Tower kit = Tower snare. They are great snare drums and that is a wonderful little set of drums!!

:2Cents:

Maybe one of the Rogers cats could explain the virtues of the Dynasonic. My experience with the drum was limited to acoustic jazz trio playing and I found the drum to be cumbersome, not responsive to light sticks or light playing, a struggle to tension the snares correctly, and never could get it to blend with the Gretsch kit I was using at the time. I wouldn't mind giving it another shot but, like Airborne said, not at those prices.

COB Powertone

Wood Powertone or Tower

COB Dyna-Sonic, or if you are into the price... Wood.

The Dyna-Sonic is an extremely sensitive drum, I love it. However the issues you describe are quite common to someone new to the drum. It does have a learning curve. It would greatly make you feel better about the Dyna-Sonic to play one properly set up, with good tuning and wire set. It is sensitive. A lovely drum.

Thanks everyone for your input. You've help me to prioritize my search.

1. Find a matching wood Tower snare drum in gold sparkle

or

2. Find a Powertone wood snare drum in gold sparkle

or

3. Find a COB Powertone snare drum (but still look for 1 or 2)

and

4. Someday find a Dynasonic woody in gold sparkle (and hopefully get some set up tips from The Ploughman)

Sounds like a fine plan. :)

Ploughman, 2 more lugs and the snare strainer frame aside, a powertone and dyna are the same essentially right?

Two lugs and the snare system make for two vastly different drums. Enough so that some people prefer one above the other, and the Dyna-Sonic does not always win out. Both are sensitive drums, both have a distinct sound, and within each type, a uniqueness from one to the other. But then, that is probably true of a lot of different snare drums. Other than that, they are both round.

I hear ya, would ya say the powertone was more standard but the dynasonic was more preferred?

You have to remember that gold sparkle is kinda hard to match considering the fade. I'd start with a cob powertone and take your time finding the right tower or wood powertone.

Dave

LUXOR snares are wonderful gems that perform better than many fancier and higher priced snare drums from Rogers or other drum manufacturers of the same period. Dynasonics are like very expensive sports cars. They are fine for people who like to constantly tweak and retweak and then tweak some more.