Hollywood Jim
Platinum Member
Last night at my jam night a drummer brought in a really nice expensive snare drum. It was a 1960’s Slingerland chrome on brass 14” X 6.5” snare drum. A beautiful drum. All of the drummers were drooling over it. Me too. The guy said he would sell it for $600. I would love to have it.
So he gets up to play my drum set and he sets up the Slingerland snare. This guy is a pretty good hard rock drummer. The band was playing some pretty loud rock and pop music. His snare sounded good, nice deep tone, nice crack. After the first song the snare wires came loose because the snare strings broke. So he had to put my backup snare back on the stand. (I don’t let the jam drummers play on my vintage Ludwig snare) My backup snare is a Horner student snare I brought for $50.
Well, I have to tell you that my $50 Horner snare drum sounded almost exactly like the $600 Slingerland snare. This drummer is a hard hitter.
The reason I am posting this is to make this point; sometimes we stress over how this or that drum will sound when we play on it. We really should be more concerned with our technique and how we play the drums. It is that same old thing we have heard many times. How a great drummer can make a pile of crap drum set sound good.
And I think when we play the drums at loud volumes it covers up the variations in tones and sounds of the drums. For instance on jam night I have a $10 Sabian B8 crash cymbal that I set up. I let the jam drummers beat it to death. At loud volumes I think it sounds OK from where the audience sits. But when played softly, to me it sounds like a trash can lid.
.
So he gets up to play my drum set and he sets up the Slingerland snare. This guy is a pretty good hard rock drummer. The band was playing some pretty loud rock and pop music. His snare sounded good, nice deep tone, nice crack. After the first song the snare wires came loose because the snare strings broke. So he had to put my backup snare back on the stand. (I don’t let the jam drummers play on my vintage Ludwig snare) My backup snare is a Horner student snare I brought for $50.
Well, I have to tell you that my $50 Horner snare drum sounded almost exactly like the $600 Slingerland snare. This drummer is a hard hitter.
The reason I am posting this is to make this point; sometimes we stress over how this or that drum will sound when we play on it. We really should be more concerned with our technique and how we play the drums. It is that same old thing we have heard many times. How a great drummer can make a pile of crap drum set sound good.
And I think when we play the drums at loud volumes it covers up the variations in tones and sounds of the drums. For instance on jam night I have a $10 Sabian B8 crash cymbal that I set up. I let the jam drummers beat it to death. At loud volumes I think it sounds OK from where the audience sits. But when played softly, to me it sounds like a trash can lid.
.