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.
