I recently changed out my snare side resonant heads on two snare drums and replaced with clear ambassadors. Also changed out both batters for emperor coated heads. One drum was fitted with coated emperor batter and clear ambassador reso before, the other had single ply stock Evans heads.
Suddenly all the life has been sucked out of my snares. The snare wires just don't seem to be reacting nearly as well as they did before. Low sensitivity. Low volume in comparison to the drums' natural overtones.
I've tried a wide range of tunings from finger tight to torqued way up and still not found a combination I'm happy with.
The drums sound great with the snares turned off, but as soon as I turn them on they seem to almost muffle the sound. I'm getting all overtones and ring and very little snap, crackle, pop from the snare wires.
I've tried a broad range of tensions on the snare wires as well.
I generally tune both heads pretty tight and high pitched, but not too high, then I like the snare wires on the looser side so I have a nice bit of slush to play around with. Kind of a Bonham approach to snare tuning.
I'm toying with the idea of buying a snare-side specific ambassador and diplomat and trying them both out to see if any noticeable difference. Otherwise I'm guessing I just need to put some hours in on both snare drums and see if the reso heads get worked in to shape.
I have a keller custom maple shell 6"x14" with tube lugs and 45 degree bearing edges and a Gretsch Catalina Club mahogany 5"x14" w 30 degree bearing edges.
The custom is doing much better than the Gretsch, but both sounded better before the head change. Thinking the Gretsch might benefit from an ambassador batter as well.
Wondering if anybody else has run into this issue? It's been awhile since I've changed my reso head on the snare, but I don't recall having this problem before.
Has Remo made any changes to the ambassador line? Should I have gotten the "Snare-side" specific ambassador instead of just the standard? Should I try a diplomat? Does it just take a little while for the snare wires to acclimate to the new head?
Any advice or observations welcome.
Suddenly all the life has been sucked out of my snares. The snare wires just don't seem to be reacting nearly as well as they did before. Low sensitivity. Low volume in comparison to the drums' natural overtones.
I've tried a wide range of tunings from finger tight to torqued way up and still not found a combination I'm happy with.
The drums sound great with the snares turned off, but as soon as I turn them on they seem to almost muffle the sound. I'm getting all overtones and ring and very little snap, crackle, pop from the snare wires.
I've tried a broad range of tensions on the snare wires as well.
I generally tune both heads pretty tight and high pitched, but not too high, then I like the snare wires on the looser side so I have a nice bit of slush to play around with. Kind of a Bonham approach to snare tuning.
I'm toying with the idea of buying a snare-side specific ambassador and diplomat and trying them both out to see if any noticeable difference. Otherwise I'm guessing I just need to put some hours in on both snare drums and see if the reso heads get worked in to shape.
I have a keller custom maple shell 6"x14" with tube lugs and 45 degree bearing edges and a Gretsch Catalina Club mahogany 5"x14" w 30 degree bearing edges.
The custom is doing much better than the Gretsch, but both sounded better before the head change. Thinking the Gretsch might benefit from an ambassador batter as well.
Wondering if anybody else has run into this issue? It's been awhile since I've changed my reso head on the snare, but I don't recall having this problem before.
Has Remo made any changes to the ambassador line? Should I have gotten the "Snare-side" specific ambassador instead of just the standard? Should I try a diplomat? Does it just take a little while for the snare wires to acclimate to the new head?
Any advice or observations welcome.
