I'm sure a lot of you already know about the iNDE (yeah slightly cheesy name, whatever) strainers: works great, reasonably affordable, made in Kalamazoo.

https://www.indedrum.com/strainers-butt ... ainer-only

Of my snares, the strainers, from worst to best:

Gretsch “baseball bat”: garbage and won’t stay engaged, but the drum is 60 years old, so might be a factor?

Gretsch “lightning” throwoff: when it worked, it was wobbly because the steel rods had worn the holes eccentric in the cast bits, but it was ok. Now it’s broken and I need to restore it. Too bad, it’s a nice sounding metal drum. Again, 50+ years old so I can’t complain too much. When it worked it was nice; you could use your leg to throw the snares back on.

Trick strainer, on homemade stave drum I made: solid but too overengineered.

P85 strainer on B/O supraphonic: works fine, no sticking.

Noble and Cooley: basic chunk of brass with a simple pivot. No fancy stuff, works great.

penningtron wrote: Mon Sep 12, 2022 9:21 am I'm sure a lot of you already know about the iNDE (yeah slightly cheesy name, whatever) strainers: works great, reasonably affordable, made in Kalamazoo.

https://www.indedrum.com/strainers-butt ... ainer-only

These look nice. Wish the lever extended a bit higher.

losthighway wrote: Sun Sep 11, 2022 5:05 pm ^ Fuck off, that's awesome! Lucky dog.

Oh it gets better. Back around 2001 Zach Barocas gave me a 12x7 Pearl. That thing is a one-trick pony, all it does is go KAPOW, but what a trick. Rimshots on that thing just totally slay. Here it is with Gavin's Gretsch:



Both of those dudes were really big influences on my playing, I got to record both of them a few times at my old loft. Super lucky dog!

MoreSpaceEcho wrote: Oh it gets better. Back around 2001 Zach Barocas gave me a 12x7 Pearl.

Is that used on the s/t Jawbox? Great record/band/drumming, etc., but yeah, maybe not a sound I'd go for myself, hehe.

It was the '90s..

Not sure, I'll have to ask Zach. I met him circa '99 when he was playing with the Up On In. The first time we saw them, he did an air hit in one song, just a big swipe to the left of the hihat to mark the time. I remember my whole crew looking at each other like "did he really just do that?" It's just a simple little thing, but I dunno, nobody does that, it was cool.

Besides his playing being influential to young(er) me, back then he was playing a Baltimore Drum kit, 20 10 14, with the same size snare as the Pearl. Little drums, tuned high, hit fucking hard. It was a really distinctive sound and I noticed right away that it really lit up a room. It really cut through, it was aggressive, but at the same time you could hear the pitches of the toms, it was melodic. I really dug it and I had a cheapo Premier kit the same sizes, so seeing Zach was like *ding ding light bulb ding* Right! Try and do it like that guy.

Yeah. Even though Jawbox had a fair amount of success by then, I think a lot of those sort of drum sounds came out of a time where bands would be playing a VFW hall or bowling alley or whatever with minimal PA. And those sounds work fairly well in a large room with little close mic emphasis (June of 44 also comes to mind). I was most active as a drummer then (99-2003 or so) and I played a 13x6.5" maple w/ re-rings DW snare tuned a little more in the 'woodpecker range' than I'd care to admit now.

Ludwig P85 gets a lot of hate but I don't mind them when they haven't been abused. I have them on 3 snares (acrolite, supraphonic, vistalite) but I do think the P83 strainers tend to be in better shape. The P85 on the vistalite snare I just got came to me barely functioning. Was getting stuck and wasn't very smooth. I unscrewed the sliding part from the base, took some fine steel wool to a burr I found, then lubed the moving points and channel with Wahl clipper blade lube I had laying around and it works good as new! All while it was still on the drum.

I don't know if they were designed to be this way when they were new or not (since they are all a little bent differently), but this one seems to click into the knurled wheel to keep it put. My other two are definitely not that way.

I do wish the P85/P83 had the ability to use a strap instead of cord though. That's my only real beef.

tommy wrote: Mon Sep 12, 2022 3:47 pm Ludwig P85 gets a lot of hate but I don't mind them when they haven't been abused. I have them on 3 snares (acrolite, supraphonic, vistalite) but I do think the P83 strainers tend to be in better shape. The P85 on the vistalite snare I just got came to me barely functioning. Was getting stuck and wasn't very smooth. I unscrewed the sliding part from the base, took some fine steel wool to a burr I found, then lubed the moving points and channel with Wahl clipper blade lube I had laying around and it works good as new! All while it was still on the drum.

I do wish the P85/P83 had the ability to use a strap instead of cord though. That's my only real beef.

The new ones do and they're not that expensive if you like them that much. I suppose because I am always buying used, I assume they're shit because they've been abused and broken by previous owners.

penningtron wrote: Mon Sep 12, 2022 9:21 am I'm sure a lot of you already know about the iNDE (yeah slightly cheesy name, whatever) strainers: works great, reasonably affordable, made in Kalamazoo.

https://www.indedrum.com/strainers-butt ... ainer-only

I have this (and the butt plate) on my supra and I love it. Finely tunes and sort of locks in. I wondered about the length of the lever, but turns out I like that I'm less likely to accidentally turn it off. I also think it's very nice looking.