Question about metal snares

I've seen metal shells described as rolled, cast, beaded, knurled, hammered etc. How do you tell if a shell is seamless or not? How 'bout this one?


Also, if you own a bronze or copper snare might you please give me your take on it?

Cheers,
Todd
 
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A quick google search leads me to believe that the Canopus The Bronze snare is not seamless. Cuz if it was, they'd be advertising it as such.

But don't let that put you off from a Canopus snare. I love my The Maple snare. Pure quality and class.

Off the top of my head, my favorite (the best sounding) bronze/copper snares would be the Canopus The Bronze, Pearl Beaded Phosphor Bronze, and the Gretsch USA Bronze. Also the Tama Star Reserve Hand Hammered Copper sounds killer.

I could go into more detail about why I like them, but needless to say they all sound great.
 
I'd say if they don't mention the word "seamless"...it's probably not.

Seamed drums...I can't hear a difference between seamed and seamless
Makes sense and yeah, I don't think there's a huge sonic difference either. It's hard to sift through the marketing mumbo jumbo at times. lol

A quick google search leads me to believe that the Canopus The Bronze snare is not seamless. Cuz if it was, they'd be advertising it as such.

But don't let that put you off from a Canopus snare. I love my The Maple snare. Pure quality and class.

Off the top of my head, my favorite (the best sounding) bronze/copper snares would be the Canopus The Bronze, Pearl Beaded Phosphor Bronze, and the Gretsch USA Bronze. Also the Tama Star Reserve Hand Hammered Copper sounds killer.

I could go into more detail about why I like them, but needless to say they all sound great.
Not put off. I had a Gretsch USA bronze for a spell and really liked it. Trying to remember why I sold it. :unsure:

I like the size (14 x 5.5) of the Canopus drum in the above link and the fact that it's 8 lug too. They're stuff is high quality like you mentioned. I'm just kind of poking around at this point. All my snares are wood right now and I wouldn't mind adding either a bronze or copper to the stable.
 
They do advertise their brass 3mm and bronze 5mm as 'seamless' but I believe because they are cast…they also had an aluminum long ago as well. Whether this is spun or welded, I don't see anything mentioned. But can say I'm diggin' my latest metal snare from them.
 
Also. Seams can be polished away.

DW was caught saying cast when it wasn't (the seam of the weld was polished away0. They were called out and retracted that notion. Now their site is correct.

So a rolled shell can still be visible seamleas, yet having a seam. A cast shell is said to have less tension, so more of a true sound.

As I take it that gretsch gets their shells fromthe same supplier (reliance too?) It could be,they follow the sane tactics.

I used their true cast models from the mid 90's and now their true cast alu snares.

I love them all as they are like the solid snares in the wood space to me.

Like rolled steel drums on steroids, yet just as sensitive. And the alu being the lighter to travel with counterpart of the bronze models.
 
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The Canopus Hammered Bronze is a very nice drum. A thin shell that is very dynamic. I think it’s definitely worth checking out. Personally (as of lately) I prefer the copper shells. They’re a little darker, a little drier, with gorgeous overtones. I’m actually waiting for Canopus to make a copper shell snare. At least I don’t think they make one as of now. Anyway, I have the Gretsch 5x14 Black Copper snare (8 lugs / die cast hoops) that’s now making its way onto my snare stand more than my 90’s Ludwig hammered bronze. But, I did change out the 42 strand wires that comes with the Gretsch and swapped in Puresound 12 strand wires. What an awesome sound.
I think if you go with the Canopus hammered bronze you’re going to be happy either way; seamed or unseamed. Also give some of the copper shell drums a look as well.
 
I’ve owned several of both rolled shells and seamless spun shells, and I can’t honestly say there’s any audible difference. I get the concept in theory, and even now I’m considering buying a particular seamless drum, but the rolled and welded ones I owned were not lacking in harmonics, sustain, or whatever other qualities are supposed to be affected by the weld. “Purity” wth is that?

The seam is always polished away and invisible on the exterior, but they usually don’t put as much work into hiding it on the interior. Look in from the reso side and rotate it around, looking for a vertical line. If you care about it.
 
Also I’ve owned a few of both bronze and copper, and I love both, but I lean slightly toward bronze for versatility. This is an exaggeration and oversimplification, but if brass is bright and copper is dark, bronze is in the middle.
 
Also I’ve owned a few of both bronze and copper, and I love both, but I lean slightly toward bronze for versatility. This is an exaggeration and oversimplification, but if brass is bright and copper is dark, bronze is in the middle.
I haven't played a copper snare but bronze had a really nice sound to me. I'm told copper is closer to a woody sound. I have a enough of that currently with my 3 woodies. Been watching some demos. I'm thinking bronze is where I'll end up if I pull the trigger.

This demo has me goin' !!! Sounds really good and it's different from anything I have currently.

 
Marketing buzz words aside, I think the main thing is to audition them in person. Mainly how do they sound to your ears and feel under the hands. Keeping in mind once a microphone is placed on a drum sonic attributes can be altered unintentionally.
 
Marketing buzz words aside, I think the main thing is to audition them in person. Mainly how do they sound to your ears and feel under the hands. Keeping in mind once a microphone is placed on a drum sonic attributes can be altered unintentionally.
Absolutely. Great point. Took a few years for me to truly grasp the effects of microphone placement and listening to samples online. It’s best to try and play the drums if possible. My biggest screwup was getting an AK Copper snare some years back. Sounded great in the video, but in person it was extremely too dark for my taste. Sold it not too long afterwards.
 
Marketing buzz words aside, I think the main thing is to audition them in person. Mainly how do they sound to your ears and feel under the hands. Keeping in mind once a microphone is placed on a drum sonic attributes can be altered unintentionally.
No doubt but aside from buying 5 of them it's not going to be practical to try out the ones that pique my interest. I try to look for demos that try to be relatively "honest" in their recording approach. I've bought so much stuff sight unseen it isn't even funny. With a fair amount of research and discussion on the 'net I think it's possible to get pretty close to an in person experience. Have I been fooled a couple times? Sure. After a while you can tell who makes the "good stuff" and be relatively sure that you're getting a quality instrument.
 
I had that 5” one and loved it, only sold it to partly fund a more expensive snare. Which I also ended up selling—the Gretsch was better. I think I’ll buy the 6.5 version next, but the 5” was killer.
 
Shoot!!! Again a super bronze snare, I thought I was done in choosing the Dunnet Bronze snare but I I'll have to compare now, anyway, thanks topper it, I know Canopus is really high end and this one sounds very good too!!!
 
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