What piece of gear didn't live up to expectation.

Several years ago I bought small (10" and 12") Stage Custom snares to make a 10/12/14/14 all snare drum set.

At the time, I said those two snares were 'useable', but looking back now, I think they actually sounded pretty crappy.
With the righ heads and tuning they can be killer side and even main snares for some styles.

I used one for over 20 years and only gave it to my friend because he needed a side snare and I just temporarily swiched to DW.
 
With the righ heads and tuning they can be killer side and even main snares for some styles.

I used one for over 20 years and only gave it to my friend because he needed a side snare and I just temporarily swiched to DW.

The regular 14" SC snare I have sounds pretty good for the price,
and the 13x6.5 Musashi Oak, and 13x6.5 Yamaha brass snares I have sound great,
but the 10 and 12 SC snares just didn't click for me.

I probably could have gotten them to sound better, but didn't want to throw good money after bad,
or at least not towards something that I wasn't likely to use.

The whole idea of an all snare drum kit didn't turn out to be my cup of tea.



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Rod type sticks or bundled small diameter, bundled wood sticks. Never last without breaking some of the wood strands.
 
I’d have to say the Ludwig Black Beauty a drummer at church sacrificed our budget for. Nothing about it lived up to the hype. It then got stolen which was the icing.

My Starphonic Bubinga. Beautiful drumm, but the best I can descr it is “too polite.” Nothing stood out about its tone. Not sure why.
My goodness does that blows. I never owned one, but I have a Pearl Breaded Brass which is similar in my opinion. Yeah .. it really doesn’t deliver.
 
The Tama Tension Watch TW200 didn't live up to my expectations. Besides the fact that it didn't help me tune drums better/faster, it really bothered me that I couldn't get repeatable readings.
 
The Tama Tension Watch TW200 didn't live up to my expectations. Besides the fact that it didn't help me tune drums better/faster, it really bothered me that I couldn't get repeatable readings.

I foresaw this and more with that device for my and got the very helpful and useful Tunebot instead. It also has it nuances, but it has been a great purchase.
 
The regular 14" SC snare I have sounds pretty good for the price,
and the 13x6.5 Musashi Oak, and 13x6.5 Yamaha brass snares I have sound great,
but the 10 and 12 SC snares just didn't click for me.

I probably could have gotten them to sound better, but didn't want to throw good money after bad,
or at least not towards something that I wasn't likely to use.

The whole idea of an all snare drum kit didn't turn out to be my cup of tea.



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Worked for Chris Dave for a D’Angelo tour
 
I think it was a bass drum and snare in the traditional places, snare as a rack tom, snare as a floor tom, and snare to the left of the hi hat..

Someone here did that too, and that's where I lifted the idea from.
I tried it with 10 and 12 mounted snares, a 14 snare in the usual spot. and another 14 as a floor tom in a stand,
but wasn't really too thrilled with it. Maybe I didn't give it a fair chance.
 
For me, I guess it might be Zildjian New Beat hats. Those have been talked about for ages, across genres, but I have never been impressed with the sound. The only Zildjian hats I came close to liking were A Custom.

I tried a set op Paiste Signature 14" Sound Edge hats a while ago, but returned them since i didn't like them. Last week played my 14" New Beats again and thought 'yup... pretty darn good!'. Think i might get the 15" New Beats next year just to have a tad lower pitched hats.
 
Someone here did that too, and that's where I lifted the idea from.
I tried it with 10 and 12 mounted snares, a 14 snare in the usual spot. and another 14 as a floor tom in a stand,
but wasn't really too thrilled with it. Maybe I didn't give it a fair chance.
In my experience, you have to be playing creative music that allows you to use those voices and sounds. Obviously, Chris Dave is super creative and he’s playing groove all night, kicks snare hat. So he can choose between a couple of different high hat and snare sounds.

The only other guy who can really get away with that is Jim Keltner, and that’s really only on the creative improvisational projects he does. I saw him do that snare as a mounted Tom, snom, with Bill Frisell. I think he’s has a quirky set up most of the time, but not always with multiple snares.

I’d love to do that, but I’m such a meat and potatoes, country rock and blues player that there’s just not that much opportunity. I did it once with a super loose snare in the floor tom position for when someone called super old Chicago style 40s and 50s chess records Blues. And it’s cool, but that didn’t last long, couple months maybe
 
Yamaha SD496. I could never get it in tune with itself.

Ultimately, I never fell in love with the 8x14 Copperphonic. It never punched as hard as I felt like it should. My Tama Star Reserve Copper is a much more satisfying drum to play, and I get tons of compliments every time I bring it into public.

Most modern As sound terrible to me.
 
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When I was younger I made the cardinal mistake of ordering a set of cymbals without trying them. Just based on reviews alone. They were all Sabian AA's.
I don't remember the models specifically but 14" hats, 16" crash, 20" ride.....I hated every single cymbal in that lineup. I've never touched a Sabian since haha.
 
A worthwhile tuning companion to Tunebot is the iDrumTune Pro app.
Love my Tunebot!
Haha - of course I had to jump on this but that's a solid recommendation. :) It's my go-to combo as well.

I use the iDrumTune app to check the interval between the batter and resonant heads. My favourite feature by far.
 
When I was younger I made the cardinal mistake of ordering a set of cymbals without trying them. Just based on reviews alone. They were all Sabian AA's.
I don't remember the models specifically but 14" hats, 16" crash, 20" ride.....I hated every single cymbal in that lineup. I've never touched a Sabian since haha.
Oh, the power of marketing and reviews. lol! Not a chance I'd buy much of any cymbals, except Paiste without hearing them in person. With that said, the Sabian HHX Evolution are also very similar across the line. It was a requirement to cary Dave Weckl's name. Not as close as Paiste, but everything I bought was almost spot on with the MyCymbal.com recordings.
 
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