Ludwig Acrolite is the default snare that is easy to dial in and can be had for less than $250.

benadrian wrote: Sun Aug 24, 2025 1:13 pm

thecr4ne wrote: Fri Aug 22, 2025 6:01 pm GK 800RB, So Cal, $300
https://offerup.com/item/detail/064b57a ... 7ab4774ecd
.

Weird, condition is "for parts", but the description says "works great, sounds great". Hmmm.

San Diego / LA corridor is the land of cheap GKs, there will be another

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 4:31 pm If y’all happen to see any of those “if you only get one snare get this one” jobs for ~$250 before shipping can you holler at your boy? Can go higher if the resale value has a decent enough cushion.

I am not playing loud rock music, don’t care about playing loud rock music.

I just want something that will work for old sorta 60s-70s sounds and that isn’t going to require any fixing up from me.

I saw an old post from ringo where he talked about a 5x14 ludwig with a calfskin head and thought, yes, that’s what I want! But when I started looking at listings for that model I don’t know what i’m looking at, or even what to ask the seller.

I can figure out the basic maintenance and changing heads. I just want a single snare I can work on, point mics at, mess with, then let someone else have at.

(I tried to find one locally and left with a garbage nylon acoustic if that tells you anything.)

This has absolutely zero mojo, but it’s almost certainly in-round, chrome looks nice, and has 60-70 bucks in new heads and wires.

https://www.facebook.com/share/17X7wCMK ... tid=wwXIfr

Unless you have a need for a particular sound, or are concerned with brands, I personally would simply look for some budget line metal drum from a major player made in the last 40 years that was treated nicely and has good heads and wires, form 5” deep to 6.5”. Then you’ll still have a few $ left to experiment with heads and tuning, which is so much more important than whether your drum is steel or aluminum or fucking carbon fiber sandwiched with pernambuco or whatever people are wasting money on these days.

Nate Dort wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 5:34 pm Ludwig Acrolite is the default snare that is easy to dial in and can be had for less than $250.

Concur.

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Tue Aug 26, 2025 8:24 am

Nate Dort wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 5:34 pm Ludwig Acrolite is the default snare that is easy to dial in and can be had for less than $250.

Concur.

Nate Dort is never wrong.

Another great deal in the current lineup is the Supralite. This is the Acrolite of the future.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... by-14-inch

dontfeartheringo wrote: Tue Aug 26, 2025 10:28 pm
Another great deal in the current lineup is the Supralite. This is the Acrolite of the future.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... by-14-inch

I’m glad - I actually tried one out the other day and it was the coolest sounding snare in the store. I guess I could have gotten it but I didn’t like the other options they had to compare it to, so I couldn’t tell if I would have regretted it or not.

I’ll keep looking for a vintage Ludwig (I’m in TX or that Pearl Export would be an option), but if I get tired of thinking about it and decide not to roll the dice on a vintage model I’ll get one of them S****ater Superlites.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Wed Aug 27, 2025 7:43 pm (I’m in TX or that Pearl Export would be an option)

What I was mostly trying to get at is there are a bazillion decent metal snares out there and you could very well find something vastly under your $200 price point. You could take the savings and pick up a few different heads, and snare wires which, broadly speaking, is a bigger tone factor than Pearl vs Ludwig vs Tama or whatnot.

dontfeartheringo wrote: Tue Aug 26, 2025 10:28 pm Another great deal in the current lineup is the Supralite. This is the Acrolite of the future.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... by-14-inch

Man.....10 lug and whatever depth you like for $209 is kinda awesome. I paid $245 for an Acrolite a few months ago and I might not have done it had I known about these.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 4:31 pm If y’all happen to see any of those “if you only get one snare get this one” jobs for ~$250 before shipping can you holler at your boy? Can go higher if the resale value has a decent enough cushion.

I am not playing loud rock music, don’t care about playing loud rock music.

I just want something that will work for old sorta 60s-70s sounds and that isn’t going to require any fixing up from me.

If you're going for vibe-y/vintage-y sounds, I'd suggest looking for a few cheap snares and setting them up to do different things. The acrolite is a great suggestion, but you might be happier getting a few different oddball $50 snares and trying out different heads and muffling arrangements. I'd look for a cheap old 6-lug japanese wood snare (stewart/supreme/star), and a budget model steel snare to start. Any used section of any guitar center should have one or the other or both. You should be able to get the spectrum of dull wet thud to clangy ringing cut out of those two drums. Stock up on tea towels / tape / bandanas / binder clips / etc. Coated heads with a center dot work well for those sorts of sounds too.

Just in terms of optimising for frictionless studio efficiency, you're better off having a bunch of options set up to do different things than you are having one "nice" thing that technically can do everything, but you're constantly tweaking it to get it where you want to be. Shitty drums usually sound rad.

Oh, also, check out the various Drumetrics feeds for lots of good examples of leaning into weird old bad gear for excellent vintage-esque drum sounds.