Any issues with butt tensioning?

Andy

Andy

Honorary Member
We have a new design for a bespoke Guru strainer. This is a fairly involved process as I'm sure you can all appreciate. We're going for an ultra simple mechanism that's not been used before, very compact/low profile, &, of course, supreme quality/reliability.

This will be a "no frills" strainer. No multiple step tensioning, no hyped features, just something that's well engineered, smooth, positive, & works - every time. To keep everything very compact & mechanically simple, there's multiple benefits to having the tension facility at the butt end. I don't see an issue with this, & nor do any of our artists, but I'd really value your opinions on this.

As always, thanks in advance - your thoughts really make a difference :)

Andy.
 
Are you aiming to keep the mass down or is that not a concern for the snare drums?

I ask because I suppose you have two options. Either you go along the 'Ludwig' route like a P-86 (but a lot better) and make it light or you go the 'Trick' route and have a heavy strainer that is solid as a rock.

As for the original question, doesn't bother me. As long as it works and the wires are easy to align.
 
I think this might potentially cause a bit of annoyance for me.

I keep my strainer pointing towards me to keep it within easy reach and completely out of the way of my knees, which means that the butt (heh heh, butt) is pointing roughly towards my rack tom. If the tension knob (heh heh heh, knob...) was on the butt end of the snares, it would be hard to reach and also potentially rub against my rack tom (if it made the whole design more bulky).

My Black Panther has two tension knobs (one at each end), and that works fine. I only use the one on the strainer mechanism from day to day, while the other one is "set and forget" until it's time for a tune-up.
 
That makes a lot of sense and I see no mechanical/musical reason why not to separate the tension knob and the lever.
 
BacteriumFendYoke said:
Are you aiming to keep the mass down or is that not a concern for the snare drums?

I ask because I suppose you have two options. Either you go along the 'Ludwig' route like a P-86 (but a lot better) and make it light or you go the 'Trick' route and have a heavy strainer that is solid as a rock.

As for the original question, doesn't bother me. As long as it works and the wires are easy to align.
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Yes Duncan, we're aiming to keep the mass down. Low mass is always a good thing with all drums. You only want to add mass by choice (i.e. die cast hoops), not because it's part of the drum furniture.

In reply to the light vs. heavy question, we can have both low mass & high build quality/stability, it's just a question of good design & not being afraid to use high quality materials. As in all of our UK made hardware, we're taking the hard decisions first, then justifying the cost second.

Naigewron said:
I think this might potentially cause a bit of annoyance for me.

I keep my strainer pointing towards me to keep it within easy reach and completely out of the way of my knees, which means that the butt (heh heh, butt) is pointing roughly towards my rack tom. If the tension knob (heh heh heh, knob...) was on the butt end of the snares, it would be hard to reach and also potentially rub against my rack tom (if it made the whole design more bulky).

My Black Panther has two tension knobs (one at each end), and that works fine. I only use the one on the strainer mechanism from day to day, while the other one is "set and forget" until it's time for a tune-up.
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All good points Naige, & exactly the feedback I'm after. Firstly, this design is ultra low profile, so any fears of interference with your rack tom is a non issue. I think much of this will depend on whether most drummers adjust tension mid gig, or whether most just engage/disengage their wires. I certainly don't adjust tension mid gig, & even if I did, it wouldn't be mid song.
 
I always consider the strainer as a "side" of the snare that I point a certain way also in my case towards my left knee. Will the tensioner be large on the side of the snare much like the strainer? I point that side of the snare at my right thigh and would not like anything sticking out of the snare there. I know, turn the snare a different way to solve that problem, but also when transporting and moving my snare here and there I always protect the strainer, would i have to protect both ends in this case?
 
keep it simple said:
All good points Naige, & exactly the feedback I'm after. Firstly, this design is ultra low profile, so any fears of interference with your rack tom is a non issue. I think much of this will depend on whether most drummers adjust tension mid gig, or whether most just engage/disengage their wires. I certainly don't adjust tension mid gig, & even if I did, it wouldn't be mid song.
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Very true, and that's one of the main reasons why I use my Black Panther live even though the Black Beauty sounds better (to me): The Panther mechanism can stand up to my abuse, while the (shockingly awful) P-85 strainer on my Black Beauty can not (neither can the tension rods, for that matter. the whole thing goes out of tune far too easily).

So as long as the mechanism is solid enough to stand up to my punishment (and I'm guessing you're aiming for a pretty solid mechanism here), I would probably classify it as an extremely minor annoyance, if even that.
However, if my caveman rimshots caused the mechanism to lose tension I would find the design very frustrating.
 
My Gretsch snare has tension adjustments on both ends. I think it's a great idea and wish my other snares did this. The butt end adjustment is slightly smoother than the one on the throw off. I turn the snare so the strainer is on the left side, around 8:00 which I think is fairly typical. This puts the other side in no man's land over the kick pedal. I would think that having a tension adjustment there and a very compact throw off on the near side would work well for most folks who set up similarly. The only downside would be that it would be harder to play with in the middle of a song. Most good strainers you can reach down between back beats and tweak.
 
No way could I keep my butt tense for a whole gig. I need to be able to adjust.
 
I too am a fan of having a knob on both sides. It really helps even out the tension and get a bigger sweet spot across the playing surface. My snares that only have one knob, I wish had two.


Knob knob knob butt knob tension. I've hit my immaturity quota early today!
 
Every time my 21 year old wants to use the car I have issues with butt tensioning....sorry couldn't help it!

As for snare tensioning....I like the dual adjustment.
 
It all depends on how the butt looks and feels like!
Nothing skinny. A nice and round one works for me.

Seriously speaking, that sounds like a really good idea. As long as the snare strainer is not too big so it would get in the way of anything it shouldn't bee too much of a problem to position it on a way that you have access to it fairly easy
 
All good stuff guys, please keep it coming! Just to clarify, the idea is not to have tension adjustment on both sides, just at the butt end. This keeps everything super compact.

I'm specifically curious about the following: Assuming tension doesn't relax/slip, how many of you ever need to adjust tension mid song? I'm not talking about snares on/off, just minor adjustments or adjustment settings. Of course, I understand the need to adjust tension if your strainer/mechanism can't hold tension very well.
 
The 2 Gretsch snare drums I play have butt tensioning on them and I happen to not have any issues with them. They are fairly simply designed (but I may not know any better) and it's what I'm used to.

Conversely, a few months back I brought back to life a 1940 Ludwig snare shell that didn't have a spec of hardware on it and had a Trick GS007 strainer put on it which has no tension on the butt side. I could get used to that as well if that was all I used.

Sorry, not much help but to say for me I could go either way.

Lastly, I do not adjust the tension on my snare often - period. Never intentionally during a song.
 
Never had a snare that had a tense butt.

If my snares develop too much tension, it can be strained out. But not from the butt.


(I agree with most of the serious comments here about having the strainer/tensioner positioned facing towards my left side for easy access.)
 
I have drums with both double ended adjustment and also with the adjuster just at the throw off end. I haven't noticed any discernable difference in either case- it is what it is and is generally set and forget until it clearly needs to be adjusted. I think in terms of ergonomics that it makes a lot of sense to split the throw off from the tension adjustment and asthetically it may well look better balanced.

And I even managed to resist the temptation to work the phrase double ended into some sort of smut... must try harder....
 
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