EHs snare drum rant #2:- the throw-off.

eddiehimself

Platinum Member
This SANTAFE snare drum has seriously been rubbish from day 1 but now i'm forced to make yet another thread about it due to the terribleness of what happened with it last night. I've been forced to replace the 14" 10 hole 2.3mm hoops on it because the matt black finish just flaked off with every rimshot. So what did i have to do to get the bottom hoop off? Take the snares out. Herein lies the problem because clearly the GENIUS who designed the throw-off decided to make possibly the most important part, the part that actually holds the snare wire on the throw off mechanism, out of plastic. Now clearly they never banked on the idea of someone actually taking the snares OFF the throw off for whatever reason, like changing the snare side head or anything like that, otherwise they might have realised that it was an utterly stupid idea because the threading is just going to strip and you're going to end up with a throw off that can't even hold the snares on:-

18167_1197197658118_1473790586_30495303_3509055_n.jpg


this is the offending item,
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and the throw off it was on.

This snare drum in general is seriously a joke. The finish on the hardware doesn't stay on, the bearing edges are badly cut, the camo wrap looks worse than my efforts with fabric and i didn't even use glue, you can twist the air vent bushing and move it about with your fingers, one of the gaskets for the lugs literally just snapped and fell off and now this. A new throw off (with metal threading to hold the snares on) is going to be £25 off highwood so that'll be £60 i've spent on making this what it should have been in the first place and i've got a good mind to ask highwood to make me a new shell while i'm at it, take the lugs off this drum and mail the rest back to santafe in spain with a "polite" letter explaining why i don't want it any more. And to think i could have got a NEW black panther snare for about £20 more than this piece of shit.
 
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Wow..that truly IS a joke. You said Highwood? That was the brand?
Good riddance...
 
Wow..that truly IS a joke. You said Highwood? That was the brand?
Good riddance...

NO! highwood are brilliant drums. No this brand was called Santa Fe and they're spanish. Sorry no i meant replacing the shell with a highwood shell since i'll have ordered just about everything else i need for a drum at this r8...
 
The good news: now you can replace the whole mechanism with a Gibraltar/Dunnett, which works fantastic and is cheap.
 
The good news: now you can replace the whole mechanism with a Gibraltar/Dunnett, which works fantastic and is cheap.

sounds great. but i already ordered another one. It was £25 but the threading that you secure the snare strap on with is metal so that'll do for me. I also sent a polite suggestion to nickel drumworks, the makers of the throw-off about how they can improve on the design. I'll probably have to drill for the new one but that's okay too because this snare is a worthless pile of crap anyway. Speaking of which, later on i'll hopefully be able to show you lot what i did with the old throw-off lolzz.
 
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Right well here's what i did with the old throw-off:

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It's now on my old snare which didn't actually have a throw off before. It doesn't hold the snares on very tightly but it does at least hold them on so it'll do until i can get the new throw off and attach it to the other snare.

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and here is the snare at the moment, looking pretty sorry for itself. And so it should. It's got a lot to be ashamed of!
 
Well it would have helped if i'd just thought of this before, but when i put the throw off on the old snare i realised that if i just used rope instead of a plastic strap and tied a knot in the end then i can get it tight enough to actually work. So it's pretty much fixed now, no new parts needed. Having said that, i think my point still stands that it's pretty ridiculous that i should have to do this when they could have just made this right in the first place.
 
To repair that snare throw you can Heli Coil the plastic holes and install metal threads.
It is a poor design, But if you want to fix it cheap that should work. Your local hardware store will have them in the size that you need.
Link http://www.emhart.com/products/helicoil.asp

That looks quite interesting, as i say however i think i've pretty much sorted it to a working point.
 
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