Aluminium snares

Sorry, that's NOT a Supraphonic, it is not a Supralite. That is the Tama SLP Super-Aluminium 14x5. That snare sounds better than the Supra (not only imho) and has a way better built quality.

Hey Wave, I haven't been on here for a few months but I just wanted to let you and everyone else know that I'm still very appreciative of the Tama SLP Super Aluminum snare you pulled some strings to enable me to buy from "Europe"! Simply awesome snare! Sensitivity, tunability and not to mention cross-stick are through the roof!! Only super-high volume situations require me to switch snares...

My thread might be a resource for the OP...
 
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Hey Wave, I haven't been on here for a few months but I just wanted to let you and everyone else know that I'm still very appreciative of the Tama SLP Super Aluminum snare you pulled some strings to enable me to buy from "Europe"! Simply awesome snare! Sensitivity, tunability and not to mention cross-stick are through the roof!! Only super-high volume situations require me to switch snares...
You're welcome. :) And yeah, that snare is a joy to play.
 
Practicing with my vintage "new" acolite the last few days, I will say it is much louder than a wood snare. Which only makes sense. It's metal. Sound waves are gonna bounce around more off the shell. Wood will absorb sound. Kinda basic acoustics. It sounds great, it's just much louder than any comparably sized wood drum.

I can also dial in the trashy-bluesy sound I want. It has a wide tuning range. Which is great. Just what I wanted!
 
Practicing with my vintage "new" acolite the last few days, I will say it is much louder than a wood snare. Which only makes sense. It's metal. Sound waves are gonna bounce around more off the shell. Wood will absorb sound. Kinda basic acoustics. It sounds great, it's just much louder than any comparably sized wood drum.

Really? I haven't found this to be the case. The drier acrolite seems to me to be easier to control volume than some others.
 
I have a similar question, initially tempted by the Supraphonic and Acrolite, but have since discovered Pearl's significantly cheaper Heritage Sensitone Aluminium and was very impressed by it. For me, it seemed to hold its own with the Ludwig's.

There's also the Tama Starphonic, which is a bit more expensive. Which do people think is the better drum, between the Sensitone and Starphonic? I probably have a preference for the Sensitone if anything, sound wise. But what about build quality? I believe the Tama is made in Japan itself and at the higher price point does this account for any superior parts etc?
 
The Tama Starphonic aluminum is better than any Ludwig drum to my ears (yes, this is obviously just one man's preference). I do believe Tama has a big edge on quality. If money is not a concern, go for the Joyful Noise Luminary. Very special instrument.
It all comes down to budget. If you want to spend $100 at shopgoodwill.com and get an Acro, there's no shame in it. If you want get the Supra sound without the burden of the cost, the P85, and pitting in 35 years, get an Oriollo. If you want the real deal, buy the real deal. If you want to get a posh modern drum that captures the essence of the Supra, look at Dunnett's offerings.

Most other aluminum drums are different beasts with their own unique attributes, and are sometimes more interesting than the Supra. I'm a sucker for the classics, and use a Black Beauty and a GW Studio Maple. I've never had reason to complain about either.
I agree, I wanted an aluminium snare just to do it like Steve Gadd but never found the sound being that great. So, I was lucky to find a Dunnet aluminium 6.5 at one of my stores and when I read the story behind it (Ron Dunnet wanted to build a snare better than his LM400), I bought it and it's a fantastci aluminium snare. Also, the Tama Starphonic aluminum is in my list if I ever decide to have another aluminium snare. Ok, being in Canada, I got it for cheaper than is USA though.
 
I recommend checking out the Yamaha RC Aluminum. I tried both the 5.5 and 6.5 version a few weeks ago, and walked out with the 6.5 (They had a special offer on that one, else I would still be trying to decide). For me, it really was a no-brainer.

I have no idea about their UK prices, but if it falls within your budget, you might be blown away like I was, so why not give it a try...
Yes yes, I forgot that one, the review by drummer's review on the web in awesome:



I recommend checking out the Yamaha RC Aluminum. I tried both the 5.5 and 6.5 version a few weeks ago, and walked out with the 6.5 (They had a special offer on that one, else I would still be trying to decide). For me, it really was a no-brainer.

I have no idea about their UK prices, but if it falls within your bu
 
Of course it sounds better to me - as I stated - but also to several people who did a blind test with me, sporting five aluminium snares (same tuning, same heads, same drummer, same room). Almost all of them were conviced that "that cool sounding snare" was the Supra - which it wasn't. It was the SLP (one guy picked the Pearl Sensitone as the "Supra". Nobody liked the DW Aluminium). Go figure...

Bad thing is... Tama does not produce that amazing snare anymore.

Definitely. An amazing snaredrum.
But you can find the Tama SLP aluminium used, correct? I think it's pretty common online...
 
I've played and tried out MANY aluminum snares including all that have been mentioned in this thread. I have found that certain snares that sounded superb while testing alone in a room in a controlled setting actually fell short and I was disappointed in when played in the context of a live band. These are my personal recommendations regarding sonically, feel, hardware durability, build quality and playability in a live band setting.

If you are on a very tight budget then the Acro is the way to go. Cheap, nice sound and feel and works well playing live. It's a sleeper snare for sure and you can play it while saving up for one of the snares I'm about to mention ;-)

If you have more to spend but don't want to break the bank I have found that the Yamaha RC Aluminum or Tama SLP Super-Aluminium are absolutely the way to go. They're amazing sonically, have incredible feel but also have the hardware durability that you will never need to worry about or have to upgrade. More importantly though, they sound awesome in the mix and context of a live band.

If money isn't an issue, then my first choice would be the Dunnett 2n. Phenomenal sound, feel, build quality and hardware durability and it sounds superb live. The next choice is the Joyful Noise. IMO though, the Dunnett 2n ticks all the boxes of the Joyful Noise but at a lesser price.

The Ludwig LM400 is a great sounding snare no doubt. It's a legend for a reason. IMO though, there are just too many other snares that sonically sound just as good or better and work equally as well in a band setting but have superior build quality and durability over the LM 400.

As others have stated though, play and listen to as many as you can and pick the one that ticks all the boxes that are most important to you...and that fits in your budget. :)
Ha thanks for the very detailled review and I'm glad you think that the Dunnet2n is par to the joyful noise but at a lesser price, I was tempted by the joyful noise for thier copper and bronze snares but when it had come to look for an aluminium, I was close to buy one but found the Dunnet at a cheaper price and thought it was really the same.... So, I'm not alone to think that.
 
I would like to (as humbly as possible) suggest that there is not a better value in aluminum snares than what we build at INDe!

Some sound samples:
6.5x14" Aluminum
5" aluminum
Ho my god, of course, I had forgot it, before buying the Dunnet 2N, I was going to buy an Imdie but went in their website and saw that they had a cherry summit drums made shell in Cherry but with finish and hardware from Imdie, hardware that are crazy nice and I couldn't buy 3 snares at the same time because, I was looking for a Starphonic aluminium and found a super nice Mapple Mappa Burl Starphonic that I bought immediately... But yes, I will have an indie metal Santé, maybe Alu, more reasonably Bronze but his drums are top notch!!!!
So, search for one snare drums in aluminium and got 2 wood and one snare stil!!! And they are very well priced.
 
For me, even if it the highest budget, the Tama Star Reserve hammered aluminium snare!!! Well, 1300 usd?? Ouff!!!!
 
Yamaha RC aluminium is the one. Best aluminium snare I've owned by a mile.
 
I'm quite interested in aluminium snare drums at the moment. I know there's still a lot of popularity with the Supraphonic and Acrolite which I've listened to a lot of on youtube. They both sound good to me and sometimes I think the Supra sounds better and sometimes the Acrolite.

But I've also listened to other aluminium snares. Yamaha, Tama SLP, and Dixon. They all have the same centre bead design of the Ludwigs that runs around the centre line of the shell. They all sound great, good bark on the rimshots, and I'm not sure they sound different to me from the Ludwigs. So what exactly is so special about the Ludwigs compared to other brand aluminium snares that should make me want to spend similar money as a brand new drum, plus take on the wear and tear, chrome pitting and not so great P85 of an old snare drum? In other words, would you say to me "no definitely get an Acro/Supra!"?

By the way, little story. I owned a Ludwig 400 in the 1980s which eventually got stolen. I bought it because it was the same that Gadd used. It was a 1967 model. I only just found out it was a Supraphonic! In the UK, it was always just called the Ludwig 400 so I had no idea it was actually an LM400 and had never heard of Supraphonic. I never played rimshots back then and tuned it low like Gadd did and added a damping ring, so never got to play and hear it the way I would like to today with higher tuning and rimshots.
Not knowing it was a Supraphonic probably gave you a more honest judgement of its sound at least!

I gotta say, my early 70’s Premier 2000 COA is an amazing sounding snare. I just can’t help but play it at every gig
 
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I don’t see any mention of Pearl Ultracast snares which are straight sided cast aluminium. The 6.5 x 14 is a strong performer with slightly dry tonal character.
 
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