Hey drummers

I might be a heretic in that I prefer an uncut reso head with a felt strip for dampening. Sometimes I use as little muffling on the batter side as possible. I like hearing a bit of a note from the bass drum rather than just a thud. For the toms I try to tune them to 4ths with the reso side tuned just slightly higher than the batter side. Basic stuff, I guess (I'm a crappy drummer).
 
Well I put the new bottom head and snare wires on my snare and it turns out tuning is not as easy as the YouTube videos make it look
 
You may be able to bend it back in to round with a clamp or two. I think I've seen a YouTube video about it at one point, either that or bending hoops back into round.
 
Snare tuning is the hardest one. Quick bit of advice is crank the snare side head really tight, like super tight, then tune the batter head to pitch. If you are hearing any resonance from the drum, the snare side head is too loose. Then tighten the wires so they are tight, but don't choke the head out. It's a careful balance and you have to spend some time with it
 
falco_femoralis said:
Snare tuning is the hardest one. Quick bit of advice is crank the snare side head really tight, like super tight, then tune the batter head to pitch. If you are hearing any resonance from the drum, the snare side head is too loose. Then tighten the wires so they are tight, but don't choke the head out. It's a careful balance and you have to spend some time with it
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This is how I blew the snare side head. Granted it was very old but I'm afraid of doing the same thing again to the new head
 
Harry Klippton said:
This is how I blew the snare side head. Granted it was very old but I'm afraid of doing the same thing again to the new head
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That's understandable. Find the vid on youtube where John Good from DW tunes a snare drum. Watch how he turns the drum key 5 times on each lug on the bottom head of the snare. That's a good starting point.
 
I'm using a bar clamp to try to make sure the hoop is getting good contact with the rim on the head. I thought I had it tuned up pretty good but one lug had a huge wrinkle next to it where the hoop was too far out of round. I guess I'll just keep fucking with this til it sounds ok to me
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Harry Klippton said:
This is how I blew the snare side head. Granted it was very old but I'm afraid of doing the same thing again to the new head
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The "crank it" approach does get you a sound...but usually not the best one.

Tune the snare head a fifth above the batter head. This gives you a classic, open and responsive sound without ruining your brand new drumhead. If you want a pop instead of a crack, tune the reso a major third above the batter. Start with the wires loose and tighten to taste. Tighter wires or more wires will dampen the reso head and cut overtones. If you can't get a snappy response, try tightening all the reso side lugs except for the four adjacent to the wires. For a looser response, do the opposite.

Drum tuning is a bit of a dark art, but, if you work systematically through the variables, you can find what works for you and your drums.
 
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vigilante398 said:
What's your budget? My personal favorite snare drum ever runs $479 new, but I have some favorites in just about any price range lol
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$479 is a lot more than I'd like to spend. What is it though? my budget is probably more like $200 although a local friend mentioned he might have some hand me downs for me
 
Harry Klippton said:
$479 is a lot more than I'd like to spend. What is it though? my budget is probably more like $200 although a local friend mentioned he might have some hand me downs for me
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DW Design Series Acrylic 6"x14" has been my #1 for a while, to the point where I own two of them so I can keep one at home and one at my band's practice space. They can be had used for less, but as I mentioned used snares can be hit or miss as leaving the snares on long term can eat into the shell causing the snare side head not to seat properly. I had that with my second one and had to shave it down to level again. Not the end of the world, but it's work.

If I was given a budget of $200 and told to get the best snare I can new, I would probably look for something like a Yamaha Stage Custom or a Mapex MPX. If I were to broaden my search to include used, I would try to get lucky for a Pearl Modern Utility Maple, but I would want to see it in person to make sure the snares haven't worn into the shell as mentioned above.

I'm not a huge Pearl fan as they have that Boss pedal vibe in the drum world, but every solid maple drum I've tried from them has been killer. When I was in a pop-punk band I used a Pearl maple 13"x3" piccolo as my main snare and it was perfect. They've gotten super expensive now, but the Pearl Free Floater maple snare has always been one of my favorite designs as well, if I were a serious studio drummer I would have one of those on hand for certain sounds.
 
CheapSuitG said:
No idea if this is good but.......

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That seems like it could be cool to put together, 8-ply maple (assuming it's well-made) is good for $300. If you had a little extra to throw in for die-cast hoops (I don't like flanged hoops on my snares) it would make it a killer drum.

Forgot to mention that, I swapped the hoops on my DW acrylic that I keep at home for die-cast. DW flanged hoops are solid, but I like die-cast hoops and decided it would be worth the cash. Haven't done it for the practice space snare yet, but it's going to happen.
 
@vigilante398 @falco_femoralis I looked at the ludwig supralite and the mapex mpx. the Yamaha stage custom looks fine I guess too. I wouldn't know how to choose one over the other of those. I'm also gonna wait to see what my friend drags up I guess and ponder these choices in the meantime
 
falco_femoralis said:
The Ludwig Supralite is a good value. Outside of that I'd poke around on FB marketplace
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I have absolutely no real reason to dislike the Supralite, but I have an internal bias (I will again emphasize, for no actual reason) against steel snares. There are plenty of great steel snares out there, one of my friends uses the Chad Smith signature steel snare from Pearl and it sounds great, but my brain decided it won't do steel snares.
 
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