Does anyone use a marching snare with a kit?

I

izz

Member
As like a side snare or something? It sounds kind of silly but I love how marching snares sound and I just think it would be sick to have that sound. Are there any drummers that do this?
 
I did. My main snare, for years, was a Ludwig 14x10 Stainless Marching snare with a Super Sensitive. Gigged with that drum for some 25 years.
 
Jack White had a marching type snare as a second snare when he played with The Dead Weather. There’s a few examples of where he used it on their first album.
 
Peter Criss used to with KISS. I saw him live once with it. Sounded like a snare.
 
Paul Thompson did with Roxy Music around 1979-'80

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Back in high school, I took my Pearl marching snare home and put it on the kit. (The kind with Kevlar heads and super high tension, not the more old-school kind)

It was incredibly loud. Like, seriously, way too loud for the kit. But it sounded pretty cool despite the mismatch in volume.

The other problem is how deep marching snares are. It's hard to get a 14x12" positioned low enough with a standard snare stand.
 
Here's my one time attempt at doing that. 14x12 Ludwig marching snare (with the strap eyelet bolt visible) and it was a holy terror. I put floor tom legs on it as no stand would go low enough to support it.
You can only tune it so low before it sounds like crap, so it's cranked most of the time. I made it into a snom for the most part and it does ok, but all in all it's not very useful for performance.
Floor tom kit.jpeg
 
Michael Lee on the album No Quarter Plant/Page.
Great album and great drum sound.

reverb.com

Michael Lee Ludwig Custom Snare 1995 Silver Sparkle | Reverb

This is a custom snare drum made for Michael lee drummer for Page and Plant on the No Quarter Tour. This very drum was used on the 95,96 tour and is featured on the DVD check the video. It's a 14x14 inch snare drum with 12 lugs in excellent condition. Michael was 6'2'' and requested this size fro...
reverb.com reverb.com

I think he also played on the studio album, Walking into Clarksdale.
 
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JimmyM said:
Nah, I don’t like them either. I think they ruined marching bands.
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They at least ruined snare lines. When whoever invented them bows at my feet and tearfully begs for my forgiveness, THEN I might forgive. Otherwise, until then, drum corps geeks from the Kevlar/aramid days are beneath my notice as musicians. Lol, but also kind of for real
 
I know that Vinnie Paul used a Falams K kevlar head back in the day, but it was on a regular metal drum set snare

and I thought I remember seeing a video of The Romantics back in the 80's where the drummer had a marching snare. I think it was along with a black and white zebra striped drum set....

while the sound doesn't bother me in the drum corps world, I could not imagine using a free floater modern marching snare type sound on drum set....just like I can't stand the sound of "drum set" sounding bass drums in marching band

about 20 years ago, I did experiment with putting a set of marching quads on my drum set, just to see what happened. It was not as cool as it originally seemed like it would be.

as far as ruining drum corps, there 3 things worse than Kevlar heads:
1. the loss of The Velvet Knights
2. the loss of the traditional uniforms
3. the loss of retreat after shows

but I digress....
 
Push pull stroke said:
They at least ruined snare lines. When whoever invented them bows at my feet and tearfully begs for my forgiveness, THEN I might forgive. Otherwise, until then, drum corps geeks from the Kevlar/aramid days are beneath my notice as musicians. Lol, but also kind of for real
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I don't hear drum corps bands very often, but when I do, I always think that it would be easier and just as effective if the snare drummers just played Formica.
 
PorkPieGuy said:
I don't hear drum corps bands very often, but when I do, I always think that it would be easier and just as effective if the snare drummers just played Formica.
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Yeah, you can’t hear the snares outside any more from more than about 50-60 feet away. There’s no low-end frequencies in the sound anymore, and low frequencies are the ones that travel farther.
 
PorkPieGuy said:
I don't hear drum corps bands very often, but when I do, I always think that it would be easier and just as effective if the snare drummers just played Formica.
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Push pull stroke said:
Yeah, you can’t hear the snares outside any more from more than about 50-60 feet away. There’s no low-end frequencies in the sound anymore, and low frequencies are the ones that travel farther.
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not that it would probably change your guy opinions, but when was the last time you actually went to a live drum corps show?

I am just curious because I have one foot in the anti-Kevlar camp - I can't stand the real reefed up tuning of the 90's - but the other is definitely in the "modern" camp, as snare tunings have drastically changed and varied since the early 90's, when the "Formica" sound was very prevalent. Some groups still tune higher than I like (these seem to be the younger groups with younger staff), but a lot have dropped the tuning in some ways.

I still use Kevlar/Aramid heads on the top, but I use mylar on the bottom, and definitely have a darker tuning then a lot of groups in my area (I get both positive and negative comments about my snare tuning...younger guys think they are too low, older guys think they sound really good)

again, not trying to be a jerk, or to derail the thread, but trying to get a frame of reference. Most of the people I know who complain about modern marching snare tuning have not been to an actual show since the 90's....

I know @Push pull stroke is highly militant about the Kevlar thing, so again, not trying to change your mind ;)
 
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