14x8 Remo snare?

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aparker2005

aparker2005

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Out antique shopping with the wife and she called me over to this snare. Never seen or heard of it, but it actually sounds great! Chrome over wood it looks like. Anyone know?

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aparker2005 said:
Out antique shopping with the wife and she called me over to this snare. Never seen or heard of it, but it actually sounds great! Chrome over wood it looks like. Anyone know?
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I toured with a slightly later iteration of that same snare in the later 1990s. It also sounded GREAT. But, I don't know how well those Acousticon shells have held up over this much time, given their unique construction, as I am pretty sure it's not a regular wood shell.

I also wasn't a fan of the hardware they had used.

My snare was probably a 3-6 years old at the time. Now, it's been a few decades. Hmmmm.
 
RUN AWAY!

Granted they were marching drums under higher torque, but every one of these I ever saw ended up caving in. I won't touch them with a 10 ft drumstick.
 
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Targalx said:
I toured with a slightly later iteration of that same snare in the later 1990s. It also sounded GREAT. But, I don't know how well those Acousticon shells have held up over this much time, given their unique construction, as I am pretty sure it's not a regular wood shell.

I also wasn't a fan of the hardware they had used.

My snare was probably a 3-6 years old at the time. Now, it's been a few decades. Hmmmm.
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yeah...'acousticon' was basically a phenolic shell: resin impregnated cardboard for the most part!! definitely NOT wood but they do/did hold up fairly well if not beaten to death (i've seen them 'crush down' from slammin backbeats all day long :p)
my remo bop kit held up amazingly well...and AFAIK it's still holding up (i sold it a few years ago like an idiot!!! i would love that lite set back now!!) jeff hamilton (and ed thigpen i believe) were remo set endorsers :) those crazy rim-inclusive heads though...yeesh...i don't love them!
 
Good to know guys! I passed on it. Was hoping I'd come across an acro or supra, but all junk drums today lol
 
tradrad said:
those crazy rim-inclusive heads though...yeesh...i don't love them!
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That was the PTS stuff. But Remo made a lot of Acousticon shell drums that took regular heads, and actually sounded good. @DanRH used to have a set he rehabbed back to life, maybe he can weigh in.
 
lossforgain said:
That was the PTS stuff. But Remo made a lot of Acousticon shell drums that took regular heads, and actually sounded good. @DanRH used to have a set he rehabbed back to life, maybe he can weigh in.
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I bought some Acousticon 516 shells back in the 90's that were set up for Slingerland lugs. They sound great and have no problems with the edges. I've gigged with them a few times with no issues. The only negatives are that they are power sizes and are heavy.
If I ran across that 14x8 snare for, let's say, $50 I would buy it in a heartbeat AFTER taking a look at the edges.
 
These 14x8 snares, either with the pre-tuned heads or standard, were fairly horrible in truth. The only drummer I knew to get a decent sound from one was a professional player who used a cranked Falam head on it, which then caused the shell to collapse. Remo replaced two of these drums for him. The lugs were also very fragile. I can remember my local drum shop having four or five in (they came with the Encore kits, which sounded great but no-one wanted the snare drums that came with them) at £40. They just wouldn't sell and two of them became parts donors for the lugs over time. They don't go for much over that now in the UK.

Worth noting that the original Acousticon snares got much better the shallower they were. The piccolos are lovely drums, but these 8 in deep ones weren't. As I said, the kits sound great.
 
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I knew a drummer who had one and loved it....we played with him often and it did sound good....that was early 90s.

That drum looks like it has PTS heads...as it has claws top and bottom...you could swap them out and since they were PTS the heads were probably not cranked to hard so the edges should be good. Price and shell condition could be the deciding factors.

FWIW...Impact/McCormick Marching drums often came with PTS heads but had real lugs and could take a real head and sounded great with them
 
That era of Remo is not the best, even though from a innovations standpoint, they were trying out all sorts of new stuff. Not mentioned above - those hinged lugs had a tendency to snap off as well.

What you want to look for in REMO drums are the Master Touch, Master Edge, Mondo, and finally Gold Crown drums. These product lines, from the early 90s up until ~2007 for the Gold Crown, appeared AFTER Remo finally perfected the Acousticon shell design. All these lines have EXCELLENT shells and bearing edges, no comparison to the 80's stuff. Some people still didn't like some aspects of the hardware, but I have examples of each of these lines, with no issues.
 
lossforgain said:
That was the PTS stuff. But Remo made a lot of Acousticon shell drums that took regular heads, and actually sounded good. @DanRH used to have a set he rehabbed back to life, maybe he can weigh in.
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oh, i know very well...i had a set that used regular heads...as stated in earlier post >my remo bop kit held up amazingly well...and AFAIK it's still holding up (i sold it a few years ago like an idiot!!!)< i also had a complete set of those silly 'RIMS' mounted PTS things in the late 1990s...kept em on the bus when i was on tour w/ billy ocean!!
 
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