Hello, I'm a french drummer and I've got a 14*4 Ludwig Universal snare drum with those old snare wires (a bit like guitar strings). I've got problems to tune them.

This is the exact same snaredrum as this one but without the metal thing under the snare wire tuning screw.

[IMG]http://www.vintagesnaredrums.com/images/my_collection/ludwig_universal_snare.jpg[/IMG]

The problem is that it is very difficult to tune them high, they are always loose and it makes a buzz sound everytime. By the way, whan it is hit hard, it sounds like the snare wires are tuned very high. I really don't understand how it works :s there is no throw off mechanism.

And about the global sound, it has a natural calf skin on the batter side, and a n ambassador snare on the snare side. How shall I tune such a snare drum ? very high ?

Thanks for your help and sorry for my poor english.