Noobie Needs Help On Snare

[MrBassist]

Hi guys, as you can see from my name, I am a bassist.

I received a drum kit for Christmas recently and have read tutorials and watched how to tune a snare drum. When I strike the snare batter head it makes a tom kinda of sound with a little bit of the "snare wire sound".

The strainer? locked in so the wires are tighter.

How can I make the snare sound more of a snare if you know what I mean?
I don't know if this has to do with anything, but the head is plastic? and the snare sides are steel or metal. Thanks :D

[MrBassist]

bump?

[Quadcam79]

all I can really tell you is first, drop the strainer and loosen the adjusting screw. Then flip the drum over so it's batter side up. slide a stick under the snares to hold them off the head. then detune the bottom head using a criss cross pattern 1/2 turn per lug until you have it loose. Dont assume that because it's a new drum it will be in tune, I just got a gretsch catalina maple kit and my snare was nowhere close to in tune when i got it out of the box

next go around the drum and tighten each lug to finger tight then pick a lug and tighten 1/2 turn, move across the drum and tighten the opposite lug 1/2 turn, do this around the whole drum. just until the drum starts to resonate. now tighten one lug at a time about 1/8th-1/4 turn until you bring it up to pitch, you can pick a specific pitch like A, use your guitar tuner to get the pitch, once you have the relative pitch go around the drum and tap the head about an inch in from each lug and compare the pitch, they should match, if they dont, turn the lugs in small increments until they do, if nothing changes use the opposite lug while tapping next to the lug you're trying to tune.

once you have all that done , loosen the butt end of the snare holder and make sure the snares are nice and straight, you dont want any uneven pressure across the snares.
then center the snares across the batter head, equal distance from each side of the rim. now adjust your strainer side and flip the strainer on, not try the drum, if it's too much tom you can adjust the stariner screw if that doesnt work you may have to put more tension on either the butt end or strainer end of the snare mount.

it's really hard to describe but dont overtighten the snares against the head, all that will do is kill the snare sound, it's basically the opposite of what you would think.

this may help
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxm3QunDjUs"]YouTube- Bob Gatzen - Snare Drum Tuning[/ame]

[Larrysperf]

Sounds to me like your snare wires are to loose and need to be adjusted. There is lots of info on Evans site for tuning and adjusting snares. Hope this helps. If you need me to I can explain but Evans site does it well

[yohin]

all I can really tell you is first, drop the strainer and loosen the adjusting screw. Then flip the drum over so it's batter side up. slide a stick under the snares to hold them off the head. then detune the bottom head using a criss cross pattern 1/2 turn per lug until you have it loose. Dont assume that because it's a new drum it will be in tune, I just got a gretsch catalina maple kit and my snare was nowhere close to in tune when i got it out of the box

next go around the drum and tighten each lug to finger tight then pick a lug and tighten 1/2 turn, move across the drum and tighten the opposite lug 1/2 turn, do this around the whole drum. just until the drum starts to resonate. now tighten one lug at a time about 1/8th-1/4 turn until you bring it up to pitch, you can pick a specific pitch like A, use your guitar tuner to get the pitch, once you have the relative pitch go around the drum and tap the head about an inch in from each lug and compare the pitch, they should match, if they dont, turn the lugs in small increments until they do, if nothing changes use the opposite lug while tapping next to the lug you're trying to tune.

once you have all that done , loosen the butt end of the snare holder and make sure the snares are nice and straight, you dont want any uneven pressure across the snares.
then center the snares across the batter head, equal distance from each side of the rim. now adjust your strainer side and flip the strainer on, not try the drum, if it's too much tom you can adjust the stariner screw if that doesnt work you may have to put more tension on either the butt end or strainer end of the snare mount.

it's really hard to describe but dont overtighten the snares against the head, all that will do is kill the snare sound, it's basically the opposite of what you would think.

this may help
YouTube- Bob Gatzen - Snare Drum Tuning

This.

[markthechuck]

take it to a shop i'm sure they'd help.