Anyone have experience with getting a toy snare drum to sound good?

[RyanLovesDrums]

My brother has a Ludwig kid’s drumset that needs a little fixing up for me and his kids to use. I have the snare drum right now and put some new Evans heads and Puresound 20 strand wires on it. The size of the drum is 5x12. The strainer-throwoff is pretty crappy but it still works for the most part. I tuned it with the Tunebot to a perfect 5th so G on the bottom and C on top. Put a little tape on top for dampening. It doesn’t sound too bad although the snare side of the drum is making a little too much noise after I hit the drum. Anyone have any pointers for me? Like a different tuning or something or is this as good as this gets with this drum. Below are some pics of the drum.

 

[JDA]

Yes and they're a member here.

For April Fools We Demoed a Rogue Kit... Sorry.

We've all seen this kit, whether it be while browsing online or in-store. And now, it's here in our studio. Introducing the Rogue "5-Piece Complete Drum Set". At $350, it's one of the cheapest beginning drum sets out on the market, and lucky for us, it just happens to have a bop-sized bass drum...

www.drumforum.org

The Rogue Kit Again, but with better heads, edges, cymbals!

Things that we fixed: The bearing edges on these drums came in pretty poor condition, with many chips and splinters. We sanded them down and now they're smooth and happy. We took off the stock drum heads, and replaced them with some fresh Remo heads. Because the wood (poplar?) is pretty soft...

www.drumforum.org

video in both ^

 

[RyanLovesDrums]

Yes and they're a member here.

For April Fools We Demoed a Rogue Kit... Sorry.

We've all seen this kit, whether it be while browsing online or in-store. And now, it's here in our studio. Introducing the Rogue "5-Piece Complete Drum Set". At $350, it's one of the cheapest beginning drum sets out on the market, and lucky for us, it just happens to have a bop-sized bass drum...

www.drumforum.org

The Rogue Kit Again, but with better heads, edges, cymbals!

Things that we fixed: The bearing edges on these drums came in pretty poor condition, with many chips and splinters. We sanded them down and now they're smooth and happy. We took off the stock drum heads, and replaced them with some fresh Remo heads. Because the wood (poplar?) is pretty soft...

www.drumforum.org

video in both ^

Cool vids. Thanks!

 

[JDA]

(I thought they sounded good stock!

 

[RyanLovesDrums]

(I thought they sounded good stock!

I agree. These Ludwig’s of my brother’s sounded pretty good when he got them too. They came with clear heads (maybe 2ply) on the toms and they sounded really low and fat. I was amazed you know for them being kids drums.

 

[gwbasley]

Try a 12 or 16 wire. That 20 may just be too much for the light weight throw off.

 

[RyanLovesDrums]

Try a 12 or 16 wire. That 20 may just be too much for the light weight throw off.

Yeah that could be the problem but also the snare did come with 20 strand wires. It’s fine for now. It doesn’t need to sound pro level. Thanks anyway.