I recently was able to finish restoring a 50's wood marching snare. The only thing I need to finish it are heads and snare wires. What would be the best heads and/or snare wires to put on it?
I didn't know if I should try to find the original wires or just try some puresound wires. What kind of heads would be the best to put on it to bring out the best sound?
I recently was able to finish restoring a 50's wood marching snare. The only thing I need to finish it are heads and snare wires. What would be the best heads and/or snare wires to put on it?I didn't know if I should try to find the original wires or just try some puresound wires. What kind of heads would be the best to put on it to bring out the best sound?
Marching snares do not generally use wire snares. They use "gut" snares. I'm not sure when they moved from animal to the synthetic nylonish ones they use now, but I bet they were still animal in the 50s.
What kind of drum are you restoring? It might help you find parts as the snare/strainer assembly on a marching snare generally contains different parts than that of a concert snare, and they of course can differ from brand to brand.
If you have everything except the strands themselves, I have heard of drum corps replacing their guts with weed eater line. I'm not sure about the crimps or if there are any other missing parts as I've never seen one up close as to how they were attached. I bring it up because I'd assume that finding actual working gut snares from the 50's may be difficult (if not impossible) so perhaps that would be an option.
By the way, pics please! I'd love to see the resto!
Thanks,
Tan
Thanks for the info. It's a late 50's Slingerland tournament marching snare. I found the shell in an antique shop and through the help of people on the forum here I have all the parts for it. The last thing that is needed is the wires and some heads. I haven't been able to put any heads on for pictures because the tension rods needed to be straightened and cleaned. I should hopefully have them back by the weekend and I'll post some pictures soon.
I'm going to hit up Lowe's or something to see if I can find Slingerland brand weedeater line. haha Just kidding.
Again, thank you for your help.
I have a sample of older marching drum snares and they are a very thin wire wound around a braided cloth tube which then has a cloth strand core. The cloth looks like cotton but also could be linen. These did not come from a Slingerland. If the drum was mid-50's it was originally fitted with calf heads; shortly afterwards Remo's first heads were offered as well. They were called Remo Ambassador , eventually but they were different than today's Remo Ambassadors which are single ply 10mil. Remo now is making the original heads again and they are double ply--- I think 7 and 3. They are called Vintage Ambassadors, I believe.
If you go with weed eater line , there are several thicknesses. I wouldn't go any thicker than the .060. There is also the possibility of using Ukulele or Nylon guitar strings. These would be available in an array of thicknesses.
