Oh dear lordie, you need to change the heads?

I gotta go buy a lottery ticket now.

Laughing H

That made my day! Well, that and the merlot sparkle.

so is their any other snare that the triple threat batter snare head will work on?

I'll give another head a try.

I think you will find that most of the guys on this forum would say a three ply head is too much for a snare. If durability is a question, does anyone still make a Kevlar head. I heard a 5" black beauty the other day with an old Kevlar head tuned tight and it sounded great.

Having said that, perhaps we need an idea of what you would deem an ideal snare sound. I think everyone gets a little cavalier with suggestions about pretty much everything on the forum. Having some context would be key.

What snare sound are you looking for?

What snare are you using or do you have available?

What kind of venues do you find yourself in?

Is your kit mic'd?

If it is mic'd is this the "full on mic'ing" or just a kick mic and some overheads? By full on mic'ing, I mean a standard four piece kit would have at least 7 mics and as many as 9-10.

SCOTT, tall order...

looking for that loud, tight, crack, pop sound

snares I have in my arsenol hmmm

Sling 6.5 x 14 SK 70's

Sling Fest 5.5 cos 70's

Sling SK 5" 5 x 14 70's

Sling Hollywood WMP 60's 5x14

Sling Aluminun 5 x14 10 lug 70's

Sling Aluminum 5 x 14 8 lug 70's

Sling COB 5 x 14 60's

Ludwig 5 x 14 acrolite

Crush acyrilic 5.5 x 14

PDP all wood hoops and shell 6 x 14

Ludwig Pioneer 5.5 x 14

I play mostly clubs where they mic the drums each tom, bass snare, standard stuff

Slingerland, Listen carefully to this guy:

http://youtu.be/y_MOBn6Vtno

I found that my snares (vintage supra and 2012 BB) are killers if tuned in around 3:2 bottom/top. After watching the clip you will know what I mean.

It's time to find your sweet spot :)

That's cool, fast, easy and works very well. I just tuned both my snares (Slingerland COB Sound King and cheap wood Luddy Accent) and they sound great. The COB more so than the wood ply shell. But given all the heads are old and pretty used up I'm very impressed. Cool1

I'll have to check out the YouTube video that was posted. I love learning new stuff. As to your arsenal, you should have all kinds of great choices to get you where you need to be.

Truly, I think you are probably too hard on yourself to begin with. Everyone has an opinion of what a "good" drum sound is or is not. Unlike other instruments, drums are VERY subjective. It is important that you know what sound you are looking for so you will know when you get there. It is also important to know what sounds work idiomatically within a particular style of music. As an example, one might really like the dry crack of a Neil Peart snare drum, but if you are playing a sloppy blues gig, that is probably not an appropriate sound.

What I suggest is getting a 12" or 13" tom that you know is in round and has good bearing edges, put some good heads on there and just start tuning using Bob Gatzen's excellent tutorial as a guide. Set aside two to three hours to simply practice this craft on one drum.

Start by getting the lowest tone out of your batter head possible and then match that with the reso. Pick up the drum by the rim and strike it with a stick to hear what you have. It should be a clear tone with a lot of sustain and few overtones. You will have more overtones with a clear head than a coated head. Actually, if you have done this initial tuning well, you should be able to play the tom and smile because it ought to sound very musical.

Once there, start tuning both heads up a half or whole step at a time. I would suggest a half step but you will be at this for a while if you do it that way. Each time you raise the tension, note the difference in the pitch of the drum AND the timbre when you hold it up and strike it. Not only is the pitch rising, but the tone quality is changing. Keep going until you get to the point where the drum is choked.

Back the heads back down to the lowest pitch again and then raise the reso head a bit. Generally I think in terms of a minor or major third up but you should experiment with that interval as well. In this case, you are changing the timbre of the drum as much as anything. Once you get something you like, then start through the sequence of increasing the tension of both heads simultaneously. Again, each time you have cleared both heads of unwanted overtones, pick it up and listen. Take it to the point that it chokes. Notice how different the drum sounds with a tighter reso head.

I am sure others will chime in on this, but I generally do not like the sound of a tom batter that is tighter than the resonant head, especially on larger drums. To each is own however as I mentioned, drum sounds are subjective. I do suggest you try tuning the batter up as well as my goal is always to know what a particular tuning scenario sounds like and you may like that sound and, if you do not, you will know what a drum sounds like when the batter is too tight. If I can understand what various different tuning variables sound like, when I approach a kit and hear a specific timbre from a drum, I can quickly discern that the batter head is too tight, the heads are not in tune with each other, the drum is tuned to high for it's particular make up etc. It is all part of developing a system that is replicable and taking some of the mystery out of tuning.

Once you have done that you will have discovered several important things:

1.) You will have become moderately proficient at tuning in a very short period of time. In the process you will have gained a new found confidence.

2.) You will have learned what this particular drum can and cannot do.

3.) You will have discovered some sounds that you liked and some you did not and can probably replicate those rather quickly as you understand what it took to get those sounds.

4.) You will have developed a quick repertoire of drum sounds that can be used in a wide variety of styles of music, from rock, funk, blues, big band, small ensemble jazz, etc.

Once you have learned to tune your drums effectively then you can CONSIDER dampening to further focus your sound or create something specific. If you are using muffling at any time because "your drums just don't sound good" that is a sign that your tuning is an issue. (of course, that could also be an out of round shell, a bad bearing edge, a bad drum, a worn head, etc. but let's assume that is not the case for this discussion). Interestingly enough, the more proficient you become at tuning, the quicker you can determine if a drum has an issue.

What is my point with this whole mess and what the heck does it have to do with snare drum tuning? Quite simply, once you get your brain around the technique required to correctly tune a tom of that size, you can apply that to everything else. When it comes to your snare, apply the same technique to get a head in tune. Set the snare head wherever you like tension-wise and then run the batter through the gamut of tuning ranges from low and sloshy to tight as a....well, tight as a drum. Adjust the snare head to a new tension and run the gamut again. Keep messing with this process and again, you will have learned pretty much everything that particular snare can and cannot do.

The more you develop your tuning skills the more confident you will be, just like playing. You will also gain a much better understanding of how to get what you want out of your kit. All of a sudden you will have an innate understanding of why you might want to try this head over that head as opposed to simply relying on manufacturer's glittering generalities. You can listen to your drums and pretty much know what needs to be done immediately to accomplish a specific goal.

Again, go back to Bob Gatzen to get the specific technique together. No need for me to regurgitate that info as he delivers that content very well with the heart of a teacher. Download the Drum Tuning Bible and go over that information. If you are like me, then it would be easier to get started on tuning and then go back and read something like the Tuning Bible. I find it easier to understand something like that if a have a frame of reference from my personal experience.

You have some great snare drums and you should be able to pull what you want out of most of those. I have no idea how many songs have been recorded with Acrolites, but I bet it was a lot.

Hopefully you find this a little helpful. I think that once you get some skill under your fingers, you will have more confidence. My guess is if you were to hire Harry McCarthy to tune your snare drum and he did so and said "here you go" you would think it sounded great. If you happened to have created that exact same sound before Harry showed up, I am pretty sure that you would not be certain that you had accomplished a good quality sound. Therein lies a huge problem with drummers. How do you know when you are done? Practice the art of tuning and develop a sense of confidence in your new found abilities. Good luck to you!

I haven't tried the Triple Threat and don't know if I will, but I have used a LOT of Aquarian heads in the last 10 years. So, I will offer my :2Cents:.

I did try the Hi-Energy snare head on a 10-ply maple DW snare I had. Here is Aquarian's description of the head, "Hi-Energy™: A clear, 10 mil single ply drumhead with an extremely thin layer of Power Dot™ material "bonded" to the entire surface of the head. It is reinforced in the center with a small Power Dot™. Designed for heavy hitters who want a powerful sound and a lot of durability."

With the 10-mil thickness of the head itself, plus the two Power Dots, it's pretty thick. I had to really crank the head to get it to sound good. Then it still sounded thuddy unless I played rimshots, so that's what I did.

All that being said, if you want a "loud, tight, crack..." I would suggest trying Aquarian's (if you want to stick with Aquarian) Focus-X with Power Dot. It's Aquarian's version of Remo's Powerstroke 3, except the muffling ring on the underside has holes punched in it...I think that allows better air escape and better operation of the muffling ring to give a drier/tighter crack. You may be OK using the original head and wires, but you may get better results with a new ones, as has already been mentioned.

I sure hope this helps! I apologize if I sound like I work for Aquarian...I just really like their products.

Good luck! Please let us know how it works out and what you did to get it like you want it.

Lynn