My New Snare Drum

Fuzrock

Silver Member
It was a couple of weeks ago I was looking through the scratch and dent inventory on musiciansfriend.com and came across this Chinese OCDP snare drum. The description stated that the shell was cracked. There was no picture of the actual drum with the cracked shell. All they had was this stock picture.
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It was only $84 with free shipping so I got it. I’ve always wanted to build a custom snare drum and I considered this to be a great opportunity to do that. The die cast hoops alone on this drum are probably worth the $84 and I’d have all of the other hardware, too. Here’s a picture of the crack when I received the drum only one day later.
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Now all I needed was a shell. I’ve always wanted a thicker shelled snare drum and started looking around on Precision Drums website. I called them up and they were very helpful. I pulled the trigger on a 6.5x14 15 ply shell. I sent them one of the lugs because I wanted them to do all of the drilling. I also had them wrap it in black glass glitter with two silver glass glitter stripes. Here’s a picture that they took of the shell before they boxed it up to ship.
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I think it turned out great. I should have it by the end of the week.
 
Hey, that's a beauty - and it's black! I'll bet that thing will take your head off when it's all done and it'll look good doing it!

Just a few more days... :D
 
They are a class outfit that does great work.The drum looks great.

Steve B

Thanks. I'll add more pictures when I get it and get all the hardware on it.

Hey, that's a beauty - and it's black! I'll bet that thing will take your head off when it's all done and it'll look good doing it!

Just a few more days... :D

As you know, Mike, some of the best sounding snare drums are black. This one is definitely dressed to kill!
 
Make sure the screws that hold the lugs on are long enough for the thicker shell. That thing will be a beauty.
 
Make sure the screws that hold the lugs on are long enough for the thicker shell. That thing will be a beauty.

I had thought of that. I may have to make a run to the hardware store. The shell in the picture doesn't really look all that thick, though. I guess we'll see when it gets here.
 
15 ply?? is that all?? haha... soon ill be getting a 14x7 (or 14x8) 20 maybe 25 ply maple. :)

I had always wanted a 20 ply or more but then I started researching. Keller doesn't actually make anything bigger than a 15 ply. Any Keller shell out there that is more than 15 plys is actually two shells glued one inside the other. That's also why the cost increases dramatically from 15 to 20 to 30 and so on. A 20 is two tens, a 30 is two 15's. That's what Gary at Precision was telling me anyway. He also told me that once you go higher than 15 or 20 plys, it's more about bragging rights than sound. It would have been nice to have a 40 ply but to be honest I couldn't bring myself to part with the extra $360. LOL!
 
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Fuzrock :
My New Snare Drum
It was a couple of weeks ago I was looking through the scratch and dent inventory on musiciansfriend.com and came across this Chinese OCDP snare drum. The description stated that the shell was cracked. There was no picture of the actual drum with the cracked shell. All they had was this stock picture.


Did you try playing the cracked shell?

A little tape on the bearing edge and I'll bet it would have sounded pretty good, probably would have fooled a lot of people.
 
Fuzrock :
My New Snare Drum
It was a couple of weeks ago I was looking through the scratch and dent inventory on musiciansfriend.com and came across this Chinese OCDP snare drum. The description stated that the shell was cracked. There was no picture of the actual drum with the cracked shell. All they had was this stock picture.


Did you try playing the cracked shell?

A little tape on the bearing edge and I'll bet it would have sounded pretty good, probably would have fooled a lot of people.

Actually, I did try it out. Even without tape over the crack, it sounded pretty alright. I even thought about gigging with it the night that I got it just to hear the sound guy's thoughts but I decided not to. The only reason I bought it in the first place was to do this build so I didn't want give myself the opportunity to like it. Who knows? Maybe I would have fell in love with the sound of the cracked shell, spread the word here on Drummerworld Forum, next thing you know, a few years later, companies would start putting out their version of the latest and greatest "cracked shell" snare drum. LOL!
 
That looks great! BGG is really awesome finish.
I love my drums with that finish.
It's "cool", but still in the "classy" range where you can use it for anything.

The stripes on yours look pretty cool too, and I like the lugs.
Have fun with it, & post pics when you get it together!
 
I received the shell yesterday and got all the assembly done last night. The shell came out great, the wrap looks perfect and the edges/snare beds are top notch. The guys at Precision Drum Co definitely know what they are doing. Here are some pictures of the complete drum. None of them do a good job of capturing the deep black color of the wrap but they still turned out pretty good.
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Stunning - That is one scary-looking drum! Have you had a chance to play it yet? I love that wrap / hardware color combo!

I just got my new (your old) BB fixed up this morning with a G2 Coated and the S-Hoop batter. Then another few minutes with Bob (Gatzen) here at my desk before anyone showed up this morning and now I'm ready to rock this sucker! Hopefully tonight!
 
Sweet, what an awesome drum! That looks great!!!!

Yes, Precision does a super job. A highly recommended place to do business with.

The Black is hard to get in pics just how BLACK and glossy it really is. Nice job.

Have fun with your new toy!!!
 
That is a great looking snare. Love those lugs. Good design by you. Congratulations!
 
Stunning - That is one scary-looking drum! Have you had a chance to play it yet? I love that wrap / hardware color combo!

I just got my new (your old) BB fixed up this morning with a G2 Coated and the S-Hoop batter. Then another few minutes with Bob (Gatzen) here at my desk before anyone showed up this morning and now I'm ready to rock this sucker! Hopefully tonight!

I have not had a chance to play it yet. I didn't get it all together until about 9:30 last night. By then, my daughter was in bed so I couldn't hit it. That's alright because all I have on in right now are the stock heads and wires that came with the Chinese OCDP. I'll finish it off with an Evans Hazy 300, G2 or ST Dry and either a Puresound 30 strand or a 24 strand brass. Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts on those options.
Try not to take too many heads off with that BB tonight, Mike!
 
Awesome looking drum!

So how many others went to Scratch/Dent and Precision web pages after seeing this? :)
 
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