What is this snare? Foo Fighters Wasting Light

M

Mini Logo

Junior Member
Hi,
In the market for a new brass/COB snare for the purpose of recording fairly modern pop rock (not heavy). At this point I'm learning towards the Gretsch G4164 (6.5 inch COB). I'm very enthused about the snare sound on the latest Foo Fighters album - after watching Back and Forth it appears that the snare visible in this pic. was used on a number of the tracks. Can anyone advise me as to what it is?

Foos_02.jpg


The snare can also be seen at approx. 4min-4min20sec in this vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jMObDEStkk&feature=related

Thanks
Rory
 
I am no expert. But I would guess Tama Bell Brass. I know that Dave uses that often on his records and it looks close in that picture.
 
Can't help you on the snare but I'd guess Gretsch too.
Neat flick on the making of that record..... good old garages.
Interesting that Taylor Hawkins uses an old Ludwig kit for this recording, yet plays Gretsch in live shows.
 
Id guess Tama Bell Brass as well or maybe a Sonor HLD590

F
 
opentune said:
Can't help you on the snare but I'd guess Gretsch too.
Neat flick on the making of that record..... good old garages.
Interesting that Taylor Hawkins uses an old Ludwig kit for this recording, yet plays Gretsch in live shows.
Click to expand...

When endorsees hit the studio, they don't always play their brands' equipment. The snare is the first drum that is likely to change in that scenario. This is kind of an unspoken agreement that companies go along with. There's just too much riding on albums of this magnitude. Doesn't mean that it doesn't go the other way though. Keith Carlock was quoted as saying he used the Yamaha 4 x 14 MCA snare on most if not all of the Steely Dan tunes from one of their albums.

There's so much that has to do with the sound of the drums on albums. Note that there are top and bottom snare mikes but probably even more important are the overhead and room mikes. You may not even be able to see a mile that's been placed farther away. There are quite a few mikes on this kit. When the producer (Butch Vig?), engineer and anyone involved with mixdown get to the mixdown phase, they start adjusting the level of different mikes to get 'that sound'. each mike colors the drum sound in different ways and it's the combination that creates one sound.

I read an interview about this session that was chronicled in WL and what Butch said was Dave would ask for more 'garage' - which meant turning up the room mikes i.e. more ambient sound. Also this entire album never hit the computer. All tape at DG's insistence.

FWIW: Although I don't know for sure, the drums in this pic could easily be rentals from a few different sources here in L.A.
Ross Garfield at Drum Doctors would be the most likely suspect. Also - I live about 10 minutes from where this was recorded and drive through the area every day.

Jim
 
Thanks for the help so far. I initially thought Tama bell brass as well but I think the video rule it out - the lugs are clearly visible at 4.10 and look pretty similar to a Ludwig Hammered Brass. Still not convinced however.
 
Mini Logo said:
Thanks for the help so far. I initially thought Tama bell brass as well but I think the video rule it out - the lugs are clearly visible at 4.10 and look pretty similar to a Ludwig Hammered Brass. Still not convinced however.
Click to expand...


Actually I think your first guess was right.I believe it is a Tama Bell Brass.

Tube lugs make it a bit more difficult but I see a clear difference. The tube nodes on the bell brass some sort of 'sided' design where the Ludwig's nodes are the typical rounded design.

Also I Googled a bit and found this posting with Butch Vig answering a question regarding what snare was used for 'Nevermind'. Note his first answer on how to get that snare sound (Hint: It's not referring to a drum of any kind).

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/q-butch-vig/398321-how-did-you-get-neverminds-drum-sound.html

This would point strongly toward the Tama Bell Brass as the snare in the pic. I suspect that either Dave or Butch own the drum and love using it. Even if it's Taylor playing it and not Dave.

Both the Ludwig and the Tama are fantastic drums (I have a Ludwig Hammered Bronze). I also believe that the Tama would cost the same as a medium size used car. I saw one web quote as saying they saw an eBay bid for $7500

BTW: Sorry about the difference in pic size. I was grabbing off the internet.
 

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I believe it's Dave's Tama bell brass snare. They did record in his house. He also stores all his own drum stuff in the 606 studios storeroom along with some of Taylor's, only about ten minutes away from his house. I saw a little studio tour on youtube and he may have even showed that drum off.
 
I think the Foos are a cool band and all, but for all their trumpeting the fact that this was done in a garage without any computers, you'd think they'd have ditched the click track.

If I was going for a garage vibe, the click would be the first thing to go. Who cares if it was an actual garage or not, and with most people consuming their music on either computer speakers or ipod earbuds, how important is it really to have gone analog? I think Taylor's a bit stiff with the click. He might be stiff anyway, but the click definitely isn't helping him stray from that, and they don't sound nearly as garage as they could have without it. (though Dave coulda pulled it off simply because he's superman like that)

For the record (once again), I've got nothing against click tracks and use them myself. But if given the choice, I would've ditched it for this album.

Snare? I agree it's some flavor of bell brass.
 
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