i'd love to hear someone's opinion on these drums too!

i'm no drum expert, but i can say this for the supersensitive: it's exactly that. SENSITIVE!! the snare in mounted to it lies across the entire bottom head. on some models you can even adjust each separate snare strand....

I myself have always been a bit intrigued over the years by the SuperSensitive Snare Drum.

I can remember back in time, the first time I ever seen one, and that was one that was set up on the floor of Frank's Drum Shop back in perhaps '66?

Well, I fell in love with the look of this drum. Just thought it was such a cool, and beautiful looking Drum. I was always of the (mis)belief that if the Supraphonic was good, the SuperSensitive (not to be confused with the Super) must be a much better drum.

Yet every time I played one of these, I walked away feeling this was a drum sound I didn't like, and back in the '60's, I always came away from this drum saying to myself "heck, I like the Sound of my Pink Champagne Ludwig Jazz Festival a lot better.

This wasn't because I like the sound of wood better than a steel Drum, but I believe it was due to the PITA proper Strainer settings of the SuperSensitive.

While Frank's Drum Shop was certainly not a GC, with always a slew of professional drummers on board, including Maury Lishon himself, these Snares always seemed to have a choked sound to me, more muted, controlled sound to me, and since I never personally owned one, I never had the liberties of setting down with a screwdriver, and tuning key in hand, and was able to monkey with the adjustments on them.

Still to this day, I still have that "Want" in the back of my mind, having a beautiful mint '60 COB Model, yet also remember too, the childhood memories I have of this drum, and my dislikes. Of course this is all personal, and tastes vary also in what consists of a "Good Sound"

I always seemed to prefer the sound of a plain ole regular SupraPhonic, and also preferred the sound of a properly set up Rogers Dynasonic in comparison to the Ludwig.

It is said though, that Joe Morello (Dave Brubeck) typically used a SuperSensitive back in the old days, and while I'm not personally sure of this, I would assume songs like "Take Five", and the like were recorded with this very same Snare Drum. Perhaps somebody like Steve Maxwell, or Mike Curotto can shed more light of the characteristics of this Snare Drum.

I would think most average gigging drummers shyed away from this drum, as there were just too many little screws, and finicky adjustments to be made to get this drum up, and running properly. Mark

Again, I should probably leave the more knowledgeable comments of Someone like S. Maxwell, or M. Curroto to comment on values of these Snare Drums, but I believe that per any given pair of drums in identical age, and condition, the Supersensitive will be the more valuable drum.

Different reasons account for this no doubt, Mystique, availability/rarity, and the supply, and demand.

I cannnot quote production numbers, but there were probably less numbers of the SuperSensitive made versus the Supraphonic, hence the higher collectability value today.

The Supersensitive always was a more expensive drum than the Supraphonic, and was a top o the line model in more modern years. The only exception to that, was the revered Black Beauty. Mark