I agree. The holes have to be the culprit looking at the pic. I figured they were sooooo small though, filing them or anything aggressive may make it worse or cause him to drill them out larger to fix it.....LOL. We are both on the right track here, some light touch up work on the leading edges of the holes, nothing aggressive, and they should be plenty rounded over, I would think. Even if Gary has a dremel with one of those cone shaped grind stones with a fine point, run that in there a long second per hole, and problem solved!

Snare tension has a lot to do with how fast the cord will fatigue as well....too tight, and snap!

Never had that happen. Been using cords forever. Check your metal contact points, as pointed out. Maybe play a Gretsch snare (just kidding).

B

I have always used straps for the snares (butcher broken drum heads if you have to in a pinch) but I wanted to comment that on my Montineri snare, Joe used some blue plastic wrapped aircraft stranded cable (I think it is stainless steel in there). Very fine and wickedly strong.

I don't know where he got it (or if he even still uses this these days) but I don't see that ever breaking...

And, I have two Powertone snares for this very reason. I had a backup ready to go every gig, because you never know what might happen up there!DOH

it's more than likely Puresound cable, many and I mean many of us don't condone it's use as it will cut channels in your wooden shell.

I use both nylon strips and the wound strings...never broke one yet. I also bring a backup snare to every gig though...just in the event. My Pork Pie snare is tuned up very tight, so I used the nylon on it, as well as my Gretsch snare (but I recently sold the Gretsch). The Pearl and Ludwig I keep fairly loose to very loose (depending on the snare) and use string. Anymore though, I find myself leaving the Pork Pie at home and I use the Ludwig mainly and keep the Pearl on backup right next to me.

Last weekend we played for a little over 5 hours between two sets with severe weather changes so I brought out all three. I would rather lug extra gear and never need it than wish I had.

I Didn't think about the cord grooving the bearing edge but I suposse it is possible. The snare tension would need to be fairly high no?

Anyway, I don't play that drum very much anyway, so I don't think it will be a problem for me.

Good tip for others like me who may not be aware of the potential problem!

band2

Why can't a guy get a super thin piece of metal, or even plastic and make a bushing over the wood where the cord passes over? Would that affect the sound?

Just one of those off the wall thoughts I had......Mind Blowi

Toodles

Drumhack

VM2000 is correct, those wires will cut into the snare beds. You don't want to add -any- thickness of metal or plastic under the head because: 1. It will raise the depth of the snare bed, and 2. it can damage the head or affect tuning. Snare beds are cut to specific depth tolerances on purpose. I know you said, 'super-thin' but you wouldn't want to make the bed too shallow or the snares won't work right. It also interrupts the contact of the wood bearing edge to the drum head. Wherever the shim is, it will raise the head off the bearing edge. The head/bearing edge contact point is where the vibration from the head is transferred to the shell. You don't want to add anything that gets in the way of that transfer.

John

Mind Blowi Sorry for the partial hi-jack Gary.....

I guess I can see where all of that could occur, it just doesn't make any sense at all to me, to design something out of wood that is intended to have highly tensioned cordage ran across it, and moving in a repetitive pattern at that! Snare beds on wood drums are, by design, pretty much intended to be disposable, it appears to me. There may be something like this already, but you would think some manufacturer would inlay the snare beds with something to keep them pristine, and undamaged, with usage...... Ivory, tiger claws, baby fur seal molar, California Condor beak, or something! (joke, don't shoot at me PETA fanatics.......)

I may try to put some heat shrink tubing on snare cord and mess around with things like that to come up with something that will preserve the snare bed. I am beside myself over this meaningless situation....LOL. I cannot comprehend that for generations and generations, wooden drums and their snare beds have been basically relegated to using soft cord or risk damaging the drum??? Didn't we put a guy on the moon once????.......

Also another thought. They used to run baseball bats across a large cow bone to compress the fibers and harden the surface of the bat. It was called boning a bat. I wonder if something along these lines, compressing the wood specifically in the area of the wires, would help to alleviate the sawing action of the cordage?

Well, I am done with the ranting now....LOL. My OCD is starting to wear down.........Cool Dude