How to distinguish good/bad stainless steel snares?

[Dom Daviault]

What are the criterias to differentiate good stainless steel snares from the bad ones? Are there different types, qualities or are they all the same? Does the manufacturing affect the quality of the snare? What are Pearl or Ludwig stainless steel snares have more than beginners or no name brand ones? They are both made with standard stainless steel. Are they better? Are they the same?

[volvoguy]

Not sure I know of many stainless steel snares. Many are just chrome over steel... and steel isn't one of the most musical metals to make snares out of... though there are exceptions to the rule.

I guess price is a good guide. A decent steel snare will be more than $150. Most steel snares are entry level. Aside from the material, manufacturing quality is really important with snare drums. If the edges aren't true, and the snare beds aren't set right, a steel snare will be a *huge* headache.

-Ryan

[Dom Daviault]

So, if my snare is an entry level one, it cannot be cheaper than a popular brand snare, due to the fact it's simply made from steel. Am I right?
The snare I'm playing is made by a brand that nobody knows the existence. If I compare it to a famous brand steel snare - I'm talking in general here, not the price range - , it's indeed the same thing.

[MikeM]

No, I think you'll find that it doesn't work quite that way. You may indeed get many of the same characteristics (cold and cutting) from any two steel snares, regardless of pedigree, but some will sound good and be easy to tune up and others won't sound good no matter what you do to them. Some drums shells just posses a nice tone and others don't. Some are seamless, others have shoddy welds holding them together. And there's beaded vs.straight, or other type of indentation/shaping and bearing edge construction.

Then of course, there's whether it's cast and how thick and heavy that is - like a Keplinger.

One of my favorite snares of all time is the Tama Steel Imperialstar 6.5x14 from the early '80s, and my least favorite snare I've ever owned was my no-name steel snare that came with my beginner kit years ago. I still see this snare being sold new on beginner kits 30 years later!

Oh, and if you really mean Stainless Steel, all I can tell you is that Ludwig, Dunnett, and Pearl (Sensitone) all exist, and all but the Pearl are very pricey. I'm sure there are others, but other than that, I don't know a thing about them! (I would guess they would be similar to steel).

[volvoguy]

Some cheap "steel" snares could be made out of who knows what. The world sends its dirty metals to Asia to be refined because environmental regs are non-existant

Also, don't confuse stainless steel with chrome plated other shells.

-Ryan

[wy yung]

What are the criterias to differentiate good stainless steel snares from the bad ones? Are there different types, qualities or are they all the same? Does the manufacturing affect the quality of the snare? What are Pearl or Ludwig stainless steel snares have more than beginners or no name brand ones? They are both made with standard stainless steel. Are they better? Are they the same?

The quality of the metal is important. A cheap snare is made from cheap metal, whether it's stainless steel or not is unimportant. There are all kinds of qualities available.

Better snares have very good hardware. Whereas a cheap kit has cheap hardware. I have some Pearl Sensitone stainless steel snare drums and they sound a lot better than beginner drums. It's really about quality, quality in materials and manufacture.

[mcbike]

check the quality of the welds from the inside. of course if it is seamless then it is a great drum. I would also take the heads off and lay the drum on a piece of glass. you can check to see how flat the bearing edges are. also check the snare bed on the resonant side, there should be a bed cut away on both sides of the drum where the snare lays.

There are really great cheap snares out there though. I picked up a tama rockstar chrome over steel drum for $25 up at my practice space years ago. I got so many compliments on that drum, and used it for years.

another sign of a cheap drum might be the number of lugs 8 lugs vs. 10, but you can't always go by that, because sometimes it is a musical choice rather than a cost-cutting choice.

I would say a really good stainless steel snare would say dunnett or keplinger on it. lol.