Incredible hoops!!! Very interesting snare.

Cheers,

George.

Thank you! Yes, those hoops are really different!

-Mark

I noticed that your clamshell strainer/butt has two vertical lines, while mine has three.

-Mark

I've also have a Karen snare in a lighter blue sparkle that I acquired in a trade about a year ago.

I didn't pay it much attention until I saw this thread and started to disassemble it yesterday, gave all parts a Dawn bath overnight and am now putting it back together. I must admit I'm impressed with the hardware.... lugs are really solid, good springs inside, throw mechanism and tensioning knob on other side is more solid than a lot of MIJ mechanisms.

What has me worried is the shell... after I pulled the lugs, the wrap (which has bubbled in few places) virtually fell of the shell. It had been held on by a few rusty brad nails. It has re rings, but I'm not used to handling snare drum shells that bend so easily. Guess it's the vertical grain of the Luann. I'm tempted to shellac the interior. Might also use some double sided tape to hold the wrap on... wouldn't trust those nails again!

Obviously wouldn't do this (or at least admit to it on this forum!) but almost seems worth attaching the hardware to a decent shell! These beautiful lugs and hoops are wasted on this shell!

Will post some pictures soon.

I dug into my Karen snare over the last few days and seem to be missing a couple of critical parts. I have the correct bottom rim but can't find the top.... might be around somewhere, just need to sort through piles of stuff.

Bigger problem is the strainer. I have the side with tensioning knob (picture 2) but not the other side with knob and lever. I've got a partial throw (pictures 3) that fits the same hole pattern but is also missing some part and another throw (picture 4) that seems to work but someone drilled an additional small hole because the pattern was different. This one is a nice throw.... anyone recognize the manufacturer? Doesn't seem MIJ.

Hope to get it up and running this weekend.

Hi Peteinvicta1!

I just noticed that you're keeping this thread alive! Very interesting that your drum is the same, except for the thin 3-ply shell with rings. My drum has a 6-ply shell, no rings. Yes, those 3-ply shells can easily bend, but once assembled with heads and hoops, are fairly strong. Concerning the strainer in the last picture, it's a Premier. I believe it was used on the XPK or APK line of snare drums. Possibly others as well.

-Mark

Yes, your strainer looks like the one I have on my Premier HiFi, although mine is a modern repro I got from a vintage Premier guy in the UK.

That other one looks like an MIT, similar to this from an old 70s Maxtone snare I have lying about (in pieces).

I can't seem to load more than one pic at a time, sorry...

And the rubbishy old MIT.