muffler question? I guess

Lee-Cox

Member
Hello all, I recently received a supralite snare as a gift and I have enjoyed it alot. Not as much as my birch snare but I'm diggin it. This is my first metal snare of any kind. But as I look at the earlier metal snares I see tunable mufflers installed. What did these really do for them? I ask this because I have a muffler here and it really doesn't look hard to install. I'm confident it my skills to drill a hole. And was curious if this would help the snare as maybe it did for the older ones? I'm just not sure on what there purpose was? Is it for the ringing? Because this snare certainly does that. Thanks for your help. Lee
 
Given the amount of external muffling options these days (including the sheer amount of pre-dampened heads), they pretty much became redundant. Hence why you seldom see them added to to shells anymore.

I have one on my '65 Supra and all it's ever done is rattle around, make noise and annoy me. It certainly doesn't stay in place when engaged and the drum is being struck.

You can experiment with installing it if you wish, but personally I wouldn't bother. There's just too many better options available.
 
Yeah, I have an Acrolite and a 400 Supra and removed the mufflers. On these and previously owned older snares. It's personal preference, but I wouldn't bother installing one either, unless you're really hell-bent on customizing it.
 
I have removed some of the internal mufflers from my vintage drums because they rattle, etc. I left the knobs installed as dummies to preserve the original look. On some of my vintage drums I have tightened the rivets that hold the felt by hitting them with a hammer and a punch so that they don't rattle.

I wouldn't install an internal muffler in a drum that never had one. As has been stated, there are many better ways to muffle a drum.
 
Get some gel or a richie ring for the ringing if you want to control it. Forget the internal mufflers. One of those things that's best left in the dustbin of drum history.
 
Not all of the old or new mufflers rattle. I like them because it is easy to change the drum sound without having to remove jell or rings. I also think they had a greater impact on the skin heads then the mylar heads.
 
I have a Legacy snare drum which I ordered with all vintage specs, so I got an internal muffler installed just to complete the retro vibe. It works fine and I don't regret getting it. It doesn't loosen off or rattle. It muffles the head nicely when engaged, about the same as a piece of moon gel, although I usually don't use it at all.
 
My two favorite snare drums are Rogers, 5 inch and 6.5 inch Rogers chrome over brass Dynasonic. Both of these drums have mechanical mufflers, and both I am using Mylar heads. I can switch between brushes, snare off and any combination I want. When I shut off the snare and loosen the muffler they have a classic sound for the brushes. These drums have a versatile configuration that the newer drums do not have. I have a muffler that I have not installed, due to lazyness, on my Gretsch snare. This should give me a better overall control over the snare.
 
I prefer using mufflers over any other kind of dampening such as moongel or o-rings. My premier 2000 and John Grey Autocrat both have dampeners and I find that they come in really handy, especially in small or square venues when i need to control ringyness. For my other snares i bought a remo active snare gate (an external muffler) for use. Id never drill a snare for one, as you can buy ones that just clip on the rims of snares.
 
The main problem with the rings, moon gel, or clip-ons, is that once you remove said muffling systems, where do you put them so you can get to them fast enough to put them back on?
 
Internal mufflers damp from the bottom, really interfering with a normal head response. The worst way to muffle from an acoustic standpoint IMO. Mufflers of any kind, even the tiniest little bit of muffling... kill the drum from less than 10 feet away. Annoying overtones can be tuned out, and they should be, not muffled out. Just my opinion.

The overtones are what make the tone of the drum, but first the drum has to be tightened past a critical point to where the shell can contribute, assuming a great tuning, with no muffling, that's the best a drum can get. Anything beyond that detracts frequencies, even thicker single ply, 2 ply and coated heads.

So yea, internal mufflers, the beta max of drum inventions. Easy to hate.

Soapbox stepped down from.
 
I recently bought an internal muffler and installed in my fairly new Supra 402.
I practiced drilling holes on a thin piece of plywood first, and mounted the muffler on that to check heights and positions. It was nerve wracking drilling into my drum - I put a cross of paper tape across first and drilled with a small bit, then a larger one.

Anyway, it works. I'm glad I did it, because the felt disc barely touching the head dampens just enough, and I can easily change the sound for different sets or even inbetween songs if I need to.

I wrapped a rubber band around the internal screw 'cylinder' so it never rattles or goes loose, but still adjusts easily.
 
It's a lot easier to drill a hole than it is to fill it and make it look good.

I've never used one, but like the others have said, there are soooo many other options out there for muffling. Try some stuff you have lying around the house first before letting the drum shell and drill bit touch each other.
 
I tried an external felt muffler (Pearl circular felt) for a year or two and liked the sound. Quite different to moongels or rings. The felt shortens the decay of the drum, while the others seem to lower the pitch. But the external muffler wouldn't fit in the case, and I kept misplacing it. It also looked 'tacked on'. So I got the internal muffler and fitted it.

This morning I played snare drum with a string quartet and two classical singers at a funeral in a large church, all acoustic, no mics. The internal felt dampener was perfect for the 'Bolero' style piece where I had to play very soft and staccato behind the singers. (Not a typical gig for me but hey, $100 for one song!)

As for trying to fill the holes in the drum in the future - its a Ludwig metal drum with a Ludwig internal muffler. It matches and it can stay in there forever. If I don't want any muffling, I just back off the screw, which is how I play most of the time. No need to ever fill in the holes as far as I can tell.
 
here is one vote for internal mufflers. Never had one rattle or anything. it is often disengaged but when drumming in small rooms help take the edge off
 
Here's another vote for internal mufflers.

They're usually designed so they can be bent for adjustment and to keep them from rattling.

I find them convenient to just turn the screw a little or a lot.
 
I used to micro-muffle with my old Gretsch floor tom. I'd adjust it to where it was nearly touching the head. When struck the felt would catch the descent of the head and cut off the too-long sustain. Moongels cant do that.
 
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