World Max 'black hawg' vs 'black brass over chrome' - which one do I have?

rmac86

Member
Hi Guys,

It was my birthday recently so I treated myself to a new snare.

I have long wanted a Ludwig Black Beauty but this is unfortunately out of my price range. My local music shop had a 14" x 6.5" snare labelled as a World Max "Black Brass over Chrome". I looked on the WM website and the only snare they list looking the same as the shops is called a black hawg (with chrome hardware and tube lugs - both of which my snare has) which makes me curious if this is indeed a black hawg. Is the black brass over chrome just a generic title for the black hawg? I asked the shop owner who wasn't sure himself and said it probably is the same thing. The website doesn't seem to have a generic chrome over brass snare listed on the catalogue.

The badge on my snare says Worldmax Vintage Classic or something along those lines if that helps. Also it cost me about the same as the BH listed on the World Max website.

Anyway I ended up buying the snare and am very pleased with it - a real high end crack when I put a new remo controlled sound on it to replace the stock remo UT (utter tripe?) heads it came with. I suppose it doesn't really what the snare is called to be fair but would like to know for my own information.


Thanks,

R.
 
A Black Hawg is any of their "black brass" (i.e. nickel-plated) brass shells in a 6.5x14" size. They also have the Black Dawg (5x14"), Black Deep Guppi (7x14"), etc.

I used to own a Vintage Hawg, which is a Black Hawg with single-flange hoops. I bought it directly from WorldMax at the NAMM Show way back in 2001 or 2002. Great snare, but I eventually sold it. Probably should have held onto that one.
 
I had a Black Hawg for a while - real nice snare. However, the model I bought was the one with die cast hoops and when I compared it with a BB and a Pork Pie BOB, it sounded a slight bit more focused and less loud. Rimshots were awesome, though.

I guess the flanged hoops made the biggest difference. Ended up selling it and picked up the BOB. BTW, Pork Pie buys their shells from WM so they're essentially the same shell.
 
Nice buy. Black Beauties are nice drums, but I think Ludwig has gotten the ideology that they can charge whatever they want and people will still buy them.

Black over brass is just the generic name given to a lot of different drums like the Pork Pie BOB or "Big Black", DW uses the generic name, and I think Tama's version of it is similar to Big Black or something.

I'm glad you saved your money and got something that will function just as well as a BB.
 
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