformant]

The black magic is a little beyond my price range sadly. The snare I have is an unbranded 14 x 5 1/2 which I think is steel (silver metal anyway could be aluminium i suppose). I bought a kit like this about 7 years ago which it came with:

http://www.northerndrumcentre.com/dr...kit-p1418.html

I've replaced the cymbals with hand me downs from drummers in previous bands and Im just wondering if dropping 15-30 on heads might be a bit of a waste if i can pick something worthwhile up for not too much more if you know what I mean.

Soundwise Im not looking for anything too specific, just a workhorse rock sound really.

[Jazzy_Jefferson]

The black magic is a little beyond my price range sadly. The snare I have is an unbranded 14 x 5 1/2 which I think is steel (silver metal anyway could be aluminium i suppose). I bought a kit like this about 7 years ago which it came with:

http://www.northerndrumcentre.com/dr...kit-p1418.html

I've replaced the cymbals with hand me downs from drummers in previous bands and Im just wondering if dropping 15-30 on heads might be a bit of a waste if i can pick something worthwhile up for not too much more if you know what I mean.

Soundwise Im not looking for anything too specific, just a workhorse rock sound really.

Cool man, i know the sort of snare you mean.

To be honest, heads, and snare wires (replace these as well) can work wonders if you get the right ones.

For example, If you get a batter head that is aimed at being very dry (eg Evans HD super dry) it will hopefully get rid of some of the nasty ringy boingy noise often associated with such drums. And give you much more punchy sound. Perfect for rock etc.

For the resonant, the usual ambassador hazy or equivalent.

snare wires - This will again work wonders, I didn't believe it until i tried it. It will increase sensitivity and give a much better snap. There are loads to choose from, Puresound are the best manufacture. I use their cheaper "Blaster" snare wires.

Now, if you try that, tune it all up, it potentially will work a treat. I don't think buying, say a 50-80 quid metal shelled snare drum will offer you much of an improvement. But if you can find a nice wood shell....well that's a different matter. 100 quid birch snare

Dont forget, evem if you get a 2nd hand snare drum, its very likely you will need to replace the heads and snare wires anyway.

EDIT - This looks nice, my favourite size - 76 quid 13x6 Maple Snare

[thereformant]

ok youve convinced me, i'll have a bash at giving the existing drum an overhaul, I assume your recommending replacing both heads and the snares at once?

Oh and this may be a retarded question but gak dont list resonant side heads separately under snare heads, I see the hazy's you mentioned though, how do i tell which are aimed at batter side and which at resonant side?

[thebeagle]

ok youve convinced me, i'll have a bash at giving the existing drum an overhaul, I assume your recommending replacing both heads and the snares at once?

Oh and this may be a retarded question but gak dont list resonant side heads separately under snare heads, I see the hazy's you mentioned though, how do i tell which are aimed at batter side and which at resonant side?

You can pretty much use any head you like on the snare side (EDIT: many will sound like crap though!), but the ones 'designed' for the job are the thinnest single-plies; Evans and Remo I think both do 'Hazy' ones of some description. For the batter I'm currently using Evans Edge Control which I like a lot.

Personally I'd certainly replace both heads at once (and, as Jazzy says, spend as long as it takes tuning them, that's really the key to a good snare sound - might be worth researching the effect of tuning them at different intervals as well if you can tune by ear, again makes a big difference); by all means replace the snare as well, but if it's on a budget I'd leave that initially; you might be very surprised just by the difference new heads'll make.

[Jazzy_Jefferson]

ok youve convinced me, i'll have a bash at giving the existing drum an overhaul, I assume your recommending replacing both heads and the snares at once?

Oh and this may be a retarded question but gak dont list resonant side heads separately under snare heads, I see the hazy's you mentioned though, how do i tell which are aimed at batter side and which at resonant side?

Fingers crossed it works out

up to you mate, its worthwhile doing the lot at once as then you don't need to worry about it for a while. I suppose its like car tyres, no point replacing 1 if all 4 are worn out...

Basically, anything hazy, or words to that effect are resonant, you need a very thin drum head on the resonant side (that applies to snares of course, you can use pretty much anything you want on toms) The drum heads manafacture websites should tell you what's what. Remo, Evans, Aquarian are the main 3.

Typically speaking, you would have (on toms as well) a double ply batter head, and a single ply resonant side. Of course you can do as you wish, but for an all round good set up, that's a good suggestion.

If it were me, I would use Remo Ambassador hazy for the reso. side. Puresound Blaster Snare wires, 14'' 20 strand (fairly standard) and a Remo Emporer-X batter. I would also recommend the Evans genera HD dry for the batter side, however, I am yet to test it fully so can't give it full backing just yet.

[Jazzy_Jefferson]

spend as long as it takes tuning them, that's really the key to a good snare sound - might be worth researching the effect of tuning them at different intervals as well if you can tune by ear, again makes a big difference

Tis a good point. Tuning is vital, gotta have even tension Got a drum dial? Great bit of kit...