Snare reso head always breaking

Pgdan

Junior Member
Hello! My snare side head breaks pretty often. I probably go through one every two-three weeks. I hit pretty hard but I still think that's it's too often that my head breaks in the middle of a set. My snare side head tension is pretty average, my snares are at a pretty average tension. Is this usually a problem with head tension or snare tension, or maybe the bearing edge, or how cold or hot it is in a room? Any help is appreciated! Thank you
 
Somethings wrong. My guess is your snare wires...possibly at the end plates....where the soldering is. Perhaps one of the solder points is too high and piercing your head? I'd try changing snare wires first.
 
Sharp burr on a bearing edge, snare, or wire plate.
Something sharp in the drum case or snare stand.


The broken head will likely tell you what's going on.
 
the only time i would consistently break head is on my old '78 slingerland, 12-lugger. i got it back from a "friend" i loaned it to & it kept breaking bottom heads. turns out this guy knew nothing about even tuning & would just crank down the 12 lugs randomly...warping both hoops (almost roller-coaster like when i took them off & put them on a table). so check that. i finally found 12-lug triple flange hoops & that fixed it.

always a good time for slingerland porn:
IMG_2568_800.jpg
 
Like the others said there's something wrong with your snare drum that's cutting into the head. There should be no reason a reso head is breaking that quickly.

I'd give your snare, snare stand and snares a very good inspection. Most often it's a burr on the snares that cuts into the head, but I've also seen a wonky snare stand damaging heads too.
 
Like the others say, check the drum's bottom edge to start.

Breaking a reso is kind of unusual, and certainly shouldn't happen frequently. I've been using the same snare on the road for maybe 400 shows, and I hit pretty hard with the butt of the stick (I've snapped 4 or 5 lug casings!) But I've never broken a reso, and have only changed it a couple of times just for a fresh start now and then (usually when I wipe down the drums at the start of a new tour!)

So yeah, there's a problem with the drum, or possibly a bad run of heads (although you'd have pull-out rather than the head splitting open.)

Bermuda
 
I would also check the snare stand to see that the head is resting on it and something sharp is cutting the head. I don't think you play hard enough to break a head. check for burrs.
 
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