Hi everyone, this forum rocks! Like most everyone else here, I am endelessly fascinated by drumming and drum gear, especially snare drums and cymbals!
Currently, I am thinking of getting a new snare. I've been always lusting after a Mapex Black Panther of some sort, and there's on Ebay now. There's a real pretty Deep Forest cherry snare, with gold diecast rims and I just wonder if anyone here has experience with this snare and could give me an idea of what it sounds like etc.? Also, would you recommend the 5.5" or 6.5" depth?
The Pork Pie Piglite 6x14 acrylic snare looks interesting thing, but I have some reservations about how good a plastic shelled snare can be, so again would appreciate your comments on this item.
Unfortunately where I live, we don't have many chances to try out drum gear, so this forum is a godsend for folks like me. Tks all!

Well since Im sitting next to a piglite, and i have some time before I go to work...i can't resist but to chime in. Ok here i go...gonna try and not ramble. The piglite is going to give you a solid feel, extremely sensitive response with an ultra bright but also pleasatly warm sound. It has a nice ring almost like a metal snare but very low sustain. I have found it has a sweet spot for tunning and once you leave it you might hate the snare. I bought this snare before I knew how to tune but right as I was wanting to learn. I spent HOURS sitting tunning it changing heads trying new combonations. I basically learned how to tune on my piglite and I have it at a point where I have fallen very deeply in love with it. I have mine with the sensitivity of a piccolo (42 strand wire) a mix of the warm of wood and the brightnes of metal with a very spot on sweet spot. I reallly love the snare. My only bummed out part is with all the practicing of tunning and excessive head changing due to my bad technique of tunning has left my piglite with some drum key scratches and tons of finger prints, but thats all asthetic. I'd say if your looking for a dark warm snare you might want to go with a wood snare but if your looking for something ultra sesnsitive with good attack and a bright sound look into acrylic. Try one almost every guitar center has one in they were on this trip of sending 14x6 black and clear ones around to every guitar center now it looks like we'll be seeing 13x7 amber ones. Just swing by some GC's they should have one. I'd try it its a very unique sound.

Pirate Pig cant say enough good things about Pork Pie!  am I wrong???  Still saving for my 6X14 BIG BLACK BRASS......Oink Oink

I agree that acrylic shells are perfectly fine, but (persnickity kinda guy that I am), I don't think that the acrylic-shell snares I've played (including one I built out of a Gold-N-Times shell), nice as they are, can hold a proverbial candle to carbon fibre or fibreglass - especially (my beloved) Tempus shells.  


What's on there now?  What's the existing drill hole spacing?

EDIT:  I just did the unthinkable and used the Cafe's search engine to find pix of your Zehner snare - and I see the Nickel throw.  (Did yours go blooey, or are you just looking for something different?)

There are several throws that will fit the same drillhole spacing as a Nickel.  Boutiques include the Ayotte Rack And Pinion (my favorite boutique), the Trick and Ego throws (flip a coin, both are made well and work great), and the new Dunnett throw (which I haven't tried yet).

BUT...IMHO, you should bypass the boutique throws and get a "stealth" strainer - go to http://www.drummaker.com/shop, and search for part number 5050.  Very simple, very clean, very reliable, kicks some serious butt in my book - and less than half the cost of any of the "boutique" throws.  Factoring in functionality, looks, and cost, it's my favorite overall throw, by a country mile.  Nolo condentere.

(Well, that's not quite 100% true - if Noble & Cooley ever decide to sell their throw as an aftermarket item, that would go to the top of my "favorites" list in a heartbeat...but the "stealth" throw's mechanics are fairly similar to the N&C.)

Also...zorrosg - what have you got currently in your snare drum arsenal?

I've heard great things about the Phosphor Bronze, as well as great things about the Mapex cherry snares - but the PB's really seem to be something special.  I haven't heard one yet, but based on an earlier "what boffo metal snare should I get?" thread, several votes were cast in favor of the PB.  (Interesting reading, BTW, if you're interested in scoping out other great metal snares:  click here for the link.)


My understanding - and my limited experience with such shells bears this out - is that cherry and birch don't sound all that dissimilar from each other.  I ended up selling a birch snare after adding a cherry snare to my arsenal - they sounded similar, and I liked the cherry just a bit more.  (Different shell designs were involved, tho, so don't read too much into that preference.)

Obviously, the reason I asked what you already had, is to see if there's an area that needs to be covered.  Is that "cheap Slingerland" a MusicYo Slingy?  They're pretty darned good drums for the money, IMHO - and the same can be said for your Acro.  It sounds like you've got a good foundation in terms of having "a good wood snare" and "a good metal snare," so if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't start out by limiting yourself to a certain category.  (If you only had the Acro, I'd say look into a wood snare; vice versa if you only had the Slingerland maple.)  

The buzz I've heard about both the cherry and PB Mapex snares is quite positive, but if you have to make a choice without getting to play the drums first...the Phosphor Bronze seems to have more of an "oooh factor" among its proponents, for whatever that's worth.

That's a carbon fibre shell, specifically, and the process that their c/f suppliers use involves (basically) baking the shells, which really makes them solid and gives them a very reflective interior surface.  In person, the shell puts me in mind of a deep Supra or a copper snare drum.  Tempus fibreglass and (especially) c/f shells have a more wooden characteristic to their sound.  Tempus uses a different method to craft their c/f and f/g shells, and they sound noticeably warmer to my ears.  Love 'em both, tho.

Check out my snare wire comparison page to hear what my 6x14 Tempus f/g sounds like with a ton of different snare wires.


I think Mr_A used to have one, maybe he still does.  Perhaps he'll chime in with some thoughts on it.

I'm good at Rambling on.

I have a 7x13 zehner half maple and half acrylic snare drum as well as a 6x14 zickos acrylic (like I said).

The 7x13 is quite a bit dryer than the solid shell drum and also more focused.  This thing is really warm and really dry.  It's a weird sounding one- I've never seen or heard anything like it.





You can hear it if you want here (it doesn't really sound like this now, but maybe the cut will give you a clue):

http://www.woolyinc.com/eyeballjam.mp3


The 6x14 I had played beforehand quite a bit at the drumshop and it's just a darn good snare drum for the money-  sound real big with tons of tone.  It's allot easier to dampen the tone than to pull it out of something that doesn't have it already.  To me, it seems like it's a more versatile drum.


Anyhow, I'll get some clips and pics of the zickos drum

Wow, very nice playing Felix! I listened to the clip several times trying to get a sense of the snare sound. To my ears, it sounds very round, almost mellow, too mellow for my taste personally. Didn't seem to have much power or cut, but then again you were playing it quite lightly, maybe it would have more bite if you were playing harder?
It makes me get a clearer picture of what snare sound is in my head, which at the moment I am clueless on. I think the snare must have some bite to it, some leading edge to the sound. I used to think that the really dry snare sounds of Harvey Mason or Steve Gadd was IT, because one could hear every little doodle they did on it, but now I also like a drum with some resonance in the sound. Used to be very afraid of ringing drums, but start to appreciate their beauty now. I've even started to take some of the O rings off my snares, haha!
And the look of your snare drum is strange/beautiful/bizarre/etc according to the eye of the beholder. But tks for sharing the clip, very nice playing!

Strangely enough, the one snare that caught my attention was a friends cheapo Yammy steel snare that hadn't been tuned in a million years, and the heads were even older on it with all the coating worn off in the middle. Yet it remember, it had a really crisp crack and attack to it that was just great. Bright and biting like a piccolo and yet had the extra dimension that most erh.. I mean my piccolo lacks.
But that was in the days before I go my hearing aid..
Just kidding - but the point is old nameless crappy uncared for cheapy snare drums can sound great, go figger?
I must confess I am the kind of guy though that if I spend some time bonding with an instrument, be it a snare or guitar or sax, I tend to 'bond' with it, and then have the urge to use it on stage more frequently.
Snares are kinda like chicks, if you spend too much time banging one, you may get stuck on it, or at least until the next craviotto comes along..
Oops sorry, was that a sexist comment? Apologies and peace!

I would trade any yamaha snare of mine in for a craviotto of any kind- period. (Like I would get an even trade).