In my opinion, a Super Classic is more valuable and rarer drum. As far as sound goes I think they sound the same. Strainer holes are in different locations so you'd have to drill new holes and would have extra holes. I would recommend you leave whatever you have in it's original condition. Both are very desirable drums.

the super wires adjust finer more precise control than the p83 strainer..

really no need to change it from one to another. they sound virtually the same. your super classic shell may be 5.5 where as some of the jazz festivals are closer to 5. just a different strainer other than that. i don't understand how they could be any more precise though. they use the same basic types of wires. maybe i'm missing something there.

mike

I've seen one or two Super Classic snare drums on eBay that were "properly" converted to the P-83 strainer, by use of an adapter plate so there would be no extra holes. This way, it would be easy to convert back to the Classic strainer. Still, why would you need to convert it? Any issues with the strainer mechanism?

Mark

ive got tons of drums with p83s on them. they were just fine. ive got two with the p87 super classic strainer. these things are really smooth. i love the way they engage and disengage.

mike

Just looking at the same situation...I have the original 12 wire setup but with a P32 butt it's possible to string those Puresound 16 strand snares to it too (a much simpler exercise as there is a single screw to attach it at the P87 (strainer) end and the other is a string through two holes as per normal..

On the P87 I have one and they seem great. They have a tiny brass or bronze bush protecting the lever arm from wear ..The bush wears too so make sure you replace it if need be (it will run smoother).

I'm just about to go home and check the hole separations to confirm whether the shell I have was rigged with a P87 or P83....The P87 strainer has two vertically aligned holes with centres 1 3/8" apart...

Wow, great topic!

I have 2 WFL Super Classics, each with the different hole spacing.

No matter what, they both just don't sound very good to me and I think I've tried everything under the sun from changing the wires to using actual Ludwig snare side heads to using string vs plastic on the snares to tie them up to changing the batter heads numerous times. Everything I've done has had little to no effect on both of my

Super Classics.

My last ditch item to do now is to remove the unresponsive P-87 strainers for the much

nicer P-83. Going to fashion a metal plate myself and I hope my 5.5'' will eventually play and feel like I'm playing a Jazz Festival.

What are the chances that both my 3 ply Classics are just duds??

My whole basis is actually fueled by how my simple 3 ply mahogany Olympic/Premier snare drum sounds. It sounds about 1000000x better and plays sweet compared to my

2 Classics :D

It really baffles me to no end.

Grunta, I just measured my hole spacings etc and the P-83 is 2.5'' imperial.

P-87 will either be 1 3/8'' but can also be 1 3/4'', I have 1 of each and they are both

WFL strainers!

Aren't the Classic strainers extended? I would think they would be more sensitive??

Yeah lucky, Classic strainers make it so you need a longer set of wires.

Like mike said above, I love the way the Classic strainers engage, very responsive for me in that regard. But there seems to be little lee way if one wants some snare buzz, either just a really tight snare sound or just super loose.

Another item of note with the Classic is when you want to play your drum without the snares on. If I hit the snare hard, the wire will bounce back up and hit the snare bottom.

The only thing, okay maybe not the only thing, I've not tried on either of my Super Classic snare drums is modify the bearing edges. They do seem somewhat rounded, so I have a sneaking suspicion that unless I have them modified my 2 drums just won't sound as crisp to me as I would like...

Sorry for the thread drift kris