I bent my wooden snare - what the actual hell?!

[Swexx]

I got kind of a chock today when I changed the heads on my Gretsch mahogany snare.

In some weird way, I've successfully warped the hoop by tuning my snare bed lugs a little tighter than the others. This is weird, since I am a good tuner, and those four lugs were just a little higher in pitch than the four others.
What really f***s up my mind though, is that in some way, the wood itself is bent too! Under the four lugs that I've over tightened, the bearing edge has sunk almost a centimeter!

What the actual hell? Has this ever happened to you before? As I said, I am in no way an unexperienced tuner and those four lugs were only slightly tighter than the others. The snare has been laying around, pretty highly tuned, for about three-four months, but that shouldn't give this effect, really?

[Naigewron]

Sounds like you just found your snare beds. Snare drums are supposed to have a lower bearing edge underneath where the snares sit.

Sometimes they're very shallow, other times pretty deep. For example:

[Swexx]

Originally Posted by Naigewron

Sounds like you just found your snare beds. Snares are supposed to have a lower bearing edge underneath where the snares sit.

Sometimes they're very shallow, other times pretty deep. Here's an example:

Oh thank god. I love you man. I had such a MOTHERF---- chock, but now I'm cool again....

[opentune]

Your snare is normal. This is just more experience in tuning, by discovering the secret of the snare bed.

[Swexx]

So weird I've never heard of what the snare beds really are - I'm 17 years old and I've been playing drums with a teacher for 10 years..... And I have never discovered snare beds.

A little embarrassing for me (feeling unexperienced as usual), but thank you so much guys for helping me. The more you know....

[GRUNTERSDAD]

If you ever need to kill some snare buzz make those 4 lugs a little looser than the others

[Swexx]

Originally Posted by GRUNTERSDAD

If you ever need to kill some snare buzz make those 4 lugs a little looser than the others

I have heard the other way around..... but you're probably right.

My Tama birch snare has almost no snare beds at all, while this Gretsch snare has like 2 cm beds. Might explain why I never seen snare beds before, because the Gretsch snare is quite new and this is the first time I changed its heads.

[audiotech]

Depending on the manufacturer, many snare beds are much shallower than others and not as easy to see, but most can be felt.

Dennis

[opentune]

You're 17 and a Yes fan? I'm impressed. Great drumming in Bill Bruford.

[keep it simple]

Originally Posted by opentune

You're 17 and a Yes fan? I'm impressed. Great drumming in Bill Bruford.

+ 1 from me on that too :) Nice move Swexx!

Grunt's advice is sound stuff too Swexx. Snare beds are designed to allow a touch of relaxation to the resonant head of the drum in alignment with the snare wires. By tightening the adjacent screws more than the others, you're effectively defeating the purpose of the snare bed to some extent. Snare bed depth & width are specified with even screw tension in mind. This is to promote better tuning of the drum, & subsequently, a better sounding drum, so unless you're getting excessive snare wire buzz, that's how you should tune. If you are getting excessive buzz, then slackening off the screws adjacent to the wires by about half a turn is one method of dealing with it, & much better than resorting to muffling.

Oh, BTW, for future reference, not all snare drums have beds. It's common to find no beds on many marching & orchestral drums.

[Swexx]

Originally Posted by opentune

You're 17 and a Yes fan? I'm impressed. Great drumming in Bill Bruford.

I've been a Yes fan for almost a year now. Before that I listened a lot to Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Rolling Stones and such.

Bruford is such a great drummer, he's really the engine behind Yes in many ways. When Alan White replaced him, Yes lost a lot of the detail and groove they had before. They still made some fantastic albums after that though, for instance Tales.... and Going for the one!

Originally Posted by keep it simple

+ 1 from me on that too :) Nice move Swexx!

Grunt's advice is sound stuff too Swexx. Snare beds are designed to allow a touch of relaxation to the resonant head of the drum in alignment with the snare wires. By tightening the adjacent screws more than the others, you're effectively defeating the purpose of the snare bed to some extent. Snare bed depth & width are specified with even screw tension in mind. This is to promote better tuning of the drum, & subsequently, a better sounding drum, so unless you're getting excessive snare wire buzz, that's how you should tune. If you are getting excessive buzz, then slackening off the screws adjacent to the wires by about half a turn is one method of dealing with it, & much better than resorting to muffling.

Oh, BTW, for future reference, not all snare drums have beds. It's common to find no beds on many marching & orchestral drums.

Thank you so much for all your help - you've taught me a lot today! This is what I love about this forum!

[Swexx]

I do have one question though:

When you say to tighten the snare bed lugs a little more, do you mean get them to a higher pitch than the others, or tighten them 'til the lug get harder to rotate?
As it is now, I have to turn the snare bed lugs tighter than the other lugs, in other to get the same pitch at every lug. Is this correctly done?

[AJ3000]

I try to tune evenly over the whole head, but find that the beds tend to be lower tension purely by default. It also removes a few sympathetic snare buzz issues. Cranking them too hard will cause more problems than it will solve

[GRUNTERSDAD]

Originally Posted by Swexx

I do have one question though:

When you say to tighten the snare bed lugs a little more, do you mean get them to a higher pitch than the others, or tighten them 'til the lug get harder to rotate?
As it is now, I have to turn the snare bed lugs tighter than the other lugs, in other to get the same pitch at every lug. Is this correctly done?

No No.Loosen the four lugs on either side of the snare bed. NOT tighten The idea is to let them make more contact with the head so they don't buzz

[Swexx]

Originally Posted by GRUNTERSDAD

No No.Loosen the four lugs on either side of the snare bed. NOT tighten The idea is to let them make more contact with the head so they don't buzz

Of course. I'm just tired, it's 1 AM here in Sweden.... Thank you so much for all your helpful advices!

[digibird]

Originally Posted by GRUNTERSDAD

No No.Loosen the four lugs on either side of the snare bed. NOT tighten The idea is to let them make more contact with the head so they don't buzz

You mean loosen the tension rods at the snare bed, right, - not lugs?

[Deathmetalconga]

Originally Posted by Swexx

Oh thank god. I love you man. I had such a MOTHERF---- chock, but now I'm cool again....

HAHAHA! Funnies thing I've read all day.

That freaked me out too when I saw the snare beds for the first time but I checked carefully and noted they were deliberately cut. But it's easy to see how that could make someone think the drum is messed up, because it does look like that a bit.

[Soupy]

Originally Posted by GRUNTERSDAD

No No.Loosen the four lugs on either side of the snare bed. NOT tighten The idea is to let them make more contact with the head so they don't buzz

This makes no sense to me. I can't see how the tuning of the head affects how the snares are in contact with the head.

Personally, I always tune the drum so it is in tune. I don't deliberately untune the snare reso.

[IDDrummer]

Originally Posted by Soupy

This makes no sense to me. I can't see how the tuning of the head affects how the snares are in contact with the head.

Personally, I always tune the drum so it is in tune. I don't deliberately untune the snare reso.

Loosening the tension rods alongside the snare bed basically softens the head there, allowing the snares to dig in a bit more.

It definitely affects the sound and response. It's up to each player to decide what he or she likes, though.

[GRUNTERSDAD]

Originally Posted by Soupy

This makes no sense to me. I can't see how the tuning of the head affects how the snares are in contact with the head.

Personally, I always tune the drum so it is in tune. I don't deliberately untune the snare reso.

That is the area where the bearing edge is the shallowest and if the head is too tight there the snares won't have the same contact as in the middle of the head. By loosening these four lugs bit, and this will vary with each drum and person, it puts more head on the snare at the edge. It does work. I just this minute put a new Hazy 300 and Puresound 20 Blasters on my Gretsch Brooklyn snare and left the four about one-half turn looser and it is fine.

[GRUNTERSDAD]

Originally Posted by digibird

You mean loosen the tension rods at the snare bed, right, - not lugs?

Yes Sorry!!!!!....................It should have read loosen the tension rods on the four lugs next to the snare beds.

[Mad About Drums]

Originally Posted by GRUNTERSDAD

If you ever need to kill some snare buzz make those 4 lugs a little looser than the others

Absolutely, a nice helpful trick to know... :)

BTW, nice avatar Grunt...you've join the Polly's "house of mirrors" lonely hearts club band, very cool...

[GRUNTERSDAD]

Originally Posted by Mad About Drums

Absolutely, a nice helpful trick to know... :)

BTW, nice avatar Grunt...you've join the Polly's "house of mirrors" lonely hearts club band, very cool...

Merci, Henri............................... and yes she does great work

[cp84]

i'm still a bit confused.

i bought a benny greb signature snare and it has quite a deep snare bed.

so far i'm not happy with it. i tried tuning the bottom head so it was all at the same pitch but ended up with a massive bend around the snare bed and the hoops were also bent inwards at a very sharp angle. i know its not right.

i tried to remove tension from the lugs around the bed but then i started to get wrinkles. is that good or bad or ok? i've always tried to get all lugs to the same pitch......

when the wrinkles start to go then the head starts to bend around the middle and i loose the sensitivity like grunter was saying.

grunter have you got any advice? sorry to hijack this thread a little but its very frustrating. its a beautiful drum and i cant get it to sound good!