Mapex Meridian Maple snare tuning

kafou

Junior Member
Hi,

I have a Mapex Meridian Maple drum and I have a hard time tuning the snare. I put a new Evans G1 coated on top and a hazy 300 on bottom with a puresound custom pro brass snare. I had a hard time tuning for a sound to my liking, I finally prefer the sound with the original snare so I discarded the puresound and I had to put a gel pad to get rid of some bad noise when I only it the snare one time. If I do rudiment It sound not that bad. It's also hard to get a tuning point where the sound is good without bad overtone.

Thanks

Kafou
 
Tighten the resonant head, super tight. Then tighten more.
Tighten the batter head, medium tight, until it sounds like a timbale.
then bring on the sanre wires.
 
I had this snare and although I did not have an issue tuning it, I did have my local drum store (Drums2Go) "improve" the snare bed. It made a BIG difference on the sound and response I got out of the snare! Originally the sanre had almost no snare bed just so you know.
 
Hi,

Sorry to do not answer your post. I'm a little busy for now but I will try to tune my snare from your suggestions soon.

Thanks

Kafou
 
I think Mapex put a slightly thicker snare side head on these drums than usual. I bought what should be direct Remo replacement heads and it didn't sound right at all. I put those heads on another snare, which had factory heads, and in the process noticed the original head from the Meridian snare seemed to be a tad more beefy. Maybe try using a 500 if you liked the original sound. (Mapex also tuned it tightly on their promotional videos.)
 
Ya I have this snare too. It is not easy to tune but I had it perfect once that it put my mapex black panther hand hammered phosphor bronze to shame. I used a coated ambassador, and an evans 300 with puresound custom (steel) 16 strand wires.

That one time I had it, it sounded magical and have not gotten that sound back yet. I've gotten close but never the same as that day...

I found that by getting the bottom really tight helps a lot with the overtone and not making the top head more than medium/medium-high.
 
I got a killer sound out of the drum right when I put the factory heads on the snare and very minimal tuning effort. I think it's just very picky with what head combination you have on it.

I found that by getting the bottom really tight helps a lot with the overtone and not making the top head more than medium/medium-high.
That sounds about right. Not overly tight on the snare wires themselves either.
 
I got a killer sound out of the drum right when I put the factory heads on the snare and very minimal tuning effort. I think it's just very picky with what head combination you have on it.


That sounds about right. Not overly tight on the snare wires themselves either.


Agreed! Although I couldn't stand the original wires and stock heads. I tried a remo ambassador hazy snare side and it didn't work out very well. Went back to the semi worn out evans 300 and it sounds much better. Have the wires way looser and it has way less snare buzz as well. So strange, I wonder if its either the snare strainer or bearing edges not being the best that causes this picky drum.
 
After having the snare beds redone on mine, I went with the Evans reverse dot batter a Hazy 300 snare and replaced the wires with a better set. I had the bottom head pretty tight and a tiny bit more on the snare bed sides. The top was medium tight. To me, the snare sounded great but as you can see, It took a bit of work.
 
Agreed! Although I couldn't stand the original wires and stock heads. I tried a remo ambassador hazy snare side and it didn't work out very well. Went back to the semi worn out evans 300 and it sounds much better. Have the wires way looser and it has way less snare buzz as well. So strange, I wonder if its either the snare strainer or bearing edges not being the best that causes this picky drum.
I also tried a Remo Ambassador Hazy. The drum hates it. I've been meaning to try an Emperor Hazy, but haven't really been in any sort of rush to do so. I'm hoping it's closer to the factory head. When I had the other heads on it, the drum sounded like its Pro M predecessor. I think they just woke it up with a thicker snare side head. I have no complaints with the factory heads/wires, other than finding direct replacements!

I've had a couple Evans 300 heads and tried them on several drums. I can't stand that head. Never again.
 
I also tried a Remo Ambassador Hazy. The drum hates it. I've been meaning to try an Emperor Hazy, but haven't really been in any sort of rush to do so. I'm hoping it's closer to the factory head. When I had the other heads on it, the drum sounded like its Pro M predecessor. I think they just woke it up with a thicker snare side head. I have no complaints with the factory heads/wires, other than finding direct replacements!

I've had a couple Evans 300 heads and tried them on several drums. I can't stand that head. Never again.


LOL I understand, mapex is kind of hard to come by and especially get parts, its stressful. Might have to try a thick snare reso head. I still can't believe that the snare hates the ambassador hazy though, just mind boggling, never heard a snare not like one. My bronze snare doesn't really like evans 300 heads, but reverse power center it did, just too high pitched for me. I only tried the 300 on the meridian because I couldn't get the stock snare side head to tune at all. Got the 300 dirt cheap new. Got two coated ambassador's from two head packs. And it worked out! Can't be mad about that.

I also want to try the evans power center reverse, and aquarian texture coated reverse dot and aquarian snare side on it too cause I have those hanging around never to used.
 
I wouldn't say Mapex is hard to come by or get parts for. Quite the opposite actually. It's just hard to figure out exactly what they used on this snare.
The only problem with this snare not liking the Ambassador hazy is that they didn't use it, I think, when tuning and marketing these kits. It was a selling point for the Meridian maple line. They had a specific and constant sound in the promo videos. If you want that sound then you have to find something else that gets it. If you don't like that sound, then the Ambassador hazy just might work perfectly for you.
 
I see what you are saying. You must be right. The videos I have seen are very consistent. I just follow the sound :). Anyways, where do you find mapex parts? I only know of drummersuperstore but I'm in AZ so there's no hope here, been tryin for years to find a decent dealer or more stock than used cheap steel piccolo snares.
 
I've gotten stuff from DSS. Good guys. Resurrection Drums is my local shop and they're really good about finding me all the weird picky stuff I want. Any Mapex dealer can get on the phone with Mapex and get what you need. They should have a parts book of some sort in the store, and what's not there Mapex has.
 
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