I am now painfully aware of the importance of carrying a backup snare.

NerfLad

Silver Member
Because this happened mid-gig on Saturday night.

It's a Hazy Diplomat, so I should have seen it coming, but I've got hazy Dip's way older than this one that are still intact.

I have no idea HOW it happened. Maybe it got a tiny puncture, etc. during transportation and gave way during the set. It wasn't tuned too high (I don't think that's possible for a bottom snare head, though.. hehe) and my snare wires weren't choking either. :(

So, long story short, I finished the set (we only played for an hour), in the process taking two solos with this pillow-ey, sad, disgusting sounding snare. Lesson learned!

P.S That's an LM305 (Bronze) that I got for like 90 bucks. It's fantastic for the money.
 

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get rid of those snare "clips" on the puresounds...they do absolutely no good for your wires.


F
 
They're bridging the gap so the straps don't slip back through the brackets...
 
Wow, that's crazy.

I had a snare strap break mid-gig once - my worst gig experience ever. We cut our set short just cause I had no snare (that tom sound with no snares just doesn't work!). Those little plastic ribbons suck, now I use leather straps exclusively!

Lesson learned!
 
Because this happened mid-gig on Saturday night.

It's a Hazy Diplomat, so I should have seen it coming, but I've got hazy Dip's way older than this one that are still intact.

I have no idea HOW it happened. Maybe it got a tiny puncture, etc. during transportation and gave way during the set. It wasn't tuned too high (I don't think that's possible for a bottom snare head, though.. hehe) and my snare wires weren't choking either. :(

So, long story short, I finished the set (we only played for an hour), in the process taking two solos with this pillow-ey, sad, disgusting sounding snare. Lesson learned!

Live & learn i'm sure you did after after sat. night. I always carry a backup snare just for situations like this.

The snare is one of the most played & recognizable drums in a drumset. a pin hole or the slightest rip in a hazy diplo. can spread like wildfire as in your case, but I love the sound of hazy diplo's...take a back up next time..gigging 101...lol

Bonzolead
 
a pin hole or the slightest rip in a hazy diplo. can spread like wildfire as in your case, but I love the sound of hazy diplo's...take a back up next time..gigging 101

Yep... probably should have known better in the first place, but I certainly won't make this mistake twice!
 
Extra Snare and Pedal are a must have on gigs.
 
You really can't get around not having a snare sound. I used to think, that I could rip the bottom head off my 14" floor tom if something happened to the snare, thinking that it would probably be the top head that goes, but there are so many other things that could go wrong like this. Straps breaking (I carry spares) the strainer breaking (so spare for that) and so on. But the bottom line is that it takes time to effect repairs. You can swap out the snare while someone is talking and be back in business.

I tend to carry a couple different snares anyway. My band progresses though traditional blues into R&B and funk in the last set, so somewhere along the line I'll swap out a low wet snare for a tighter crisper one. Only problem with this, it that I would need to adapt to playing the wrong one in the wrong place if one broke. I used to make this mistake playing guitar. I would bring two fairly different guitars. One mellow hollow body for early jazzier tunes and a Strat for the funk the rest of the night. And then found that if a string broke on the Strat and I grabbed the other, it would sound dull and lifeless and I would have to twist knobs and really adapt. I started carrying two similar instruments after that so if one went down, the backup sounded more or less the same.
 
They're bridging the gap so the straps don't slip back through the brackets...

Im aware of what they do, I used to use them as well. They do let the snares slide around a bit and can get all caddywhumpus on occasion. Use string or straps sans clips.


F
 
You might consider using good old fiberglass-reinforced clear packing tape for this: you know, the striped-looking stuff that is just nearly impossible to tear across?. I got tired of breaking strings and straps years ago, and now use two layers of that stuff- feed one layer through the snare endplate, and double it back on itself, effectively gluing it in place to itself through the slot in the plate (sticky side to sticky side). Then, slide the second layer through, and just double up on top of the first. This eliminates the clips, and simply will not break or drift- and being 4 layers thick, is more than thick enough for most strainers and butts to get a good grip on it. It is also immune to changes in the weather. Snare tension stays very consistent, and the snares lay on the head perfectly.

I always carry a roll of the stuff in my toolbox now, and have repaired several snares for other folks this way while doing sound. Worth looking into, anyway- your mileage may vary.

The last time I saw a snare head blow out halfway like that was when a helpful person was helping me tear down after a gig, and dropped my snare on the stage on one side of the bottom hoop from a height of about a foot. Bang- scratch one hoop and one head. Gotta love volunteers, no?
 
I always carry a spare snare drum,kick drum batter head and a kick pedal, you can pretty much get through the whole gig with your snare and kick
 
I carry a spare drummer in case I get arrested now.
 
Makes me wonder about the 20 holes in the batter heads. Evans HD DRy. And just to see how well this works, I took another head, heated a straight pin and made 20 holes in a different head and it did dry it out. Im not sure what those clips are. Never seen them. I have always put the strap through the slot with one side under, one side over.
 
I've bought a couple different PureSound snares and they didn't come with those clips. I can see that they would allow a quicker change out of the snares although I'm not sure what advantage that is in the real world. And I can also see that they would dent or poke though the head pretty easily. From some much earlier thread, I've replaced a lot of the plastic strips in my snare drums with the 1/2" nylon tape sold in yardage stores. It stretches a bit at first but I think it does a better job keeping the snares straight and flat.
 
Best snare straps I've found so far is grosgrain ribbon. You can find it at pretty much any fabric shop, and it comes in all kinds of colors (if you're into that kinda thing). There's like no give to it, and I haven't had one break on me yet.

As a side note, if your straps ever break at a gig, you can grab a few plastic drinking straws from the bar, flatten them out, and use them to hold your wires. I used that as a quick fix once (before I started using grosgrain), but forgot to change out the straws after the gig. The straws never broke, and lasted over a year, before I finally got around to changing them out.
 
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