Black Beauty Questions and Input Needed!

B

BigDrew

Junior Member
Hello All!

I am looking to get a Black Beauty and I have two questions for you:

First if you were going to get ONE Black Beauty, which one would you get. Second, what do you think is the quintessential Black Beauty sound?

I'm thinking that some will say to get the 6.5" because it is versatile, but that the traditional BB sound is a smooth shelled 5".

What say you Drummerworld?
 
I'm a fan of 6.5" drums, but both sizes in the BB are great. I like the added body of the deeper shell. For the BB, I like the hammered shells because it dries out the overtones a bit. Brass snares have always been hard for me to get along with due to the overtones...even the favorable overtones wear on my ears after a while.
 
I have a hammered Black Beauty. I like it a lot, and as incrementalg mentioned it does tame a little bit of the brassy tone of a Black Beauty, though I don't find the smooth shelled drums tone to be overbearing because of the black nickel plating.
 
Chris Whitten said:
Classic BB and the great sounding one I would get would be 1970's B/O 6.5".
I've owned two in the past.
Click to expand...

Another vote here for 1970’s 6.5”. I own one currently and it’s far and away my #1 snare drum. I have yet to make it sound anything less than “A” level, and I’m pretty good at making drums sound sh!tty.
 
I guess I am on the outside . I far prefer the 5” model to the 6.5” . It has a very wide tuning range . It can do crisp and articulate , to fat and ballsy . My old reliable . The 6.5” is excellent just doesn’t have the versatility of the 5” IMHO .
 
Both great drums but I own and prefer the 6.5 version.

Imperial lugs on mine.
 
Can confirm the standard short one plays and sounds like it's already EQ'd. I miss her.
 
Technically, after owning two smooth shelled Black Beauties, for aesthetic reasons I like the brass-shelled Supraphonics with regular chrome playing. I prefer to look understated and let my playing do the talking. They sound identical.
 
The overtones of the smooth shelled version already sound good, so toning them down with hammering doesn't seem necessary to me. They both sound good though.

Get the 10 lug version if you want that quintessential BB sound. The 8 lug is a little more open sounding with more overtones. I like the 10 lug because it's more focused.
 
BigDrew said:
Anyone play a 5" hammered? Tube or Imperial lugs? Die cast hoops - do they kill the sound of a BB?
Click to expand...
I like the look of tube lugs on Ludwig's 5" snares. While the Imperial Lugs are quintessential Ludwig, I think they can also look a little crowded.

I've tried die cast hoops on my BB, and I think the sound is a little too closed off for my taste.
 
If I had to choose between the 6.5 and the 5, I would go with the 6.5. It has more of that body that the drum is known for. The 8 is a bit slow to respond, and starts to sound tubby. The 6.5 is where it’s at.

I had both a 6.5 and a 5 hammered version in my possession for a while. I find that I didn’t like them quite as much as the non-hammered specimens.
 
I love my 6.5x14 regular BB with Imperial lugs, but I REALLY love the 8x14! It's not that I tune it for a fatter/lower sound, but with moderately high tuning, the extra depth adds more body. It's more of a balanced sound that you can hear acoustically. (Obviously a mic'd drum can be made to sound like a lot of things.)

While tuning, heads, wires, hoops and playing style are very subjective and contribute to the sound, the brass shell's basic characteristic is a focused, somewhat bright sound. Crisp, but not thin.

I know you'd be happy with the 6.5"
 
bermuda said:
I love my 6.5x14 regular BB with Imperial lugs, but I REALLY love the 8x14! It's not that I tune it for a fatter/lower sound, but with moderately high tuning, the extra depth adds more body. It's more of a balanced sound that you can hear acoustically. (Obviously a mic'd drum can be made to sound like a lot of things.)

While tuning, heads, wires, hoops and playing style are very subjective and contribute to the sound, the brass shell's basic characteristic is a focused, somewhat bright sound. Crisp, but not thin.

I know you'd be happy with the 6.5"
Click to expand...
Oh man....now you have me thinking!
 
This suggestion was made in another thread and I think it applies here:
Check out drum factory direct and their black dawg/hawg snares.

WorldMax Snare Drums

Black Dawg, Black Hawg, and more snare drums from Worldmax. Free shipping on orders $99 and over!
www.drumfactorydirect.com www.drumfactorydirect.com
 
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