Suggestions for improving sound of a Yamaha SC snare.

single-ply

Senior Member
Hey all,

I'm looking for suggestions on how to improve the sound of a Stage Custom snare. I definitely have much better snares, but I use this one when I have to keep gear in the car all day. It's sound is not horrible, per se, but it just seems thin sounding without much meat to it.

Right now I have an Aquarian vintage medium batter, Remo hazy snare, and some puresound snares on it.

I can usually dial in a decent sound on my snares, but not this one. Any suggestions are appreciated.
 
I have Evans reverse dot snare heads on all my snares. Have you tried different heads. Believe it or not some snares sound better with stock snares too.
 
Is that the wooden or metal Stage Custom snare?

Try this head: https://amzn.to/2K3WcJr

It's coated, but the dot is on TOP. Slightly a bit more beef.

Also, make sure the snare side head is tensioned quite tight.
 
If the lugs have gaskets between the lugs and shells, remove them. You could brush lacquer or polyurethane the interior of the drum shell. You could check the bearing edges to see how good a shape they are in.

After doing all that, if you can't get a good sound with a regular coated 10 mil head and a clear 3 mil bottom head, with 20 strand snare wires...Check the hoops for trueness and roundness. A head should fall out of a hoop held in mid air. If the hoop holds onto the head so much that gravity can't pull it out, it will never tune properly.

Beyond that, cranking the bottom head really really tight and tuning the top head evenly are all I have.
 
If a snare sounds thin, then I'd go for a 2-ply coated batter for sure. I have an Aquarian Deep Vintage on my maple snare drum and it really added some beef to the sound.
 
Reso head: tighter than you might think
Batter head: not as tight as you might think
Snares: Looser than you might think

Also - what was wrong with the stock snare wires? I´m honestly not a fan of Puresound wires, those I tried did thin out the sound...
 
Reso head: tighter than you might think
Batter head: not as tight as you might think
Snares: Looser than you might think

Also - what was wrong with the stock snare wires? I´m honestly not a fan of Puresound wires, those I tried did thin out the sound...

I like this advices !!
Well summarised !

I do like Puresound snappy snare on my SD : and like it 's been said above : good Evans power center on top. On my Tama metal snare, I did what Larry says : take off all the rubber gaskets : and the sound was better (really noticeable... More metallic ring - funny)
 
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