pocket player
Junior Member
Other than durability, how would 2ply batter hd effect sound & feel on snare . Overtones ? ,Sensitivity ?,Crack ? ,Thanks
thanks guys , was thinking of trying one on my renown giging snare,to come down ringing overtones,i have tried remo PS3 ,gets rid of ringing,then the drum sounds boxy,tried aquarian mod vintage,it felt stiff and poor sensitivity kind of dead. wound up putting a batter die cast hoop and coated ambassador with moon gell its about 90% their,wish i could get it a little better . the drums even tuning range in hi, low and med ranges always has a ping overtone. Its a 14x6.5 maple 10 lug . Suggestions welcome ! thks
thanks guys , was thinking of trying one on my renown giging snare,to come down ringing overtones,i have tried remo PS3 ,gets rid of ringing,then the drum sounds boxy,tried aquarian mod vintage,it felt stiff and poor sensitivity kind of dead. wound up putting a batter die cast hoop and coated ambassador with moon gell its about 90% their,wish i could get it a little better . the drums even tuning range in hi, low and med ranges always has a ping overtone. Its a 14x6.5 maple 10 lug . Suggestions welcome ! thks
I also think it's worth mentioning that for a gigging snare you'll probably want those overtones. Drums that start too dry just sound dull in a live setting. It's those overtones that might seem a bit much when heard alone and up close that help the drum sound stay lively and full in a band setting.
good points !I've never been a fan of Powerstroke heads. I feel like the ring kills too many of the overtones I want in a snare and leaves the sound boxy, just like you described. I'm assuming the Modern Vintage head was brand new? They have a thicker than usual coating and can take a little longer to break in but I've never thought of them as lacking sensitivity. All of my snares have either a Modern Vintage medium w/ reverse dot or a Deep Vintage head on them and I find them surprisingly lively.
I like 2-ply snare batters because I also like die cast hoops, and I feel like the slightly softer head feel is balanced by the added stiffness created by the die cast hoop.
I also think it's worth mentioning that for a gigging snare you'll probably want those overtones. Drums that start too dry just sound dull in a live setting. It's those overtones that might seem a bit much when heard alone and up close that help the drum sound stay lively and full in a band setting.
Yeah I've done that too. But then I'm carrying around extra stuff.thks bo, here is another trick i seen: taking a used head turn it upsidedown,and put it on your snare on top of batter hd,instant big, fat,Al green drum sound ,awesome !
I love 2-ply heads on my snares. I've been working this way for at least 20 years now. Remo coated Emperor, or Evans coated G2, they both work for me. For me, since I'm mic'ed up most of the time (when we got to play pre-pandemic), my thing is about blending in and getting close to the sound people are used to on cover tunes we play. So throughout the evening, I'm tuning and re-tuning, going up and down as the songs require, and the 2-ply does ok. I never thought thicker heads compromised my technique, I played the same all the time, and going from a whisper to a scream isn't really a problem for me. When I was younger, I recall being under the Stewart Copeland spell and insisted everything has to crack. Not true - it only has to be that way if I'm playing in a Police tribute band. As I got older, I realized my job is to blend and be the chameleon, getting close to what each drummer did for their particular hit. So I learned how to quickly tune and re-tune between songs to keep up, but in alot of instances, a nice even medium-low tuning works for everything. There was a point I even used a coated PowerStroke 4 on the snare tuned down to get that low, phat-back, Don Henley Eagle's sound. It was glorious!
You gotta figure out what works for you, and you only get there by trying different things (when you can afford to try). If your cover band doesn't care about how you sound, then by all means, crack your way through every slow dance ballad as you want. The cover bands I play with don't tell me what to do, I just try to be an actual cover. So it's good to have two snares with you - one tuned medium-tight, and the other tuned way low. That would cover everything, unless your quick enough to adjust with one drum. I know guys who can do it with a single-ply Ambassador, I just think I do it better with a 2-ply head
thanks guys , was thinking of trying one on my renown giging snare,to come down ringing overtones,i have tried remo PS3 ,gets rid of ringing,then the drum sounds boxy,tried aquarian mod vintage,it felt stiff and poor sensitivity kind of dead. wound up putting a batter die cast hoop and coated ambassador with moon gell its about 90% their,wish i could get it a little better . the drums even tuning range in hi, low and med ranges always has a ping overtone. Its a 14x6.5 maple 10 lug . Suggestions welcome ! thks
Ok. That’s another way to work, and that’s ok. I just don’t operate with me at the center of the gig ?.All valid points. The "crack" alone isn't the reason I favor a tight snare. I cherish the feel as well. My preference is to have the stick do 90 percent of the work for me. Also, I like sensitivity and articulation, and both are more profound with tighter tunings. I've heard guys complain about tight snare heads on the basis that they can't lay into them with comfort and thus prefer lower tensions. But with a tighter tension, you don't need to lay into the head, as you can achieve impressive volume with reduced effort. With the right skill, you can play them quietly too.
I don't always go for a "Stewart Copeland" sound. I do tune lower on occasion. Regardless, I love Copeland's snare, which he described in an interview as "cranked so high it could take a bird out of the sky." I must profess that Don Henley's pillow-like snare has never done it for me. It sounds like a tom to which someone attached snare wires because he left his real snare at home. All tastes are different.
As for covers, they adopt my sound, not the other way around. If a listener prefers the original version, he can put on a CD. And the simple truth is that the average audience member is about as aware of your snare tuning as he is of the laws of thermodynamics. In fact, I'll bet he knows more about the second than the first.
Ok. That’s another way to work, and that’s ok. I just don’t operate with me at the center of the gig ?.
I can imagine how long my career would’ve been with my giant entertainment conglomerate employer if I walked in and said, “I’m sorry, but you hired me for me, so this is what you get”. I kid, of course. I’m sure they wouldn’t be thinking, “we just went through about 50 guys to get this one.....what did we do with that list?”