Did you buy that drum, or did you just see the listing? Just wondering because if you're patient, you can even find 'em significantly cheaper than that. Check out completed listings for marching snare or marching drum on eBay.
But if you did buy it, no worries! You may not be able to find a more appropriate marching drum for drum set use.
No I didn't buy it. Just saw it on CL.
I am just curious to know what makes the difference between a marching snare and a "drum set" snare? I just saw a chrome over maple 70's ludwig on ebay going for close to $400.
Today's marching snares are quite a bit different, mostly to withstand high tension tuning and Kevlar heads. Older marching snares were similar in construction to drum set snares, but tended to be set apart by the following differences:
Marching drums are generally deeper than drum set snares. Of course there are a few exceptions, but you normally won't see a drum set snare deeper than 8" or a marching snare shallower than 10". (Unless maybe you're in Europe, where shallower drums have been used for marching in some places.)
Marching drums often have catgut or synthetic gut snares instead of the wire snares usually found on their drum set counterparts. Really old drums could have wire-wound silk snares that look a little bit like wound metal guitar strings.
Starting in the 1960s or '70s, marching snare tuning started creeping higher and higher, so you'll see marching snares with heavier-duty shells and hardware, particularly on higher-end models. The closer you get to the present, the beefier that hardware tends to be.
As stated, today's marching snares are built differently.
All modern snares have free-floating shells, with high-tension lugs, synthetic gut snares and usually more lugs--like 12 lugs for a 14" drum.
The "pipe" drum is increasingly popular as well. Those have snares under both heads. My brother is a "piper". He plays snare in a pipe band, consisting of bagpipes, snares, tenor and bass drums. These drums have ultra-high tension with kevlar heads. They're made for maximum volume and articulation. Many high schools have switched to pipe drums, and even more colleges and drum corps have made the switch.
talk to the owner real nice guy and yes its a marching snare i almost jumped but to big they made a stainless model not sure about this one
As stated, today's marching snares are built differently.All modern snares have free-floating shells, with high-tension lugs, synthetic gut snares and usually more lugs--like 12 lugs for a 14" drum.
Some brands are free-floating, like Ludwig, Pearl, & Premier. Other brands, while having some traits common to free floaters, have varying amounts of hardware bolted to the shell. Dynasty is the only common marching drum manufacturer to use a traditional lug design on their high-end drums, but only for the snare side head. All of them use a metal tension ring or "collar" to withstand high-tension Kevlar batter heads.
You got the lug count exactly right. All of the major brands use 12 rods for 14" drums. Not only do they use more rods, they use thicker ones to handle extra strain. I believe all of the major brands use 6 mm rods.
The "pipe" drum is increasingly popular as well. Those have snares under both heads... Many high schools have switched to pipe drums, and even more colleges and drum corps have made the switch.
There are actually a few other differences that set pipe drums apart. Pipe drums have wire snares under both heads, neither of which typically have a throwoff. Drums made for the American-style marching band or drum corps market typically have synthetic gut snares on the bottom head and a throwoff mechanism. Yamaha and Dynasty have been offering an optional snare unit (with throwoff) for the top head for the last decade or so, but its popularity seems to be waning over the past few years.
On a separate but related note... I love pipe drumming. Almost makes bagpipes bearable. ;-)
