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