Every once in a while these last years someone in the blues band I play in would ask “why don’t you get a snare?” And I would answer “because I’m happy with my washboard and bones, and have enough to learn already”. But sometime last winter Blaise, who already had and old drum set lying around, bought a newer one (used) and so as much out of curiosity as anything I pick up his old snare and added it to my set. I had mixed feeling about this, one being the worry that if I actually learned how to use it, I might be pushing the band towards and more electric blues style that I wasn’t sure I actually wanted to be playing. But temptation comes in all forms and there it was…
The drum in question, a metal 14” snare with no obvious branding, was in pretty bad shape, the skins where shot, the tunning screws likewise – hard or impossible to turn – and the snare mechanism: ditto; a fight to raise it and rattle to hell. But still, it was fun to have and to hit and it added an indubitable spice to certain songs. Little by little it became a part of my setup, bringing it’s good and bad sides with it. The good: hands on experimentation with no risk of damage; nothing could make that drum worse. The bad: everything else… but mainly the sound (its horrible metallic ring) and the thought of spending money in an attempt to improve it.
So during the summer the wondering began: should I get a better one?
After spending time on the web “educating” myself the fact was obvious: my budget didn’t seem to offer much choice. And how to chose? What did I know with my beginner level skills anyway? Good question.., I knew this: I didn’t really like the sound of basic metal drums – when I have my washboard on my chest while playing, a 14” snare is a bit too big to be sitting comfortably so a smaller one seemed worth a try – a smaller snare would hopefully also be less loud, balancing out the volume levels with it and the washboard (?) – theoretically at least, it should be possible to make a less expensive but decent enough snare to sound good with proper tuning and decent skins. This got me searching for wood, 12” snares which in the not too expensive range pointed to a Pearl Firecracker.
Then where to find and try one in Switzerland? The web is a great place to find information but it does raise a few issues. A basic one is first seeing the US price for things and then discovering the Swiss price: that extra 40 to 60% markup can considerably cool down the hottest desires… And those are the prices you see on the websites of big music stores that have shops in other countries too. Go down to your local music store and add some more! Still IMO, a good local shop is a nice thing to have and one would want to support it, buy stuff from them and not from some anonymous extra-too-big company trying to take over the market; otherwise they, your friendly local shop, will go out of business…
So it’s down to the local shop: Hi hello what can I do for you? Sorry no can do.
What?
Pearl belongs to Fender (or something like that), to sell their products I would need to have 6 guitars in stock, not viable in this small town.
Oh.. too bad, well goodbye then…
Wait! Why are you interested in that particular drum? I have a 12” snare I ordered for another client who changed his mind…
Which is how I ended up with a 12" DrumCraft series 6, 8-ply Birch snare drums with REMO UK Ambassador coated batter heads (worth mentioning) which I've been using since; and very pleased I am! With the help of a few videos, mainly these two: Drum Tuning Series Pt. 2 SNARE and Broken Opportunity, Pt. 1 Eliminate Snare Buzz?, I now have a sound that keeps me banging! The last touch made yesterday was to cut off 6 snare strands. The main reason for this was that on the drum’s cheaply made snare the outer strands where looser than the center ones and it seemed worth risking it, all the more since I did feel the drum had too much snare anyway (which it did). Can’t wait to go practice now!