Gotta start off with a 14” snare. I do a lot of cross stick in current band as we play predominately country music. Yes, some 13” snares can produce a good cross stick sound, but they rarely have the horsepower I need to cut through the cacophony of all the other instruments in my band. I simply don’t have to work as hard on a 14” snare as I do on a 13”. Anything smaller than 13” is right out, in terms of being used as a primary snare anyway.
Hoops: I prefer 2.3mm triple flanged hoops on my snare drums, but die cast certainly help with certain drums in terms of reigning in errant overtones and producing a really strong cross stick sound. (The tradeoff being that I don’t like the stiffer feel though.) I’ve got some COB 2.5 mm triple flanged hoops from Drum Factory Direct, and those are nice, but not so noticeable in comparison to regular old COS hoops. The aluminum die cast hoops that come on Yamaha Recording Custom Aluminum snares are also DANG nice. Best of both worlds IMO. Love those things.
Heads: I prefer Remo coated Ambassador on top and a regular hazy snare side. (The no-collar one is needed for some snares but not the same material. Much brighter sound.) I can get away with another brand of snare side head if I absolutely have to, but the batter head NEEDS a Remo coated Ambassador. (Or a coated Emperor, which I like on certain snares as well.) I like to tune the snare side head to about a G and leave it there. Anything higher than that and the drum automatically sounds one-dimensional to me. The tuning of my batter head is considered “fluid”. It can go up or down, no hard or fast rules there.
Snare wires – I don’t like any Puresound wires. (Which is odd because I was all about them 15-20 years ago.) If a drum comes to me with Puresound wires, they get replaced IMMEDIATELY. The Canopus Vintage wires are great. (Pricy though.) Honestly, the Yamaha snare wires are great, but no one sells them online, so regular old snappy wires work just fine for me. I did buy a set of PDP wires once in a pinch and those are fine. (Don’t care for the plastic strips they include for attaching to the throw-off and butt end.) Speaking of, I prefer string for attaching snare wires to the drum. Grosgrain is fine, but I don’t care for it. I like the control I have with string over grosgrain. Hard to explain.
Depth: The deepest snare I ever owned was a 14” x 7” Craviotto. Hated it. (Bought it because it was a Craviotto. Thought maybe I could tune it up, but it had a limited range where it wanted to be and anything outside of that range sounded like poo IMO.) Looking back, I’ve never cared for any snare drums deeper that 6.5”. it’s like…too much drum. The deepest snares I have go now are 6.5”, but I haven’t played that depth live in 3 years. I’m really vibing on 5.5” snare lately and that’s far and away what I play most often. I’ve got a 4.5” deep A&F Copper snare that I really like as well, and it sees a lot of action.
Material: I have always leaned towards wood snares from the very beginning of my journey, even though my first snare was a hunk of junk 70’s Acrolite. For almost 20 years, I only played wood snares as most metal snares were not to my liking. I’ve played maple, birch, multi-species combos, and solid shells. (I’ve had two stave shell snares that I grew to HATE very quickly…a hard lesson learned.) After realizing that having a wider selection in my arsenal would do me some good, I started down the path of investigating. After YEARS and thousands of wasted dollars, I finally realized that I pretty don’t like ANY Ludwig metal snares, even though that’s what they are known for. I’ve had 3 Acrolite snares, 3 Supraphonics and 2 different Black Beauties. (All from various eras.) It speaks to their consistency that I hated them all, pretty much equally. After realizing that there are quality metal snares to be had from other manufacturers, I finally found 2 aluminum snares that I like. The Tama Starphonic model and the newer Yamaha Recording Custom models. The Tama Starphonic has horsepower galore. It doesn’t have that Ludwig “honk” that I just didn’t agree with. The Yamaha RC Aluminum is a great snare as well and quickly taking over my favorite aluminum snare drum ever. (So much so that I might dump the Starphonic.) I still don’t have a real awesome brass snare that I absolutely adore. I do have one of those Pearl Sensitone Premium Brass 5.5” deep patina super thick jobbies. No bad, lots of horsepower, great appointments but I think the thicker shell limits it’s potential. (I think it’s 1.5mm thick as opposed to a Ludwig 1.2mm think shell.) Yamaha makes a RC Brass that I’ve enjoyed the sound of in Youtube videos, I have yet to try one in person. The hunt continues, I guess.
I’m super chatty today apparently. Something to take my mind off the world I guess.
