BIG AND BRASSY

While my snare collection grown these past two years, the trend had been to go smaller in size and higher in pitch. I felt it was time to go the other way, deeper and lower. I first saw this snare three years ago on OLX (now Carousell). It looked immaculate in the picture, as if it had never been used. My research revealed it was a slightly rare mid-1990s Pearl Masters B-5314D Brass Shell snare. However, all I could do was drool because the “fixed price” was way too expensive. So I just checked it out periodically to see if the seller changed her mind. 

A couple of weeks ago, I figured I had enough saved up to get myself something nice for Christmas. So I set my sights on a 14”x6.5” snare. There were a trio of them in FB Marketplace that caught my attention. The first was a classic mint early-2000s Pearl Sensitone Elite Brass in black nickel finish. Unfortunately, someone beat me to it a day after it went online. The second, slightly cheaper, was a current model Pearl Sensitone Aluminum. Again, someone beat me to it a day later. The last, and cheapest was an early 1990s Pearl Steel Shell.  But didn’t really appeal to me because it was only in fair shape. Even it it was cheap, I would have to spend extra money on new heads and hoops to get it in really good shape. 

Frustrated, I checked back with the Masters Brass. On a whim, I made a wild half-price offer, expecting to be tagged as "barat" by the seller. I was very surprised to get a reply stating the price could be dropped by 25%. It was still more expensive than the other three, but I had enough money for it. So I sealed the deal and picked it up a couple of days later, lest someone beat me to it again. The included original case was a bit musty, but the drum was mint. I found out that the seller was the wife of Rey Lim, drummer for the legendary band PenPen. He bought the drum but apparently hardly used it, if at all. 

I played around softly with the tuning for a couple of days because I was busy reading student papers, and nothing seemed extraordinary about the sound. But the moment I started playing music on it, magic exploded. It has a deep growl which turns to a roar the harder you hit the center of the head, at all tunings. At low tuning it stays focused and full, not floppy and dull. At the other end, it refuses to choke even at very high tuning. And playing closer to the hoop unleashes all sorts of throaty colors. Finally, It is LOUD. It’s not a cantankerous, but a forceful kind of loud, like body blows between heavyweight boxers. 

It's going to be a big and brassy holiday season :-)

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UPDATE 25 January 2023

Some musical instruments come to us as finished articles. Everything about them is both evident and consistent, the way they look, way they sound, and the way they respond to playing. They have no need for modification or tinkering. They’re exactly what you want, and expected. But others are filled with contradictions. You know they have special virtues, but they don’t seem to want to let them out all at the same time. This makes one wonder if and when this will ever happen at all. This past week I realized my Pearl Masters Brass 14x6.5 snare is one of the latter. 

This snare has been with me for three years now, I’ve tried all sorts of setups and tunings, but never quite “got” it perfect. On the outside it looks polished and refined, with the highest quality accoutrements, befitting its designation as a top of the line model. But the sound is the complete opposite. It is loud, wild, brutish, containing all sorts of weird overtones and buzzes. It has perplexed me to the point of considering giving up and selling it because of its refusal to comply with my intentions. 

This past week I’ve been in isolation in my drum room due to a mild case of COVID 19, and the only physical activity I’ve been capable of is fiddling with the setups of individual drums for a few minutes at a time. After avoiding it for days, I finally got down to the brass Masters. But this time, instead of revering it like a deity, I tried to bring out its wild side. First, massive 42-wire snares are usually called upon to unleash extra sizzle. I tried this once when it was new to me, but was not impressed. Maybe it was because the snap was too loose. But for some unknown reason, it worked today. Maybe it was because of todays extra high reso head and medium high batter. 

Second, I did what may be considered sacrilege by purists, sticking a 1 inch piece of cushion mounting tape to the reso head. I did this to tame an errant after-buzz that has been bugging me forever. I thought it was hardware related. But after 2 rounds of tightening all screws, I concluded it was caused by the interaction of one particularly odd shell resonant frequency. Also, the tape not only tamed the errant buzz, but also smoothed the decay of the wide snare wires. 

This is the first time that everything fell into place for this drum. It still has a very rich timbre of brass snares that make it great for live performance, but balanced enough that all it needs to dry it up for studio recording is a small spot of moongel. 

This is the first cohesive setup I’ve had with this drum. But I’m guessing this works only in the confines of my drum room. Experience tells me that acoustic instrument sounds change depending on venue and/or application. But I now have more faith now that I’ve found a starting point. 

PANG!

Two years ago, I bought a Pearl Short Fuse 10” x 4” snare. It was my first new snare in over 40 years, and the first I bought with my own money. I got it because JB’s annual 40% off sale made it irresistably cheap, and I always wanted an auxilliary snare to contrast my trusty 14” x 5.5” main snare. But when I got home and disassembled it to replace the stock heads with better ones, it became clear why it was so cheap. The wood was soft, the bearing edges were rough, and the throwoff was wonky. I stuck with it though because it looked and sounded really cute. I also figured it would never have to go through the rigors of heavy gigging because I haven’t play outside of my home in years. But these issues continued to bug me nevertheless.

Lately I thought of upgrading the throw off, but that would entail not just buying better parts, but drilling holes in the soft and fragile wood shell to accommodate them. In the end, I finally decided on another first. It would be the first time I would ever sell one of my working musical instruments, and replace it with something better. So I cleaned and preened it to mint condition, posted it in the Facebook marketplace, and priced it at 30% off the price of a brand new one. A few minutes after I posted it, my messenger lit up. By the time I sold it to the first responder the next day, I had had 15 serious inquiries. The buyer came all the way from Cavite on Maundy Thursday, so there was no traffic. From our chitchat he seemed like an unsung but working professional musician. So I warned him about the throwoff, gave suggestions on tuning and maintenance, and sent him on his way.

At the same time I planned the sale, I called all the JB branches in the area, and asked if they had the upgrade drum I wanted, a Pearl Firecracker steel 10” x 5” (FCS1050), which would on sale for 25% off. I found one in Cubao. So I called my suki in Trinoma to get it so I could pick it up from them. I got it on Easter Sunday, replaced the stock heads with a Coated Ambassador batter and Aquarian Classic Clear snare side, and tuned it high.

A Firecracker for Easter. PANG!

CRAZY-BOINGY-GONGY-TRASHY-DARK

Earlier this month I saw a pair of these Silken Trois Thin Ride 20"s at a local music chain for the list price of PhP 9,990.00. They had the same basic ugly-looking, crazy-boingy-gongy-trashy-dark sound as my other Trois cymbals, but was a better alternate ride than my 20" crash because it had a higher ping, and had the same roaring wash as my 16" crash. While I passed on them because I'm a cheapskate, I told the salesperson that I'd get one if they dropped the price by half.

My wish came true a few weeks later when the store FB page announced that all Silken cymbals were discounted by 50% (PhP 4,995.00). They had two available. The first one had a higher ping, a relatively focused wash that went on forever, and a hum that lasted even longer. The second had a lower ping, and a very scattered but shorter wash and hum. Also, I just noticed last weekend that my two Trois crashes had spots with slightly different "pitches" when played softly with mallets, as much as a major 3rd. I checked this out on these rides and the same was true. Apparently, the hammering is not even, hence the intervals. It was a good thing that I was the only customer in the store so it was quiet enough for me to really hear every little sound. In the end I chose the first, more focused one because it slotted in with my other cymbals. I have a recording session on Monday, and this will surely tag along. 

THE PAISTE TRIO

Just before Christmas, I saw a locally rare 22" A Zildjian Swish Knocker in JB Music MOA. I've always been intrigued by the concept, but never actually played one. So I couldn't fathom why it didn't live up to the hype when I finally played it. I didn't know if it was this particular cymbal, or the model in general, but it just sounded uninteresting. Nevertheless, I kept thinking about it over the holidays. A few days into the New Year, I saw someone unloading his stash of Paiste cymbals at insanely cheap prices on the Facebook Marketplace.

I always liked small bells. My mother had an old set of four small ones on a rope, and I tickled them every time I passed by them. But I never had any of my own. So when I saw the seller had a pair of bells, I checked the models up on Youtube.  They seemed to perfectly fit a sound installation I was preparing for a hip art gallery, featuring cymbal wash.  Because they were so cheap, I jumped on them immediately. The 10" 2002 Mega Bell sounds like a cymbal passed through a wah-wah, and the 6" 2002 Bell Chime sound is like an energizer bunny, it goes on, and on, and on and ..... . I don't know if I'll ever use it for a band gig, but I'll surely tickle these whenever I pass by them.    

I had already sealed the deal on the pair of bells when I saw the seller also had a 20” Sound Creation Dark China, which I’ve read is the stuff of legend. My mind was still on the Swish Knocker, and I hesitated because it wasn't something I felt was needed. I asked the seller to bring it along anyway, just in case 1) I would like it if I heard it, and 2) I could cough up the extra money. He was clearly trying to seduce me when he said it was the one cymbal in the collection he didn’t really want to part with, but offered me an additional discount if I added it to the package. All I had to do was tap it once with my finger and I was so blown away that I couldn’t leave without it. And just like that, the dissonance over the inexplicable dissapointment with the Swish Knocker, and the fear of having too many China cymbals, vanished. If my Stagg Traditionals sounds like Chinese opera singers, and my Paiste 2002 22" roars like a typhoon, this one sounds like a mellifluous baritone.

2019 is shaping up to be a great sonic year :-)