Note from the author: this is long.  get a beverage.  or print it and read while you, um...  ahem.

Dunnett 8"x14" Titanium Snare Drum

Nick Amoroso (c) 2002

~ or ~

"dude! like, killer! we like didn't have to mic your snare!"

what's hot: excellent craftsmanship - cuts through walls of amplification - titanium hoops sound and feel great - extremely wide tuning range

what's not: rust forming on drum, due to profuse drooling

i have a theory on 8-inch-deep snare drums. i don't like 8-inch-deep snare drums. too mushy. a tom with snares attached. narrow tuning range. doesn't cut through the band. only good for the power ballad. and then only in the studio. sometimes. you get the point.

yes i know, there are 8" snare drums out there that sound great. it's just me. maybe it's because i'm a child of the 80's. you know, when every butt-rock hair band had the "power ballad." when every snare drum sounded like a birthday cake being hit by a baseball bat.

*bsssh.* *bsssh.* *bsssh.* belch.

so it took a snare drum that someone loaned me to shoot my "theory" all to hell.

her name is "odds," and she's a dunnett 8x14 titanium snare, in "frosted sand" finish. the drum is outfitted with ronn's r-5 "fat" tube lugs (imagine a tube lug on steroids), aquarian heads (texture coated top, classic clear snare bottom), 42-strand snares, a transparent nickel drumworks throwoff and (get THIS) straight *titanium* hoops.

this instrument is gorgeous. the shell finish is a matte medium gray that is somewhat rough to the touch, and the hoops are polished titanium. those two colors and textures (along with the chrome-plated tube lugs, transparent nickel throwoff and the way ronn subtly etches his last name in the shell) blend together to make for a very understated, elegant looking instrument.

the drum's shell is a thin (one *millimeter* thin) piece of titanium, joined at a seam that resides behind the throwoff (so it's barely visible). Ronn signs his name, the serial name of the drum and the build completion date on the inside of each shell he produces, but he also engraves a much smaller version of the same, right at the seam. according to ronn, it's for identification purposes. he says that because the name, date and serial name are written in marker, they could be wiped off with acetone or lacquer thinner or maybe even windex and elbow grease. being that the second set of identical signatures are engraved on the shell, they would consequently have to be ground off.

the bearing edges are flawless. for those that don't know, ronn doesn't bend the metal of a shell to make an edge or snare beds (which is what 99% of metal drum manufacturers do); he believes doing so impedes the shell's resonance. instead, he bevels the metal to a *real* edge. this increases the resonance of the shell, and in the end, the sensitivity of the drum.

and speaking of resonance and sensitivity, let's get to what's really important here: the sound. this is where *odds* truly amazed me. with all due respect to ronn, i was expecting what i usually expect from an 8" or deeper snare drum: tubby. mushy. see above. i took the drum out of its case, put it on a stand in my living room, gave it a good hard WHACK with a stick...

and immediately decided i HAD to take it to a gig with me.

well, after i got the cats down from the curtains.

i spent some more time playing it in my living room, and was astounded by its sensitivity. the drum spoke crisply and cleanly with everything from the lightest tap to the heaviest rimshot (there go the cats again). the drum came to me with 42-strand snares on it. i thought that that was why it was so sensitive. for a minute. i then put some 24-strand puresound snares on it, and it was still very crisp and sensitive. same with "regular" 20-strand snares (and that *really* amazed me). snare response was very present from edge to center, at any volume. i had to keep reminding myself: "this is an 8-inch-deep drum. this is an 8-inch-deep drum."

the straight hoops are unlike any i have seen or played before. they are thicker than the almost razor-sharp straight hoops that i have on some of my older snare drums. the top edge of the top hoop is also different from that of the bottom hoop, in that it is beveled inwards towards the drum head. i believe that this serves two purposes: reducing stick damage and increasing playing comfort. if you have a snare drum with "vintage" straight hoops, you know how the shock can get to your wrists if you play rimshots. and chances are, you also have a small pool of sawdust between the hoop and the head at the rimshot area. rim clicks also tend to sound thin with most straight hoops, but not with these. they sound very sweet, thick and full-bodied.

i took the top head and hoop off, to get a good look at the bearing edge and inside of the shell. i inadvertently tapped the hoop with a stick, and was pleased to discover that it had a very bright, clear musical tone. the thing just sang and sang like a bell. while i didn't take the bottom hoop off the drum, i can only assume that it would produce the same result.

i took it with me to a gig at a club in hollywood called the *whisky a go go.* this place has walls of amplification, and even so, i have heard many a snare drum drown in the mix. feh. sound engineers. so "just to be safe," i brought along my pearl 6.5x14 brass ffs, "because it cuts through everything." duhh. that was a wasted transport.

i have never played a metal snare drum that possessed the tonal qualities of a titanium one. the closest i can come to describing what i hear is that it possesses both the tonal characteristics of metal (cutting, loud, sharp, bright) AND wood (warm, fat, thick, dark, somewhat dry). how can a drum sound bright and dark at the same time? i don't know! but it does!! i thought some of these qualities might be attributed to the drum's size, but i have heard from people who own 6x13 ti's, and they say their drums possess the same characteristics. the drum has a very "thick" sound, with plenty of high-end crack, mid presence and low fullness, without too much (or too little) of each. kinda like it was pre-eq'd. the rimshot sound was just amazing. very full and cutting. someone out front said "man, that's one powerful snare drum you've got there!"

now, i hit hard, but not *that* hard. the front-of-house engineer had to turn the snare mic almost OFF during our set. his words: "i've never had to do that before. that's a great snare drum!"

the straight hoop was extremely comfortable for playing rimshots (which is what i do 99% of the time). the hoop claws are very small, and although i was initially concerned, i found that they didn't get in the way of playing at all. also, i had no problems with the drum de-tuning during our 50-minute set. i set it, and i forgot it, as it were. the throwoff was no trouble at all in this area, either. it kept its tension.

so, since the drum passed the "live" test with flying colors, i thought that the next thing to do was to give it some real attention at a rehearsal. that's when i realized what this baby is really capable of.

i started by reducing the tension on the top head, by small increments, to see how far i could get before it would start to have the *bsssh* sound i was referring to earlier. i've been tuning drums for a very long time, and i was really impressed with how easy this drum is to tune. due to the "fat" tube lugs, the shell is slightly undersized (13 3/4", where the "industry standard" is 13 7/8" for 14" drums). ronn says that an undersized shell makes the drum work more like a tympani - the angle that you apply torque to the head at is reduced so it tends to tune a bit easier. i believe it, as i had no trouble getting this drum into any tuning i wanted *very* quickly. the tuning range really impressed me. i was able to go extremely low and still have lots of attack, volume and warmth. it took a lot of loosening before it "bottomed out" (birthday cake/baseball bat).

i started to bring the tension back up, and quickly realized that i couldn't get this drum to choke. obviously, i couldn't get it into "piccolo" range, but i was able to crank it to the point of it being comparable to a 5.5 - 6" snare. seriously. imagine a very thick-sounding 5.5" wood snare. that's what this instrument sounded like to my ears. there doesn't seem to be an area where it sounds better than others (to my ears). what i mean is, it sounded great at whatever tension i took it to, which makes it great for studio applications, where someone needs to get lots of different sounds out of one drum. while some people like keeping a drum tuned in the range of its "sweet spot," i'd much rather have a drum that's capable of many; this drum certainly is. playing this instrument was a very satisfying experience.

as *odds* makes her way back to her owner, i have added yet another "dream snare drum" to my ever-growing list. there are 5 dunnetts on that ever-growing list. so far. i can't believe i'm going to *order* an 8-inch-deep snare drum someday.

nick amoroso

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