Secondary Snare

zephead19

Senior Member
Hello everybody this is my first thread. I am fairly new to drumming as i am 13 and have been playing since i was ten. This may seem like a dumb question but, I have been doing a lot of drumming research lately and have frequently come across the idea of a secondary snare. I was wondering what the purpose of this snare was and why you would purchase one?
All help on this will be greatly appreciated
Thanks!

James
 
Like all of the other drums, it just provides a different sound. Your main snare may be deep and wet sounding and your secondary may be shallow and tight and crisp, like a piccolo snare etc.
 
Like all of the other drums, it just provides a different sound. Your main snare may be deep and wet sounding and your secondary may be shallow and tight and crisp, like a piccolo snare etc.

ditto to posting above. Something extra to hit.
 
Thanks for the advice! Any recommendations for a good secondary that is fairly inexpensive (200-300 dollars)

I just bought a Pearl Firecracker for like 100ish if I remember correctly. Whatever the price is on Musician's Friend. I also got a Pearl Piccolo relatively cheap as well. I've played on both before and they are definitely worth the money.
 
I really like my Tama Mike Portnoy 5x12 steel snare for my secondary. I sometimes put it above my high toms.

There's a huge tonal difference between any of my 14's and that drum. Plus with the dual setting strainer, you can change between three different snare sounds very quickly. You get tighter, looser and off (which makes it into a cool timbale-like drum since I crank the heads pretty tight).
 
Like all of the other drums, it just provides a different sound. Your main snare may be deep and wet sounding and your secondary may be shallow and tight and crisp, like a piccolo snare etc.

My reasons exactly.

I have a beast of a Free Floating brass 14x6.5 main snare and a Pearl Piccolo 13x3 Maple. 2 contrasting sounds that work well for different songs/parts of songs.
 
These guys all nailed it. I have a cheap little PDP piccolo that I crank down real tight. I use it during breakdowns/intros that typically have a 'drum machine' feel to them. I would guess that they are more useful in these situations. I highly doubt many people use them through an entire song. In a live setting, I do not mic the side snare, which gives it more of a far away, distant sound which breaks it up a bit. The overheads or other mics just pick it up enough to add a real nice effect.
 
I don't know if it's what brotherbaker is talking about but you can get a pdp 10"x6" 805 snare pretty cheap (about £100). I think it's a fairly decent cheap side snare that quite a few people have, it's the one I want for my first side snare anyway :)
 
I just bought a Pearl Firecracker for like 100ish if I remember correctly. Whatever the price is on Musician's Friend. I also got a Pearl Piccolo relatively cheap as well. I've played on both before and they are definitely worth the money.

I have a Pearl firecracker (wood) as well. Money well spent.
 
I posted this elsewhere today but it fits here as an example of three different sounds, so the auxiliary will give you two with your main snare.
 

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