Paralysis by Analysis

BruceW

Senior Member
I've been drumming for a long time, closing in on 40 years now. So it's sad to admit how little i really know about drums, drumming and equipment. There's any number of examples of this, the one that spurred this thread is just trying to decide on what to buy to give my snare a tune up.

The sheer number of heads available is daunting. This applies to pretty much all gear. Having lots to choose from is both a blessing and a curse. I can and do read reviews, here and other places, I am simply overwhelmed. Yes, while it would be great to try different stuff and see what I like, I simply don't have the extra cash to buy more than one "thing" that I need. The local stores don't carry much of a selection, else I would have just sucked it up and bought what they had, and have been done with it.

Fortunately we have resources like this to help along the way. I keep putting off ordering stuff, cuz I can't make a decision. Sigh. Oh well, I'll just jump in and hope :)
 
If it is just heads I can't see making a mistake with either Remo or Evans brands. Go to their websites and read their descriptions of sounds to be expected and go from there. Happy hunting.
 
Keep it simple. Clear or coated heads 10 mil heads, with no gimmicks, are classic. The rest subtract frequencies. Don't over complicate things.
 
I've been drumming for a long time, closing in on 40 years now. So it's sad to admit how little i really know about drums, drumming and equipment. There's any number of examples of this, the one that spurred this thread is just trying to decide on what to buy to give my snare a tune up.

The sheer number of heads available is daunting. This applies to pretty much all gear. Having lots to choose from is both a blessing and a curse. I can and do read reviews, here and other places, I am simply overwhelmed. Yes, while it would be great to try different stuff and see what I like, I simply don't have the extra cash to buy more than one "thing" that I need. The local stores don't carry much of a selection, else I would have just sucked it up and bought what they had, and have been done with it.

Fortunately we have resources like this to help along the way. I keep putting off ordering stuff, cuz I can't make a decision. Sigh. Oh well, I'll just jump in and hope :)

Yeah, I've experienced that vein of thinking before. I think the underlying cause is I don't really want to buy something new. :)gasp:)
 
I've been drumming for a long time, closing in on 40 years now. So it's sad to admit how little i really know about drums, drumming and equipment. There's any number of examples of this, the one that spurred this thread is just trying to decide on what to buy to give my snare a tune up.

The sheer number of heads available is daunting. This applies to pretty much all gear. Having lots to choose from is both a blessing and a curse. I can and do read reviews, here and other places, I am simply overwhelmed. Yes, while it would be great to try different stuff and see what I like, I simply don't have the extra cash to buy more than one "thing" that I need. The local stores don't carry much of a selection, else I would have just sucked it up and bought what they had, and have been done with it.

Fortunately we have resources like this to help along the way. I keep putting off ordering stuff, cuz I can't make a decision. Sigh. Oh well, I'll just jump in and hope :)

Tell me about Bruce-before Drummerworld I was just as clueless and a life long dabbler of drumming. Fads have come and gone and I'm only just now finding out about them. I always thought "Drums ain't that complicated" gee how naive. Don't fall into let me try this head. Good grief I did had a closet full of different brands and single ply, double ply, hydraulic, pin stripes, vented heads, etc, etc, etc. Evans and Remo both make great single and double ply heads (I'm not a huge Aquarian fan but lord I bought a bunch of them) and that is all about you really need. Oh and bass drum heads OMG HUGE changes from the old days-they are awesome now and I haven't even begun to explore all of that (I found Evans PS3 great for my taste pretty early). I'm really a big Evans fan now though my loyalties to Remo still are strong.
 
What is it that you're trying to do?
I assume it's get your snare dum to sound the best it can for a particular style of playing?
If that's the case then as others have said: try Remo or Evans websites- choose a thin, medium, or heavy weight model batter and an appropriate resonant to match.
a basic 16 or 20 steel strand set of "snappy" snares or generic equivalent should set you off in the right direction unless you're looking for a more dry articulate concert snare drum sound such as an orchestra.
There's a youtube channel called "sounds like a drum" with good useful information on snare tuning, snare wire choice, head selection etc...

If local selection is marginal there's mail order like Amazon.com etc...

You can always call music stores, and the drum manufacturer themselves or write to them to see what they recommend.

Best of luck in your sonic pursuits.
 
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Due to the huge number of choices, I stick to certain brands to keep the choices reasonable. Sabian, Evans, and La Backbeat have what I want. Peace and goodwill.
 
What is it that you're trying to do?
I assume it's get your snare dum to sound the best it can for a particular style of playing?
If that's the case then as others have said: try Remo or Evans websites- choose a thin, medium, or heavy weight model batter and an appropriate resonant to match.
a basic 16 or 20 steel strand set of "snappy" snares or generic equivalent should set you offf in the right direction unless you're looking for a more dry articulate concert snare drum sound such as an orchestra.
There's a youtube channel called "sounds like a drum" with good useful information on snare tuning, snare wire choice, head selection etc...

If local selection is marginal there's mail order like Amazon.com etc...

You can always call music stores, and the drum manufacturer themselves or write to them to see what they recommend.

Best of luck in your sonic pursuits.

Thanks for the heads up on the YouTube channel, I'll try and check that out. As for your other points, well...I don't know what I don't know. That's kind of the issue for me. I guess I'm just not educated enough to know what I actually want, let alone describe it. So the amazing amount of choices simply have me overwhelmed to a point. I enjoy reading and researching about drum gear, but when it comes to pulling the trigger, I don't know how to narrow it down.

That having been said, I likely will just go with the most common Evans heads and the snare that everyone recommends (but escapes me as I type this, heh) and be done with it. Thanks for the suggestions, folks. Love this place.
 
I could be speaking out of turn here, but it seems to me that many of the choices that we see when it comes to stuff like drum heads are simply not necessary for 85% of people's drumming needs. A person could get by with the following for snare:

1 or 2 ply coated
1 or 2 ply clear
200 weight snare side
300 weight snare side

For toms, see the snare head options, but leave it at 1 ply clear for bottom heads.

There are some other heads, such as Evans EC2s or Remo Pinstripes, and they offer some neat dampening, but that can be achieved other ways.

There's no need to over-complicate things when it comes to either heads or sticks.
 
So my new stuff arrived in the mail, and I finally got the chance to work on the drum. Its an old metal Tama RockStar, I will admit that I haven't given it a whole lot of tlc since I got it, and I bought it used and not particularly pretty at the time.

Once I disassembled it to change the heads and snare, I decided to try and clean it up some. I did some research on cleaning metal snares online, messed around a little, and was pleasantly pleased with the results. I learned that to really do a proper job would take more time than I had, but its still in much nicer shape than it was. And I know better what to do the next time I can tackle it.

I'm still trying to figure out how to tune the foolish thing better, but it sounds pretty good too. It's amazing how little I know about this, after all these years. I don't have the time nor space to really whack it at home much, so I'll have to continue the fine tuning before my gig this weekend.

Good learning experience. I'm envious of you folks who can spend lots of time messing with this stuff.
 
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