I use an ambo on the snare side of my RK and it gets pretty low so I can imagine it being even lower with a diplomat. I've never thought of it as a problem more just a quirk.

Cool, thanks! Yeah, I thought that with the cost being similar I would give it a shot for some peace of mind.

I've thought about having them made but in the end I made a custom calf head for an odd drum I had. When I make calf heads for snare, I make them with almost no collar like you're saying so that the rims will be high in the end. I like the hoops kinda high, like on Gretsch drums.

For your drum, a thought I had was that if you took a wood flesh hoop. maybe even sanded it down some and put it on top of the Remo head (like a spacer) it would have the same end result, no?

I thought about that exact same thing! haha....proof that great minds think alike? My concern was that it might be hard to get the wood flesh hoop nice and flat. I also didn't know how the geometry might affect the tuning and such....

If you were looking for Ambassador snare sides instead of Diplomats, it would be easy to find them without collars. You could just use the marching version of the head. It's a standard Ambassador snare side with two changes: the lack of a collar and the flesh hoop is crimped over the epoxy channel to keep it from pulling out under high tensions.

A possible alternative that wouldn't require a special order is the Ludwig C1114 Xtra Thin marching snare side. Steve Weiss' description mentions a "low profile collar". I don't remember the collar profile too well, but I do remember it being a great, responsive snare side head... at least on a marching drum.

That sounds great. I'll check out those heads....Thanks!

Or that we're both cheap b*stards! :D

Their's no denying that on this endLaughing H

I put an evans hazy on my sonor teardrop snare and I have the same problem with the cast hoop touching the bearing edge while not being able to tension the head quite enough... I'll try a marching head asap. thanks for bringing this up.