If you sold an extremely rare steel shelled Supra I hope you got lots of money for it. They are aluminum alloy. There are occasional rumors of steel shell Supras during the time when Ludwig were experimenting with steel shells for other drums. I would expect that if they exist somebody here might have one.

As to tuning, I don't know what to suggest. I tune my 14 x 5 Black Beauty much the same way I tune my Jazz Festival. They feel pretty much the same under the stick but the Black Beauty is louder, brighter, and -- well -- brassy. In contrast, the Jazz Festival is a bit more mellow and has the nice warm tone. But I've never had a Supra (yes I know everybody is supposed to have one) to compare it with.

zenstat, I'm a 2 snare kinda guy. 3 is a crowd for me. I like to own a wooden snare and a steel snare. At present I play the COB and a mahogany 6.5 WFL 8 lugger, which sounds great! The Supra had to go to subsidize the buying of the brass drumpet. I'll say this though, that was a prize winning Supra with red felt, no pitting, every nut, bolt and T-rod was original. It was near collectors grade save for a few minor scratches here and there. I got 350 EUR so around 435 USD which I felt was a good price. It's an American vintage drum so buying one on this side of the pond usually means buying it from America and paying almost 20% tax on top of shipping costs, so the buyer got a good deal too. No taxes, mind you, he did have to pay for a courier, because he was in England, but I think I did OK on that snare, so I don't feel too bad about it. The COB snare had already dethroned it from the snare stand.

Yes, I do the same. I'll tune both my snare drums more or less the same way. It's the different shells that give a different sound, also the depth of the shell plays a part.

Hi Chromeo, I have both a COB super and a 65 alloy supraphonic, I agree

that the COB drum starts to choke a bit when tuned high (at least my one does)

It seems to prefer medium tuning, that is where is sounds best to my ears. The alloy

supra seems to take any tuning fairly well so I can crank it up a bit more. For what it's worth I prefer the alloy supra.

Thanks for the info, Supraphonic. Coffee Break2

> the COB drum starts to choke a bit when tuned high (at least my one does)

The COB -dries out- the higher you tune it, it doesn't 'choke.' You -can- tune it on the high end, but you'll dry it out and you'll lose some of those brassy tones along the way. I love mine and I have it tuned just above middle-range. Great stick response too.

John

Good tip, John. I'm going to keep it in the medium tuning range. It's not that it sounds bad tuned high it's just that it sounds better at lower tuning. To my ear at least.

What your ear is missing at high tension are the frequencies that are muted, or cut from the overall sound as the drum dries out. It's a trade-off. You can crank the tuning, but it'll dry out and you'll lose 'some' of those great over-tones you get at slightly lower tunings. I like to play a lot of Second-line riffs on the snare drum and the COB gives me all those great ringy, clangy sounds out on the rim that fit the New Orleans style perfectly. Like I said before, I love my COB!

Enjoy yours...

John

Yes 'choked' is probably not the best way to describe it. It does

dry out as John mentioned. I don't think I have my drum dialed in

with the right heads/wire combo yet.

I'd like to try 12 strand wires on it.