Drilling holes in a snare shell?

[lowendgenerator]

I've seen it on some nice snares, and I wasn't happy with the dead tone of my stock ddrum snare, so I busted out a drill and got to modding! I cut a 1.75 inch hole in the shell, and I must say, it made the snare sound better!

Before: Muted, quiet, bland. No character or life, even rimshots sounded lame.

After: Open, vibrant, a little more "ping". Not much of an increase in volume, but it definitely breathes better now.

So I guess my question is, who else has an oversized vent in their snare, and what do you think of it?

[Dustin]

Your a brave man to take a drill to your drum mate!

[Stevo42w]

its only DDrum... no great loss :P lol. But great you get it to sound better. I learnt about sound holes and stuff a while ago and there is a science / mathamatical reaason why they are needed. But i havent gone into that kind of detail before. Thats what the drum companies do lol,

[crazydrummer]

vented snares are a big hit with Ayotte drums...crazy expensive though...

[Dustin]

Orange County Drums make loads of snares with vent holes.
Endorsers of OCDrum include Travis Barker, Branden Steineckert (Rancid) and Adrian Young (No Doubt)

[rmandelbaum]

I just can't do it. There are so many great sounding snares without big holes in them. I am a traditionalist I guess.

I think Ludwig may have been the first to open up the shell in the 70s with their Slotted Colosseum snare.

DW has one you can change the hole size.

I guess if you are going gto have to experiment it is better in a DDrum then a Black Beauty

[backtodrum]

I am with you rmandelbaum I am a traditionalist as well.

[lowendgenerator]

I am a modder at heart. I don't think I own ANY musical instrument that doesn't bear some scar of a mad-scientist escapade. I think if the snare sounded better, I wouldn't have messed with it. But if something isn't giving off a pleasant tone, my first instinct is to "fix" it.

[rmandelbaum]

Hey man, it takes guts and you did it. it's all good ;-)