Cool snare. It's in great and complete condition too. The throw-off handles on Kent snares are known to break-off.

Since you have a studio with multiple snares available for recording, you should just give this Kent a good cleaning and put it into rotation. It's single tension, so you should get a nice low "muddy" snare sound from this drum. Not sure how thin the resonant calf skin is, but you could try a really thin Remo Diplomat head to allow those snares a little more movement and resonance. The standard Diplomat is 7.5-mil, but they also make a 2-mil Diplomat.

Mic up the drum and do some test recordings, so you can provide samples to the musicians that use your studio. I would love to hear some samples of this snare.

-Tim

Thanks for the reply Tim... it is certainly a drum with mojo, at least appearance wise. It gets lots of comments around here, but I've never felt it was set-up properly for use on a session. Heck I don't even know how to tune single tension rods yet :).

But a cool muddy tone sounds like a nice alternative snare character - I'm imagining a snare sound Daniel Lanois might love. The calf head seems kind of thick to me. So maybe the 2mil Diplomat on the snare side and a standard fresh Ambassador on the other? And leave those wires...

Also - curious if anyone knows - how old is this thing, approximately? Made in NY by former Gretsch drum guys, correct?

Aj

I have a 15" single ply single tension and LOVE to record with it, so warm and rich sounding.

Clean it up, keep the calf reso head and either go calf on the batter or a Skyntone.

I would say your drum is from the 50's.

Here is a Kent catalog with your snare:

http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/images/my_collection/literature/kent/kent4_th.jpg

You might want to check the bearing edges too. Kent drums, especially the later years, are known for sometimes uneven/non-existent bearing edges.

Those snare wires look fine from the picture. Experiment with different heads too. Maybe move the calf skin head to the batter side and put a Diplomat on the bottom.

-Tim

Hey Tim, that sure looks like my snare! Model #191P, apparently. Bearing edges feel smooth too. Nice idea about putting the calf side on the beater!

So how do you tune these things?!

Bearing edges should also be "rounded" and not flat.

To tune, I would follow the normal tuning procedures. Don't crank the heads down on this drum, because it has 6 lugs, single tension, hoop clips and the hoops are double flange. This drum is made for low to low-medium tuning.

-Tim

Just want to say that that's a terrific-looking snare. Cool lugs n' rods with the wood shell. Makes it look like a cooler, older design. Sweet.

Enjoy!

B

Ya, it is a cool drum. Do like Tim said, clean it up and rotate it.

Kent strainers were their "achilles' heel" and designed to break. The good new is that 1960's-70's Rogers strainers will fit the existing holes without any alteration.