Heads and snare combination for Ludwig bronze snare

illjarn

Junior Member
My local Ludwig dealer has a bronze 14 - 6.5 snare (LB552KT) I must have. I'm looking to upgrade the heads and snare wires immediately. Would like to know anyone's experiences of what works successfully. I play mainly jazz and blues.
 
Coated single ply batter head - Evans G1, Remo Ambassador, Aquarian Texture Coated. Snare side - Evans Hazy 300, Remo Hazy Ambassdor, Aquarian Classic Clear. There's plenty of great wires out there. Puresounds are kind of the establishment pick, it seems. There was a recent review of many wires you should try to find. Awesome snare!
 
My experience is Ludwig bronze snares sound great with the stock heads and wires. At least try it out anyway, there's no point in immediately putting another $50 in heads and wires before seeing what it can do.
 
My experience is Ludwig bronze snares sound great with the stock heads and wires. At least try it out anyway, there's no point in immediately putting another $50 in heads and wires before seeing what it can do.

This. Wait until the heads and wires go on sale or something. Stock heads and wires on their metal snares are amazing.
 
I own the same snare. It's also a hammered shell but with Imperial lugs rather that the tubes. I've been incredibly happy with a coated Emperor over a snare side Ambassador on that drum. I've used this head combo on all my metal Luddy snares for years.....I've only owned the hammered bronze for a couple of years, but have seen no reason to break ranks and use a different head combo on it either. Emps give me the sound I'm looking for on all of 'em, but that said, you're not gonna go wrong with a single ply head either. Personally, I've always found the stock Luddy heads give me a "thinner" sound out of a snare than what I like....but that's purely down to my specific preference. There's nothing wrong with the stock heads per se. I also use the stock wires on that drum.
 
My experience is Ludwig bronze snares sound great with the stock heads and wires. At least try it out anyway, there's no point in immediately putting another $50 in heads and wires before seeing what it can do.

I found the same thing with my Black Beauty.
 
Thanks for all the advice so far. I take your points about sticking with the stock heads and wires, though snare drums I've bought in the past have really been transformed with the upgrade. I like the idea of the emperor/ambassador combination. If switching to Puresound wires, which type/number of wires would be good for this snare?
 
Puresound Custom 20's are real nice wires. Stock Ludwig wires are nice too.

The stock SS head is a nice one. The Remo SA-0314-TD is an awesome Snare Side, which sounds a little fuller to me. This is a "no collar" head like the Ludwig, but the film is different.

Coated Emps work great for me (as well as Coated Emp with TOP dot).

Depending on what kind of sound character you like, a single ply can be great too.

I've found that pretty much ANY head sounds great on the Bronze.
 
My Ludwig Bronze came new from the dealer with an Evans coated G1 batter and the stock rezo. Sounds great to me.
 
Generally, hammered shells give a dryer sound, so I would pick a head to compliment it. Since you play jazz, I would go for a single ply coated head, Ambassadors work great for that. I would hold off on wires till you played it a while in a number of situations. Stock is not always bad. Play a while before doing anything.
 
Yes, its dry in sound, ( and warm) - but as said before, all snare heads work great on it.
But if there is nothing wrong with your strainer - whay change it? Original one on that snare is great!
My Hammred Bronze

handhammred%252520Bronze.jpg
 
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