New to the forum and need some guidance. I'm restoring a Fibes COF and wonder if any of you who have experience with this drum have any suggestions for head selection and tuning. I can't seem to eliminate a nasty ring with Ambassadors or Evans G1 360s. Any ideas?
Scotty A.
New to the forum and need some guidance. I'm restoring a Fibes COF and wonder if any of you who have experience with this drum have any suggestions for head selection and tuning. I can't seem to eliminate a nasty ring with Ambassadors or Evans G1 360s. Any ideas?Scotty A.
Scotty A!
Welcome to the forum!, and with that said...
... head choice for ANY drum is completely subjective of course! .. but .. regarding the Fibes SFT690/COF, as I have two of them, I know what you're looking for. The "ring/overtone" is in fact part of this drums flavor owing to the fact that it's shell is indeed, fiberglass. What I have found works well .. FOR ME .. is a standard REMO clear snare/reso side.. ( or equivalent ) .. and a REMO Coated Vintage Emperor batter. The Vintage Emperor is a 2 ply and as such will "tame" some of that ring, but not all of it... and that's what you want. If there's no ring/overtone... you get no body/projection, so you do want some. The coating also aids in dampening the overtones a bit. Play the drum wide open, no muffling. As to head tension/tuning:
Again... personal opinion/choice! I'm sure you have a range that you like, but remember... this is a fiberglass shell with chrome wrap, thus you will "want" the drum to be at least in a medium area on the batter, if not slightly higher. That is where you will get the sensitivity and articulation that these drums are renowned for! The snare/reso side must also be tight as you want the air column to excite the wires quickly without heavy hitting. This is the nature of the fiberglass shell. It IS by nature a "high endy" sounding/functioning type snare drum. The MAIN reason Buddy Rich LOVED the Fibes SFT690/COF was due to exactly that. His quote was something like: With this snare drum I can reach the last seat in the house, way in the back! He was right!
Tommyp
Hi Scotty!
Welcome to the forum! You can bank on the recommendation of TommyP to get the most/best sound from your Fibes COF snare drum. Good luck...and post some pictures when complete!
-Mark
Hi Scotty!Welcome to the forum! You can bank on the recommendation of TommyP to get the most/best sound from your Fibes COF snare drum. Good luck...and post some pictures when complete!-Mark
THANKS for the kind words Mark! I generally stay away from these type recommendations, as again... so much of it is personal opinion!, but in this case... I know that this particular snare drum can be a little "finicky" to dial in and not sound thin and transparent. Hopefully this will help get Scotty A where he wants to be!
Tommyp
THANKS for the kind words Mark! I generally stay away from these type recommendations, as again... so much of it is personal opinion!, but in this case... I know that this particular snare drum can be a little "finicky" to dial in and not sound thin and transparent. Hopefully this will help get Scotty A where he wants to be!Tommyp
I tend to agree with questions like this, as I've seen it before. You'll get as many suggestions/recommendations as there are answers! In this case, the answer came from someone, you, who really knows the drum and is able to use a head combination to get the best performance from it!
Mark
Thanks all. Once I get a new batter on it I'll post photos. It was in good condition and cleaned up well. Here's a couple more questions. I think the snares are original but new ones would be nice. Does anyone make a suitable replacement? The serial number is on the badge and inside the shell. It's 281XX. Any idea as to vintage?
Scotty A
Thanks all. Once I get a new batter on it I'll post photos. It was in good condition and cleaned up well. Here's a couple more questions. I think the snares are original but new ones would be nice. Does anyone make a suitable replacement? The serial number is on the badge and inside the shell. It's 281XX. Any idea as to vintage?Scotty A
Scotty A!
Actually, the serial number is not of much use to date your drum .. but .. the actual badge is! Fibes used FOUR different badges starting with plain Fibes, then the Farmingdale NY badge, and ending with the Nazareth PA badge. I have researched the timeline for these badges which will get your drum real close on dating. A pic of the badge would be the ticket!
Regarding the wires: PureSound DID make a perfect set of replacement wires for this drum, assuming that you have the full production SFT throw/release. They are discontinued last I knew .. but .. can be found from time to rime on eBay, or Reverb, etc. Sometimes guys will cut loose actual OEM Fibes wires too! Just gotta keep your eyes peeled. Also... I believe PEARL offers a set of wires for one of their snares that fit the Fibes and would work in a pinch. I gotta see if I can dig out what drum those wires go to... or maybe one of our members knows. Regardless, you want an OEM set or the PureSounds eventually as those would be correct for the drum.
Tommyp
Thanks for the tip on snares. It's a Nazareth badge. I do appreciate the help. You did the BR snare display at the Chicago Show, right? Loved it. It inspired me to pull this out of storage (bought it over a dozen years ago) and the Slingerland COW TDR (bought 2 years ago) and bring them back to life.
Tommy P gives great advise on these drums! I have a black Fibes snare. Black painted interior, Fiberglass shell. The Fiberglass shell is always going to have that ringing sound. I don't mind that at all. This is a great drum for certain applications. Not the best for the straight-forward, back beat. It's a very sensitive drum. I tune it like I would any snare and use Ambassadors like I would on any snare.
Thanks for the tip on snares. It's a Nazareth badge. I do appreciate the help. You did the BR snare display at the Chicago Show, right? Loved it. It inspired me to pull this out of storage (bought it over a dozen years ago) and the Slingerland COW TDR (bought 2 years ago) and bring them back to life.
Scotty A!
Yes indeed... the Buddy Rich Snare Drum History display was mine, and the VDF/Vintage Drum Guide sponsored it too! GLAD you enjoyed!, and neat that it supplied the impetus to get that Fibes SFT690/COF out of storage, as well as the Slingerland BR/TDR! Did we get to chat/meet? Hopefully so! There were so many nice guys there, and everyone was so positive about the display/history. THANKS again!
Regarding dating your drum: Well, now we can approx. date it! Being that it has the SQUARE Fibes "mirror image" Nazareth PA badge, your drum will be from 1975 to 1978 as Corder bought them in 1979, and of course changed the badge. Once you get some pics and I can see the actual drum we can dial it in a little closer. I will say that the majority of Nazareth PA badged drums were from 1975 to 1977, literally a two year period. By this time Fibes was fading and they didn't build all that many drums the last year at all.
Tommyp
