Thanks guys. It's great to have you there to bounce this stuff off of and to get your input - appreciated - this is a great Forum.
I'm thinking maybe mine is a cheaper drum than the one shown on the website above - because mine has no t-rod guides and the snare hope holes are less functional on mine. When I say less functional I mean when I crank the single tension rods tight enough to get the drum tuned decent enough the hoop cuts the snare wire off (won't let the snares do their thing at the throwoff). The snare wires are pinched between where they passes between the metal snare hoop and the drumshell (snarebed). Maybe my drum is older too??
It's easy enough for me to fix that - I would cut the metal hoop at the snare guides (is that what you call these?) and my snare hoops would be more like the ones in the link above.
Part of me - the Vintage part - says "don't cut the snare hoop - leave it alone and live with it."
What you say my Vintage brothers/sister??
Tucking a Slunk calf on the snare side may solve the Pinching Problem?
It did come with a calfhide head on the batter - torn and useless now.
I have a new 14" I can cut down and a Slunk calfhide I can use on the snare side.
This may solve a bit of the problem because I can control the collar depth distance by tucking my own heads and this will give me more room to play with regarding the "pinching problem." I'd rather do this than cut that nice ole hoop even though it doesn't work properly right now.
The other factor here is maybe the drum did come with a calfhide on the snare side and it may have worked just fine with the natural head.............we'll see.
I kind of like tucking calfhide heads - part of the adventure:cool: