Batter side snares? - Page 1 - Vintage Drum Forum

I've seen a few cheap drums with snares on the batter side because they were tambour type drums .----- It was a thing in England, up until post war design came into force in the 50's to have snares under both heads, on the premium drums. The Premier Dominion Ace was such a drum along with the Ajax New Century, Beverly Dual and the John Grey Autocrat( of the 30's-----they later adopted that name for an entire brand). I'm sure Carlton and any others had one as well. Meazzi made one into the 60's. Evelyn Glennie plays it and according to her is her favourite percussion instrument(well ,the snare drum is and presumably HER snare drum would be the one she was talking about)

Maybe not the question you asked but I have seen one other one, along time ago that had the snares under the top head, only. It was very old and probably of American design.

I have a Dominion Ace for which I am currently looking for an upper snare bracket---can't help you there regarding the sound, because I've only ever heard it with the lower snares intact but it might lend a clue about the durability of the mechanism being struck with sticks. I have heard Evelyn Glennie play a crescendo roll on her Meazzi from pianissimo to fortissimo possibile ( loudest possible) in an echoey mall. The sound was super full, like the surf but Meazzi used impossibly huge wires too----42 strand on the bottom ---they look like a 6 lane suspension bridge over an Andean gorge----perhaps they did on top too. The drum just screams at you SNARE DRUM.