Hey Fung,

I have a couple field snares with this mechanism. Luckily they were babied, so they still work.

I cannot imagine why someone would think a parallel snare mechanism was a good idea for a drum subjected to the rigors of field playing.

Finally I get to chime in on something I can help with, my issue may be the same thing you are refering to, with that dual throw, the snare sometimes goes into release mode on its own, because the throw is so sensative. I took the drum to a friend of mine who builds drums, he had the drum for a few days, when he called me he said, well I fixed you snare. guess how much it cost? I was ready for the bad news. he said .29.........he used a plastic screw anchor, and wedged it between the slave end of the throw, so the snare always stays in tune, because the snare can never move to release mode unless you take the wedge out, I'm gong to snap a few pics so you can see what I mean. the drum now sounds perfect. It would be hard to sell this drum for me since I bought it at the niles plant when I was 17. along with my other drums.

Here are some pics, as you can see the anchor is wedged in so mo matter what the snare wires cannot move, anytime you want to use as a tom, you can take the wedge out, most of us use snares as snares not toms, but if you were a jazz drummer and like to flip snares on and off this set up will not work, but for 99% of the time, it does just fine, I still may look for something a little less noticeable to use, but at least you get the picture, the main reason this SSK's go out of tune, is because the wires move when you dont want them to, this is an easy fix.