The roller throw off and butt are designed to work with extended snare wires. The beds are designed to work together with the rollers and extended snare wires. Any shortcuts and you are just gambling with the sound.

The roller strainer and butt were the same units that were used on the non roller version. The rollers were mounted on a bracket that was installed directly below the butt and strainer. The only reason having a different strainer or just the original strainer and butt minus the rollers would be if the snare beds are different on the roller version. This very well could be since it used the extended snares but it also might have the exact same snare beds.

Have you taken the bottom hoop off and checked it on a flat surface to see how deep the snare beds are?

Ahh I figured this may be the case, but didn’t have a clue on exactly what the point of that system was. Thank you!

I’ve heard you can use the Pearl “floating” snare wires to fit these Tama roller systems. Know anything about that?

Yes, the snare beds are extremely shallow. They’re almost unnoticeable.

Those should serve your purpose here. Essentially any wires that are at least 14" in literal length will help. Key is to get the wires all the way across the bearing edge.

Awesome. I was looking at some pictures of the roller assembly and I see that the plates of the wires are not even touching the head. Wild! Haha. I had no idea. Well I’m on the search for the roller assembly. They don’t seem common, but I’m hoping one will pop up eventually.

As for the goal of this system, I’m still unsure of. What was Tama trying to do here? What sound or convenience were they going for?

Extended snares removed dead spots along the edges when enhanced sensitivity is needed.

Fibes ,Peal ,Ludwig all have their version ,but have fallen out of favor with other drum companies as they can be fickle in dialing the sound in.

I love the extended sensitivity when the design is done right.

There have been a few clunker designs along the route.

The Tama Mastercraft was a pretty good throw.

Not too complicated vs their Kingbeat version which was way too finicky.

Here is one that sold on Reverb a while back. Looks like they aren't that expensive when you can find them. If you can find just the roller brackets for cheap I would do it and keep an eye out for the correct strainer and butt. As I said earlier, the strainer and butt were used on all of the non roller snares from around '80 and into the Starclassic years so should be much easier to find. I have an early Starclassic snare with the same exact strainer and butt. Just no roller brackets and standard snares and straps.

https://reverb.com/item/9928439-tama-mastercraft-snare-roller-assembly-1985-ish-chrome

Ahh thanks for the info everyone! I feel a bit relieved as I’ve been wondering why this drum was is so hard to get a good sound from given that it’s got a good rep and is in great condition.

I saw that reverb listing. Was super pumped before I saw that it had sold. Can’t wait to find one and try it out. Hopefully this is the answer!