How to choose a Funky snare drum

[sabian0324]

I'm a drumer from Taiwan.
Now I consider to buy a new snare drum for my drumset.
But I don't have any clue to choose a good funky snare.
I like David Garibaldi's snare drum, but it's too expensive..
so can anyone give me some advice to choose not-too-bad funky snare drum...
and also with not-too-expensive price

[HardHitter]

Chad Smith signature...cheap and funky!

[echoofformless]

Yeah the Chad Smith is a good one.


For a little more money you can purchase a good wooden snare.....funk drumming sounds a little better with wood in my opinion.


Plus keep in mind that to have that nice tight funky sound, you should go for more shallow depths.

[vanillaCOKE2k2]

u posted this in the help line forum.

[rjx]

A birch snare

[PearlDrop]

I think you can get a funky sound from almost any snare drum. The funk pioneers in the 60s and 70s didn't always have "great" equipment.
I think the sound you get really comes down to a few things.

STICKS: use thin, light sticks, smaller than you'd think
HEAD: use a one ply coated head (and actually let the head get old, don't change it too often
TUNING: tune it pretty high, but not so high that it's choked
TECHNIQUE: most of the old funk guys played really quietly....don't hit too hard. Learn to mix in different strokes (rimshots, hit in the center, hit a rimshot off-center) You'll realize that when you hit a rimshot lightly with small sticks, you almost get MORE crack than if you whacked it with a 2B!

If I was going to choose a funk snare, I would get a 5" steel drum. In a way, for funk, I prefer a semi-cruddy sound rather than some custom exotic wood snare. For toms I would get some cruddy toms at a yard-sale and take off the bottom heads. That would sound more "authentic" to me.
BTW, I'm speaking of the original, old-school funk.
If funk to you means The Chilli Peppers, then disregard everything I've said.

[Ambion]

I would use a 14" x 5" deep birch or steel snare, for sure.

[matty boy]

Although all you guys have been suggesting brighter sounding snares with a shallow depth i'm affraid i have to disagree. I would suggest a deep snare preferably maple with few plies if you want the classic warm sound (for example dennish chambers uses a 4 ply maple that is 6 or 7 deep) however getting a smaller diam like a 13" will give it the hight end pop/crack sound. i'm looking into buying the yamaha maple custom absolute 13"x6" because when i tried it it sounded warm responsive and high pitched. That is only my definition of a "funk" sound, just buy the snare you like the sound of or look into other funk drummers and what they use. Heres a good website for that: www.drummerworld.com FUNK RULES!!!

[bigtone23]

A Ludwig Acrolyte is a **** funky snare for about $100 USD.

[BloodMagician]

I use a 12x5 steel shelled Pearl Firecracker for funk tunes. It works really well for that as well as soul-groove ballads such as Marvin ***e or Al Green. It's very nicely priced too.

[Sonorlite]

Get an Acrolite. Cheap and easy to replace. Stanton moore was using one of these regularily with Galactic. -if he aint fonky....i dont know who is.

But in truth.....alot of snares can be used. Garabaldi was previously using a Dynasonic and a ludwig 400.