how many snares??

[drmrdude]

hey,
i play tenors in corps and in my high school band so i dont really know much about tuning snares or anything. but i was wondering how many snares should be on the gut. there used to be 16, but i cut three off on each side so now theres 10. should i still take off another. also, im kind of confused as to how to tune the gut and the heads right now. I have the snare sides (clear amb snare sides) tuned real loose and the batter (blackmax) tuned fairly tight. the only real specific snare sound we want is a good one. haha.
i tightened the guts up a little and it seems to help, but im not really sure how one goes about tuning them.

thanks a bundle

[DrumYoda]

Why would cut any of the snare strands off in the first place?

[drmrdude]

well i thought too many snares was a bad thing? and the drums sound better with 10 snares than 16. so i was wondering if they would sound even better with 8 than 10?

[PureRockFury]

Wow, you really do not know what you are doing. I suggest you stick to playing drums to stop the destruction of property that is not yours.

Too many or too little snares is never a bad thing, but the company that manufactured the drum put that many snare strands on the drum for a reason. Research and development. They feel the drum sounds best with 16 strand guts. If they felt the drum sounded better with 10, they would have put 10 on them.

I'm willing to bet the drum sounds way too dry and table top like. Congratulations on ruining a perfectly good set of guts. I would report what you have done to your band director or percussion caption head and pay for the replacement of the guts.

[ETdrummer318]

I've heard many groups who cut their guts, and their snares sound phenominal. However, I wouldn't suggest it, especially if you don't know what you're doing. I've found that the majority of groups who do it end up cutting too many guts, and completley defeat the purpose of having it be a SNARE drum. Be sure however, that you do not over tighten your snares (both in the tension, and in the vertical adjustments) because it will choke the bottom head and not only sound horrible, but greatly decrease the life of your guts.

As for the heads, my biggest pet peeve, is when people put a black or white max on the top of a drum and crank it. Just because you're playing on a marching snare doesn't mean that it should feel as if you were playing on a table top. At the opposite end of the drum, I can't stand when groups just throw bottom heads nonchalantly as if their only purpose is to look good. I've been told many times that the key to a good snare sound is in the bottom head. Personally, I tune my line with the bottom head about a half step higher than the top (we are also using the same head combination as you are, so you have to realise that the batter head can't be cranked in order to achieve this without blowing out the ambassator.)

I would personally have a snareline that is a little on the wet side, rather than a snareline that sounds too dry, however, you could achieve a dry snare sound without making your drums sound ignorant.

Anyways, if you do some digging, there should be a few threads on here about snare tuning, and how some corps outline their tuning methods.

[TuoKaerf]

I cut the guts, because there's a certain tuning that I've used for a long time and I know what I'm doing with it.

Just cutting the guts won't get the sound you're looking for. The head choices, tuning, playing style, and so on go into all of it.

[no.1cooldrummer]

http://pearldrummersforum.com/showt...ighlight=tuning
i think thats a pretty good snare tuning thread. As for the guts probably not the best idea, especially since new ones run about $50 a set well for pearls, and i assume its pearl becuase pearls have 16 snares. and as a side question about how long should guts last?
in any event good luck, its fine if you cut the snares, just as long as you can make it work and sound good i suppose

[drummer111]

hey,
i play tenors in corps and in my high school band so i dont really know much about tuning snares or anything......

dude then stick to playing drums with no bottom head

[drmrdude]

haha okay... im just trying to help out the snare section and learn a little about tuning. dont worry these drums are old as nuts and we're getting new ones after dca and i promise i won't touch them.

but just for the record we did sort of a little clinic and some guy talked to us and our band director about our line. and talked mostly about the snares. he basically talked about tuning and mentioned to the band director that there shouldnt be so many snares on the gut and should cut a couple. so after the little clinic type nonsense we got back at school and me and the director cut the snares.

[Imadampercussion]

Wow, you really do not know what you are doing. I suggest you stick to playing drums to stop the destruction of property that is not yours.

Too many or too little snares is never a bad thing, but the company that manufactured the drum put that many snare strands on the drum for a reason. Research and development. They feel the drum sounds best with 16 strand guts. If they felt the drum sounded better with 10, they would have put 10 on them.

I'm willing to bet the drum sounds way too dry and table top like. Congratulations on ruining a perfectly good set of guts. I would report what you have done to your band director or percussion caption head and pay for the replacement of the guts.

wow... you are such an ***... I wish we were all as smart as you and knew it all...

By the way, if we used your thought process about not modifying drums because the company did all the research and developement and it sounds best the way it is... then we should also never change to a different type of drum head and just keep using the stock heads that are sent on the drums directly from the factory. Because that is what they sent on the drum... it must obviously be what works best... right?!

I also find it funny as hell that his band director was the one helping him "destroy" the property. HA HA HA!

[Imadampercussion]

haha okay... im just trying to help out the snare section and learn a little about tuning. dont worry these drums are old as nuts and we're getting new ones after dca and i promise i won't touch them.

but just for the record we did sort of a little clinic and some guy talked to us and our band director about our line. and talked mostly about the snares. he basically talked about tuning and mentioned to the band director that there shouldnt be so many snares on the gut and should cut a couple. so after the little clinic type nonsense we got back at school and me and the director cut the snares.

To actually answer your question... I personally think it would depend on the size of your line and the sound you are going for. If you have a 6+ person snareline you might want to cut down on some of the snare sound if you want a drier sound. I remember seeing the bottom side of Cadets snares in 2002 and there was literally 6 guts and hella tape on them... but they were also marching 10 snares. I would recommend not cutting off anymore guts though.

As for how to tune guts... think of them like guitar strings, except they need to all be the same pitch (just for the sake of keeping it simple, some people actually like to tune the inner ones lower or higher and do actual pitches just keep it simple). Take 2 pencils and place one under each end of the whole strand of guts so they are resting on the bottom head (one by the throw off and one by the snare butt. This will elevate the guts so you can actually pluck them. It works even better if you have a guitar pick. It takes some time to tune the guts, so you need it to be quiet.

As for actually tuning the drum. Some one mentioned not over cranking the top head and I could not agree more. The top head dictates alot of the snare response you are going to get. You want the bottom head to be a higher "pitch" generally speaking than the top head. This will give you the most snare response. But if you are removing guts because you want a drier sound, then I would recommend you go a little high on the top. But no matter what you do not want to just slap the bottom head on like somebody had already mentioned. The most important head on a snare drum is the snare side head, with out it being properly maintained you might as well just be playing on a table top. Hope that helps a little.

I must add that I find it slightly odd a clinician would recommend you cutting off guts from a snare drum. Generally most clinicians try to keep their presentation unbias and general. They will talk about general playing technique, practice habits, and when they touch on tuning they generally stick with what comes on the drum. I have never heard of a clinician actually recommend removing items from the drum. Now maybe if they were talk about something they specifically do with their own groups I could understand that, but actually recommending or telling somebody they should remove guts, that just seems alittle odd to me.... but what do I know. I have never given a clinic and have only seen a handful of clinics by Scott Johnson, Roger Carter, Matt Savage and Murray Gusseck.

Anyway, that is my two cents on the matter... but obviously, everybody has their own sound preferences and do things slightly different. There are just some general things that don't change no matter what sound you are trying to produce on a snare and that would be... 1) you do want snare sound (so don't cut too many guts off) 2) the bottom head has to be tight to get a crisp snare response 3) the tighter the top head the less amount of snare sound you will get as well as projection (so keep that in mind too that the higher you crank the top head, you will lose volume/projection from a distance which you may or may not want depending on the size of your ensemble)

[PureRockFury]

wow... you are such an ***... I wish we were all as smart as you and knew it all...

By the way, if we used your thought process about not modifying drums because the company did all the research and developement and it sounds best the way it is... then we should also never change to a different type of drum head and just keep using the stock heads that are sent on the drums directly from the factory. Because that is what they sent on the drum... it must obviously be what works best... right?!

I also find it funny as hell that his band director was the one helping him "destroy" the property. HA HA HA!

Whatever your personal vendetta is against me, you might as well drop it. I'm opinionated and blunt. Get the **** over it. You have a personal beef, come see me at any DCA show. I will set the record straight.

I've been in the activity long enough to know what is good and what isn't. Cutting guts is necessary in some cases, however if you have no clue why and you were fed a bunch of bullcrap from someone who said the snares "have too many guts" then you have no place to make modifications to the drums. It's that simple.

Also, wouldn't it be up to the band director and/or percussion caption head or the snare tech to make that decision? Not some band kid.

I can't just go up to our beautiful snares and start making modifications because I don't think they sound good. I would be murdered by our snare line members, caption head and snare tech. But being in a DCA open class finalist and a Top 5 percussion program is quite a bit different than being in a marching band that is for certain.

I guess you learn certain things from a corps that can keep itself on the field for an entire season.

[Mr. Hadouken]

[QUOTE=ac_yammi] You have a personal beef, come see me at any DCA show. I will set the record straight.

Sorry bro but i just couldn't read past this.... its straight up **** high school style!

[PureRockFury]

Well I would rather speak on a much more personal level in person at a drum corps show. It's not a call to fight. Not even close. That is sophomoric at best and that is not me.

[Redeye]

sorry to derail the thread... but AC_Yammi, did you ever march DCI?