I have an old Slingerland Spirit 6 1/2 x 14 steel snare that is my main go to snare right now and it just has the right sound.
It has a Zoomatic that is not stripped out and it seems to work fine.
Why is the Zoomatic so disliked, hated , etc ?
Can it be modded to prevent stripping ?
Can a stripped one be fixed ?
What can the owner of a good Zoomatic do to prevent damaging it ?
Thanks !
As long as you remember which way the knob works you'll be fine.*
*The only piece of advice my father ever gave me but it applies here
I don't know that the Zoomatic is hated really ... but I DO know that a lot of guys are clueless when it comes to HOW the Zoomatic should be set up and adjusted! That is the reason most of them break, and in many cases literally split apart! The Zoomatic has a "range" of adjustment on the tension of the wires, and one can't go past that!, but ... guys do all the time trying to get the wires tighter against the bottom reso head. The key .. for me anyway, as this has always allowed the Zoomatic to work flawlessly .. is to make sure you don't have an overly large amount of SLACK in the wires to start, which is why I prefer using cord and NOT the plastic strips. Slingerland supplied both, but plastic strips starting showing up increasingly as the years went by. I also back off the Zoomatic to "about" it's loosest setting, but in the "snares engaged" position when attaching the cord. I attach the wires with not a lot of slack and tie my square knots. Now ... you can gently tension the wires "in", and should reach your goal way before it's over tensioned, as again ... you took most all the slack OUT before you started! I have three Slingerland snare drums in the Buddy Rich Collection that all have the Zoomatic. Every one works flawlessly and have never broken. Each one of these models sounds great!, but the two Slingerland 4x14 Buddy Rich models get the nod over the Buddy Rich Artist. ALL of them deliver excellent snare response and sensitivity though, due in part to a properly set up Zoomatic! I'll attach a pic of each drum ...
Tommyp
I have owned several over the years with no problems.
As Tommy says...
Initial setup is the key and you want to find the centre of that adjustment range plus have limited stretch.. and NO slippage of the strings/straps.
For past couple of years I have used the "grossgrain" ribbon at both ends of the wires.. and these hold perfectly..
Cheers
John
(If you have already encountered a problem though this link is to the restoration posts)..
longjohn and TommyP have pretty much covered it. Proper initial set-up yields good results. If stretch occurs do not over tighten, re-adjust cord/straps.
Those Slingerland Spirit snares are nice sleeper snares. I bought & sold a Spirit line kit, which was much like any off-shore kit (IMO), but I really liked the tone of the snare. It had something undeniable going on, a very usable voice.
Those Slingerland Spirit snares are nice sleeper snares. I bought & sold a Spirit line kit, which was much like any off-shore kit (IMO), but I really liked the tone of the snare. It had something undeniable going on, a very usable voice.
When I bought it on Ebay, I had no idea how nice it would sound, within a minute I knew it was a keeper. Heavy Taiwan steel with a musical ping.
I recently scored a Slingerland GK with a messed up Zoomatic. Thanks to that repair link that John posted above, I just added a spring to it, and it works wonderfully now!
