i grabbed a new head for my snare drum today. i put it on and tuned it based on suggestions from forums i read. all of the tension rods are cranked down close to as far as they can go without really tweaking them. the tones from the drum right by each tension rod all give them same pitch.

problem is that when i hit the drum with the snares on, it gives a sort of high pitched metallic decay that sounds wrong.

any simple advice to tell me what i'm doing wrong, or am i just used to playing with a dead batter head on the snare?

also, i notice that the stand (ludwig) for the snare actually pushes onto the resonant head a little bit when i put the drum on it. is that right or wrong?

thanks for your help.

this is a good resource, if you haven't seen it already:

http://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/

I usually never tune my snare (Ludwig Supraphonic (5 X14)) that high, unless I want a nu metal snare sound or something.

When I put a new head on, I'll tighten the rods with my fingers until they can't go any further, then I give each rod something between 1/2 a turn to a full turn.

Have you tried loosening your resonant head? Try loosening the snares too, when they're too tight they'll choke the drum and make it sound more high pitched.

The stand touching the resonant head? It should be like that, the stand should only touch the rim.

Do you like the sound of the snare with the wires disengaged? Does it sound like a nice tom or like a high pitched tom?

Fixed the stand...no longer touching the bottom head. One of the arms was bent so I just bent it back.

The drum does not resonate much like a tom would. The decay is short, metallic and high pitched. I am hesitant to tune the bottom head because it came to me already tuned by someone I trust, but if that's the suggestion, I'm game to trying it.

Are they both just tuned too tight? Should I try putting some duct tape on the top head to get rid of the high pitched harmonic?

Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it.

So you're saying you have it tuned to where you want it to be, but you are experiencing a ring problem which you didn't experience before with the previous drum head?

First of all, since you say "metallic" ring, I am going to assume this is a metal snare as opposed to a wood snare. These tend to have a bit more ring, especially when the head is very tight.

You may have more tension on those lugs then you need. You said that you've tightened them "about as far as they can go" I've never tightene the tension rods quite that much. You may want to try easing them back some. This may or may not work.


Dontfeartheringo will have a different opinion about this but I've always found snare head rings very helpful in controlling unwanted ring. An easy $7 solution.

Ideally, you should be able to control your ringing problems with just tuning and the internal damper, but sometimes, due to the quality or condition of the drum, this is not always the case. In that case, one of those sound dampening rings can save a lot of headache.

(Oh, and don't put duct tape on your snare head.)

Yes, metal snare...it's pretty old. The ring sounds like a noise similar to the one you'd hear if you hit a tin can. The initial hit sounds good to me, but this decay just sounds wrong.

sleepkid wrote:Dontfeartheringo and skatingbasser will have a different opinion about this but I've always found snare head rings very helpful in controlling unwanted ring.

I personally love a nice ring on snare drums (makes it sound real!) But if you're looking to kill it grab some Moongels.

is it a "long" ring or a "short" ring?
I still think it's the head being way too tight. Whenever I put a new head on, I stretch it to the same point and when I hit it it sounds like a tin can.

Medium length ring.

I got some advice form the guy who gave me the kit. I think I have the head cranked down too far.

I was fighting ring in a snare drum for a while. The overtightened head(s) can do that, but make sure the ring isn't because of your location in the room.

I would recommend you try the drum in other locations if possible to see if you need to move your kit, else "fix" the sound where it is.