Want to hear the snare shell? Use a snare wire with less strands. Your experience?

roncadillac said:
I've always been an advocate of cutting out a few strands from the middle of a set of wires. It helps to reduce the sympathetic buzz and helps to bring out the shell tone but it doesn't decrease sensitivity. When I first started experimenting with this I cut strands off the ends, this brought out the shell tone but did nothing for sympathetic buzz and decreased sensitivity. Cutting a few out of the middle helps on all accounts.
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Great idea. I watched Bob Gatzen's clips that I posted here and did the same. Cut 4 middle wires from a 16 strand snare wire. That makes it look and behave like the12 strand "Equalizer" snare wire.


snare-wires.JPG
 
When I remove wires I clip them in the middle and wiggle and twist until it breaks free from the solder. Then I run my finger across the solder to find any rough spots and smooth any with an emery board.
 
striker said:
Great idea. I watched Bob Gatzen's clips that I posted here and did the same. Cut 4 middle wires from a 16 strand snare wire. That makes it look and behave like the12 strand "Equalizer" snare wire.
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Chop out four more, and you'll have the sound I like.
 
roncadillac said:
...I was always curious about using two big fat wires instead of a bunch of small ones.
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I've seen pictures of old marching drums that had two or four thick "gut" snare strands. I'd love to find out how that would sound on a regular snare. That might be a handyman project for the future. Hmmm... weed whacker string?
 
TMe said:
I've seen pictures of old marching drums that had two or four thick "gut" snare strands. I'd love to find out how that would sound on a regular snare. That might be a handyman project for the future. Hmmm... weed whacker string?
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Maybe take a bass guitar E string and cut a few pieces the length of snare wires then use a vice to clamp the ends flat and solder them onto the end plates of a set of snare wires (with the wires clipped off of course).
 
I tried it and it gave me more batter head sound than shell sound. It's darker and less metallic, but not necessarily more woody.
More wires send more of the shell sound (albeit a brighter part) through the mix. I'm a huge advocate of 42-strand wires on Gretsch drums, because they just turn the Gretsch dryness and crispness to 11. Still it depends on your snare beds if they'll give you a concise response without too much buzz/rattle. I wonder what will a wide snare wire sound like with the middle strands removed?

As for the 2 bass strings thing - I'd forget about it. It'd be darker than even the Grover guitar string wires, and it'd be difficult to excite them so the sensitivity would suffer (pretty bad, to my instinct).
 
I agree with the premise of going with a lighter strand count will give you less snare sound and thus allowing the influence of the drum/shell sound come through.......In my experience with my own snares, for the snares where I really want to hear the shell and the impact of a particular wood choice, I prefer a thin shell and the less hardware the better.......I know it is blasphemy but in this case I actually like an 8 lug snare.

People will wax poetic over their Jarrah-purpleheart-bubinga-mahogany-walnut-cherry custom super deluxe inlayed chunk of furniture and the special sonic qualities they believe each wood brings to the table then they will hang 10 or 20 heavy lugs, a large strainer and die cast hoops and I wonder if they realize they just threw a wet blanket over their investment........

That being said, I do like me a die cast hoop.......
 
River19 said:
I agree with the premise of going with a lighter strand count will give you less snare sound and thus allowing the influence of the drum/shell sound come through.......In my experience with my own snares, for the snares where I really want to hear the shell and the impact of a particular wood choice, I prefer a thin shell and the less hardware the better.......I know it is blasphemy but in this case I actually like an 8 lug snare.

People will wax poetic over their Jarrah-purpleheart-bubinga-mahogany-walnut-cherry custom super deluxe inlayed chunk of furniture and the special sonic qualities they believe each wood brings to the table then they will hang 10 or 20 heavy lugs, a large strainer and die cast hoops and I wonder if they realize they just threw a wet blanket over their investment........

That being said, I do like me a die cast hoop.......
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Nothing wrong with heavy hardware and cast hoops. You can even throw a very dry head on it and you can still hear the drum itself.

It all comes down to tuning.
 
TheDrummerFromAmsterdam said:
Nothing wrong with heavy hardware and cast hoops. You can even throw a very dry head on it and you can still hear the drum itself.

It all comes down to tuning.
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There isn't anything "wrong" with anything......there are many paths to a given sound. But, in my experience the less hardware mass on a given shell, the more the shell characteristics are allowed to influence the overall sound of the drum. YMMV
 
River19 said:
There isn't anything "wrong" with anything......there are many paths to a given sound. But, in my experience the less hardware mass on a given shell, the more the shell characteristics are allowed to influence the overall sound of the drum. YMMV
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Tbh I think heads, tuning, room, hardware, and sizes are 99% more important than wood choice and shell type in the grand scheme.

We just got so “brainwashed by companies over the years, making shure we buy the newest wood, or shell type, it got us all caught.

(Its even worse in guitar world).
 
TheDrummerFromAmsterdam said:
Tbh I think heads, tuning, room, hardware, and sizes are 99% more important than wood choice and shell type in the grand scheme.

We just got so “brainwashed by companies over the years, making shure we buy the newest wood, or shell type, it got us all caught.

(Its even worse in guitar world).
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I agree there are larger environmental factors that have a LOT more to do with the sound of a snare than shell material.....room etc. Since the thread was originally talking about snare wire impact on hearing the "snare shell" I kinda thought we were focusing on the drum itself......
 
River19 said:
I agree there are larger environmental factors that have a LOT more to do with the sound of a snare than shell material.....room etc. Since the thread was originally talking about snare wire impact on hearing the "snare shell" I kinda thought we were focusing on the drum itself......
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Apologies if I went off track.
 
I think 12-16 is perfectly valid and kinda that it should be more popular. I feel like I read Clyde Stubblefield used either 12 or 16 on a Ludwig for Funky Drummer and/or other JB hits.
 
On my 5x14 maple Ludwig I had to drop down to 16 strands but it brought life into that drum. Originally I had 30 strands, then Ludwig’s 18 strand, now a Gibraltar 16 strand and I find it suits the drum so much more. Very woody but still lively and responsive, it’s a 6 ply shell so it’s got some volume and crack to it.

I used to prefer 30 or 42 strands on everything, but I find that 12/16/20 strands have a place too. All about what you want to hear out of the snare
 
is it wierd that I don't even know how many strands are on my 62 Supraphonic? They are the original set....I also wonder if it would matter with metal shells

and re marching snares, there is a trick where you take off the outside 4-6 strands to gain MORE snare sound...The Cavaliers used to do that in the 90's/2000's, and I did that with my snares for a while. It has to do with removing snares on the edge of the strand to qllow the bottom head to resonate more
 
Here is a short clip with snare wire comparison and its effect on the snare drum sound. They also showcase the Puresound Equalizer.

 
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