Do you have the correct head at bottom for snare to reverberate

Take the drum, turn on the snare, take picture of the bottom with snare engaged.

We can go from there.

Just a tip. Turn the nut atop the strainer counter clockwise as to loosen the snares. Looking at the threads, go half way or a little more down to allow adjustment. Now, with the snares in the "on" position, loosen the butt end screws and pull the wire or strap as tight as you can get it and tighten the screws.

Now, you can apply additional tension the snares by turning the knob in the clockwise direction. You can tweak the adjustment if needed.

Dave

He could have the wires upside down. Solder side has to face the head.

What Dave said!

All of the above!

Adjust the strainer as Dave said, make sure the snares are centered on the bottom head and facing the right way and it should work great. J-fests are some of the best sounding snares out there. No reason why yours shouldn't play well. Follow the advice given and your drum will play great.

John

Are you positive that you have the cords threaded correctly? If the end plate is lifted by the cord, the wires won't make full contact against the head. I know with the ribbons it's much easier and for someone not using the old cords that often, it's easy to thread incorrectly. Just might do the trick!

Brian

Two things come to mind.

If you are using aftermarket snares that are more than say 18 strands ,the snare bed might not be wide enough to accommodate the wider snare system.

I would look at looping the snares over the throw as opposed to threading through the holes.

Some of the suggestions may be dead on, but without actually seeing your problem it's still all guesswork. Can you provide a couple of photos with the snares engaged highlighting the problem? Photos of the strainer and butt sides and well as one taken of the bottom showing the snares hanging down should suffice. It's most likely that the cord is too loosely clamped on one or both sides and/or the adjustment screw needs to be tighter, but it's possible the snares themselves could be the problem. In the worst possible scenario there could be an issue with the snare bed, but that's highly unlikely unless someone was mucking around with the bearing edge on the snare side of the shell. There is also the possibility that the 50 year old throw off is defective and needs to be replaced. Again, a few decent photos should tell all.