Snare Tuning for Old Fashioned RnB

C

cangaroo

Junior Member
Hi all there.

Last night i had a gig with my band, some musician in the audience criticized my snare sound (i own a early 70s Ludwig Supra, 14x5). It's some time that i'm struggling on how to achieve a good snare sound but it seem like i have to work on it some more.

How can i achieve a snare tone similar on the one on this song (which is the typical tone i'm looking for - and i'm not able to reach) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc7LGiCd_-I

you can hear clearly the drum tone on the fills on the breaks of the song

Any suggestion (for example, head type, batter and reso tension, wire tension etc) is very appreciated.

Thank you
 
Here's what I would try. First get a predampened head. I like to use a Evans EC reverse dot head. I would put it on med tight. Now tighten the reso just past med tight. Now loosen the snares until you get a nice fat sound. This I think will get you in the ball park of what you are looking for. John
 
Thank you John. I'll try your suggestions.

I'm curious on why you suggest a pre-dampened head, cause i guess that at the time of the recording i linked, there were only the classic coated heads. So i (maybe wrongly) assumed the natural choice for the heads were the classic coated (ambassadors etc) ...
 
I suggested that head because I've tried it before and used it when I wanted a nice big fat back beat. You are right about the recording was probably done with just regular coated heads but back then the drummer usually put his wallet on his snare or tape to dampen it. There are many good heads out there but this one just seemed to deliver the sound that I wanted for that bluesy backbeat. Sometimes it takes experimenting with different heads to come up with what you want, esp if you are looking for something a little bit different. Hope this helped you. John
 
Last edited:
You're right about the wallet thing, John.

In a popular video on YT, even John Densmore (the Doors) talks about how in studio session he dampened the snare with such a method.
 
Probably use a normal reso head, 300mil and tune it around F or G. Use a muffled batter head tuned roughly the same, and set the snare wires pretty loose, and play the drum dead center. Should be close enough :)
 
I think John's suggestion is a good start.

Something to also keep in mind though is..

.. that classic R&B snare sound was not necessarily a product of a lot of deliberateness.

At first I thought it was Mick Fleetwood on drums but I think it was either Hughie Flint or Keef Hartley. Back then many drummers didn't get so caught up in all the minutiae that we do today. That boxy sound came from probably a 5 inch deep wood snare with an old well worn head on it with the snare wires sort of loose and tape or a wallet on the head.

R&B studio drumming legend for Stax Records, Al Jackson, Jr. hardly ever fiddled with tuning and head changes. He'd just plop a wallet down and go for it.

Have you ever played a matching snare from a modern shell pack kit and thought it was the worst sounding of all the drums. That's the snare sound I hear on that Mayall recording.

The musician at your gig that commented on your snare sound was probably picking up on the better clarity, tone, cut, etc.. of your metal snare with modern heads more than anything else.

Try a worn out head with a mushier feel, medium to low tuning and rattly snare wire tension.

Hope this helps.
 
Sjogras, what you mean with 300mil ? Maybe it's the weight (mil stands for milligrams).

In this page

http://www.remo.com/portal/products/6/49/151/cl_ambassador.html

they talk about 3mil ...

were you talking about the hazy reso or the clear one reso ?

TTNW, the drummer should be Hughie or Keef.

As for now, the head i've mounted on my snare are : batter coated emperor (now very worned to the point that the coating at the center is no more), reso i guess it's an ambassador clear, i don't know if it's the hazy model or the normal clear one.

As for the wires, i've read somewhere (maybe in this forum, i can't remember) that the 5" deep supra it's better with fewer wires than other snares, something like 10 wires should be the ideal number. Currently i'm using 20 wires.

I'll try playing with lower tensioning, maybe it's the key to the sound i'm looking for.
 
Out of interest, what did this musician in the audience say? Was it flat out criticism of your sound, constructive criticism of your sound, with suggestions, or some Monday morning quarterback with too much "brave juice" inside them?

There have been a number of great tuning suggestions here, but there could be a number of variables that resulted in the sound the musician hearing, being very different to what you heard on stage.

Long story short, if you are happy with your snare sound, carry on as before, but if you do wish to change it, or experiment, go for it.
 
Usually for the lower sound, I'll tune the drum way down on the resonant side, then back up...repeating that for the top. Obviously muffle the side I am not tuning. I think if you start from a pitch well below what you would consider low and go up from there, it makes for the best results. At least I found it very very hard to tweak downwards and get a great sound from what is a higher tuning, or cranked head.
 
HMNY said:
or some Monday morning quarterback with too much "brave juice" inside them?
Click to expand...

haha i never heard the saying "monday morning quarterback" ! i guess his critique was due to the fact that the snare sound he was hearing was not the "complete" sound of the snare. not sure but i think that there was not mic on the snare side, so maybe the sound outside wasn't that good.

HMNY said:
Long story short, if you are happy with your snare sound, carry on as before, but if you do wish to change it, or experiment, go for it.
Click to expand...

I'll keep this in mind. Anyway listening to more JM tracks i spotted one with a snare sound more similar to mine, maybe i'm not that distant from the solution.

Brian, so basically your suggestion is always to tune up, not tuning down (something like tuning a stringed instrument - i also play bass - first detune the string and from that point tighten the key to reach the desired note).
 
cangaroo said:
Brian, so basically your suggestion is always to tune up, not tuning down (something like tuning a stringed instrument - i also play bass - first detune the string and from that point tighten the key to reach the desired note).
Click to expand...
Yeah, exactly. Not sure if it's the best way, but it helped me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top