Best Low resonance snare head combo

[Lucius-Borich-JR]

Hey guys, i currently have a JJ sig snare, and the first thing you guys are gonna say is why put a low resonance head on a snare with barely any resonance to begin with. Well I currently have a powerstroke 3 head on the snare side and a clear ambassador on the wire side. I'm not happy with the default sound on the snare, it sounds a bit crunchy if you know what I mean. I want it to have low resonance but high attack..and have a punchy sound instead of a loud crackly noise. I've heard that Evans hazy 300 is a good batter head but I was wanting to ask if you guys could give me an opinion.

Thanks guys

[areFish]

Hey there LB. A Hazy 300 is a resonate head. Resonate snare head or snare side head is the same thing. I currently use an Evans HD Dry for the batter and Hazy 300 snare side head and like the results (I needed to tame it a bit). The HD Dry is a coated 2-ply head with an underside control ring and tiny vents around the perimeter.

[Russ]

Try a thicker weight resonant head for less sustain. If you're into Evans for drumheads, you might be interested in trying out a hazy 500 snare side. Resonance and sustain are not the same however, it sounds to me like you want heads that will help cut the sustain a bit and get right down to the attack. I would try that resonant head, and if you find you still need some more focus try a powercenter reverse or hd dry for the batter side.

[Lucius-Borich-JR]

My mistake I got it wrong....so does that give a decent punchy effect? And going about changing the batter head....how do I do that considering It has a snare wire their...any other recommendations...I normally use Remo and have never used Evans.

[Russ]

The powerstroke3 that you're using is a good head already, and should give you that punch that you're referring to. I used a similar combination on another snare and was never happy with it, I had a g1 that was not meant for the snare resonant head and it choked the life out of it. It turned into a good quality sound when I used a proper snare side head along with proper snare wire adjustments. Changing the reso head involves taking off the snare wire for a moment, but it's not that difficult. First turn off the snare wires by lowering the lever, loosen the strainer and the buttplate with your drumkey to release the wires, and then put on the reso head and tune it up.

[Lucius-Borich-JR]

The only problem I think I might be having is the clear ambassador on the bottom. Never liked the ambassadors...maybe if I stick with the powerstroke 3 but change the batter.

[Northern Redneck]

The batter head is the one you hit. The resonant/snareside is the other head. We call it the snare side because the snares rest against it.

[Lucius-Borich-JR]

Keep getting confused....haha.

[Russ]

The batter is the top side of your snare, the side that you hit. The resonant side is the bottom, where your resonant/snare side head goes. It sounds like you're using an ambassador for the resonant side, and a powerstroke 3 for the batter.

[Lucius-Borich-JR]

Yeah that's it...thanks for the corrections...the clear ambassador is probably the problem. Never liked the sound of those heads.

[Pearl MCX Man]

Changing you reso or snare side head to a Hazy 300/500 will definitly improve the sound of your snare. I thought the PS3 was a bass batter head. I am not familiar too much with Remo cause most of my heads are Evans except for my bass head which is the PS3 which came on the kit when I bought it 5 years ago and it still sound great.

[Russ]

Yeah that's it...thanks for the corrections...the clear ambassador is probably the problem. Never liked the sound of those heads.

They're good heads- it's just that I think you may be using the type intended for tom heads and not the snare. One of them is called Hazy Ambassador and comes in a 3mil, and the other is a much thicker 10mil. I'm guessing you have the thicker version on the snare, and it's not responding as well as you want. A problem I faced as well, until I swapped it for a thinner dedicated snare side head. Most companies that I know of make special heads dedicated for the snare resonant head, because the snare requires a different thickness for that side than toms and kick drums do. What you look for in a tom or kick reso is completely different than what you look for in a snare reso. When you take it down to something a bit thinner, you get better interaction with your snare wires and this is exactly what you want unless you do not plan to use the wires at all(turning the snare into a timbale like special effects drum).

[pelicandrum]

Hey there LB. A Hazy 300 is a resonate head. Resonate snare head or snare side head is the same thing. I currently use an Evans HD Dry for the batter and Hazy 300 snare side head and like the results (I needed to tame it a bit). The HD Dry is a coated 2-ply head with an underside control ring and tiny vents around the perimeter.

+1

I had this combo on my Tama metalworks steel snare and it had a great sound with little resonance.

[weezy]

+1

I had this combo on my Tama metalworks steel snare and it had a great sound with little resonance.

I use the same combination on a 14x7 maple. Rimshots have a very punch knock. I try not to play dead center with this combination, as it's almost too dry.