Vintage some-some not. Lined 'em up to play 'em hot! These are a few kits I have. A 50's -60's? Slingerland BDP 13" tom and 22" bass drum with an Olympic (by Premier) floor tom and 70's Ludwig Acrolite.A '67 Blue Sparkle Ludwig Downbeat kit with a 16" Jet floor tom. This kit sounds classic and great! Back to back with my sling because I don't have enough thrones.A Black Groove percussion 10-12" toms, 14" floor tom, 18" bass. Wuhan Cymbals. This kit sounds suprisingly good.A 60's-70's Werco Red Agate pearl, 12"tom, 14" floor, 20" bass. Working on replacing the heads on this one although the toms sound excellent! The snare sounds okay but working on a better sound. Any suggesstions on these vintage MIJ snares for nice sounding crack?Thanks in advance for any input.
Shoot me an email and I'll walk you through one. Is this a 3 or 6 ply shell? That will make a huge difference as to how it sounds and what you can get out of it. I love mine and get good crack out of them. The blue one that I just posted a couple of weeks ago, for instance. This is a 3 ply with roundover. Man, it sounds every bit as good and any other 60s era thin shell snare, from any maker. Before you all get your panties in wad, it is what it is, no matter whether it is MIJ or Ludwig. Period, no snobbery, no derogatory comments, it is a fine drum, and if it were a Lud, it would likely bring 3-500. As it is, I won't sell this one. It goes in my permanent stash. Even with the snare side on top...I work each drum according to its' own attributes and working it to tune to itself.
This is my trick on this snare only...
Since it is a roundover, all I did was sand the edges super smooth, not changing anything all about the contour on the batter side. The res side...well, there were no snare beds, so I snanded those in by hand, about a 1/16thx2 1/2. Once the edges were done, I sanded the interior smooth, taped the hardware mounting holes from the outside, then hit it with one coat of lacquer. BTW, this is an 8 lugger.
6 lug, 3 ply MIJ snares present a different set of challenges altogether. They will be lower toned and not really able to attain those highs.
6 lug, 6 ply snare (Star): need to know what edges...likely a hybrid edge. Not really sharp, not really rounded on the Star shells. These need some help. I usually will sharpen them a bit with sandpaper. Take your time, work the wood from the outside edge, not the inside as you will have greater control over the shell. Again, tape is your friend. Tape the outer edge/wrap, then have a go at it, don't think about it, just sand it. You will find if you let your hand feel the edge contour, it will sort itself and will then see it going your way. This is the problem, people worry that they will damage them. In reality, the wood will guide you and then it will sharpen up nicely if you just let it. If it is a 6 lug, you will get some good tones out of it, however if it is an 8, you can really get it to sing the way you want.
