Snare beds effect on a drum

[Snooter]

I recently had a builder put together a snare shell I had around for awhile. The shell looks great,the edges are nice,but theres no snare beds cut. When the snares are applied it chokes out the drum. I would have the builder cut some beds but they said they did it already.So for sake of argument I'm gonna have beds cut by someone else. I feel that nice beds will make all the diff in this case. Please let me know your opinion about the importance of snare beds.

 

[mlayton]

have you tried laying the shell flat on a good flat surface and shining a light from the inside down towards the bottom of the shell. you might be able to detect the size of the snare beds that way. but, if it doesn't sound good, youve still got an issue either way. what wires are you using on it currently?

mike

 

[Snooter]

have you tried laying the shell flat on a good flat surface and shining a light from the inside down towards the bottom of the shell. you might be able to detect the size of the snare beds that way. but, if it doesn't sound good, youve still got an issue either way. what wires are you using on it currently?

mike

I have tried the flat table thing and theres no beds whatsoever. The wires are puresound wires,which I've always had great success with.

 

[greggp]

Snare beds are important. If you have a table saw and a small Stanley SurForm (the small plastic yellow one), you can cut and shape them yourself. I suggest that you cut to no more than 3/16" deep, but make them at least twice as wide as the wires. I usually tail the bed out to the lug on each side of the strainer and butt.

 

[lazer]

also ,stay away from plastic / snare cord/ string and use 5/8" ribbon from a craft store to tie the wires on

 

[EvEnStEvEn]

As mentioned, shallow & wide beds are probably your best bet.

Cutting the beds yourself is a fairly simple procedure - but they're also easy to screw up, so I'd suggest looking at the snare bed tutorials found at DIY drum websites.

www.drumfoundry.com has snarebed tutorials.
See Here:
(broken link removed)

 

[shuffle]

As mentioned, shallow & wide beds are probably your best bet.

Cutting the beds yourself is a fairly simple procedure - but they're also easy to screw up, so I'd suggest looking at the snare bed tutorials found at DIY drum websites.

www.drumfoundry.com has snarebed tutorials.
See Here:
(broken link removed)

A Luddy bed would be nice!
Gentle and wide,not deep.
I've screwed a few up in the past,have a pro do it for ya.

 

[Snooter]

As mentioned, shallow & wide beds are probably your best bet.

Cutting the beds yourself is a fairly simple procedure - but they're also easy to screw up, so I'd suggest looking at the snare bed tutorials found at DIY drum websites.

www.drumfoundry.com has snarebed tutorials.
See Here:
(broken link removed)

A Luddy bed would be nice!
Gentle and wide,not deep.
I've screwed a few up in the past,have a pro do it for ya.

I will for sure have a pro cut them.

 

[rhythmace]

I recently had a builder put together a snare shell I had around for awhile. The shell looks great,the edges are nice,but theres no snare beds cut. When the snares are applied it chokes out the drum. I would have the builder cut some beds but they said they did it already.So for sake of argument I'm gonna have beds cut by someone else. I feel that nice beds will make all the diff in this case. Please let me know your opinion about the importance of snare beds.

I don't see how snares would choke the drum. The only problem should be that the snare wires won't hug the head and cause rattle and a lack of "snare" sound. Ace

 

[Zeb]

Fat Cat makes snare wires for snare drums "with little to no snare bed"... Here's their brief FAQ about it (small PDF): (broken link removed) And the different snares here: http://www.bigbangdist.com/fatcat.htm

Having pointed that out, I'm not sure any snare wire(s) can compensate for no snare bed... I would think having a good snare bed would be the best choice, but you might check 'em out.

 

[Rik_Everglade]

You need a snare bed, unless you are using a system like Rogers that pulls the contraption up into the head without contacting the bearing edge. Without a bed, the catenary curve of the snare wires from the pull of gravity will ensure that the snares will buzz, causing you to crank the snare tension so tight that you don't get a good sound.

 

[Ron_M]

Builders are opinionated about beds. I've tried many, and prefer flat and deep with steep, abrupt transitions. Second favorite, wiiiiide and shallow, ala (some) Ludwig and Pearl (I'm sure there are others).

 

[Steele]

I repair/restore drums for a living and cut or adjust snare beds all the time. The following factors are absolutely paramount

- symmetry. If the bed isn't centred, the wires may not sit flat. if the opposing beds are different this may cause same issue
- too shallow or no bed will result in poor snare contact in the centre of the head
- too narrow combined with 42 strand wires will result in poor contact as the wires won't fit the contour being created for them by the bed
- the deeper the bed the greater the snare contact and greater the sensitivity

The actual shape and style of the bed matters a lot less, and is really a matter of builder taste and preference. Most of the time, people will fall into a routine akin to smoking the same brand of cigarettes all the time. There's not so much difference, but it's just the one they like. I nearly always cut 6" long beds (3" either side of centre point) tapering gradually. This suits up to 20 strand wires. If customer was planning on using exclusively 42 strand wires I'd make the beds much wider and probably a little more square than curved.

If you are DIYing this one, I absolutely would not follow the advice above to use a table saw. I'm really not even sure how that works in this particular situation. Use a bastard file or the like and work gradually checking constantly that you aren't going too far and you are working in a symmetrical fashion. Too little is better than too much. You can always go back and take off some more. 1/8" deep in the centre is a good standard depth for most snares. There is also nothing wrong with normal snare cord or string. If your beds and edges are good, the rest will fall into place just fine

Steele

 

[Titus Pullo]

A trend among Canadian boutique composite manufacturers is the use of a 4-Way Dyno-Bed™ system.
Eliminates snare buzz. Eliminates most everything, actually.

(broken attachment removed)

 

[Zeb]

A trend among Canadian boutique composite manufacturers is the use of a 4-Way Dyno-Bed™ system.
Eliminates snare buzz. Eliminates most everything, actually.

4bedsRbetter.jpg

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking at in the picture, Titus!

Do the extra 2 arrows point to two, sort of "superfluous" "snare beds"? And their function is to help with snare buzz? Just curious -- I've never seen or heard of that.

Just in the "for what it's worth" category, I've found Grover snare wires go a long way to eliminating snare buzz - making it almost non-existant.

Sorry... missed the snark! D'oh!

 

[Rik_Everglade]

No. That's a joke. The manufacturer obviously had to recut the beds after finding out he made the dum-dum error of either drilling the throw off holes in the wrong place, or cut the beds in the wrong place. LOL.

 

[davezedlee]

GONG !!!!!

 

[jriolo]

//

 

[BruceN]

Patterson coated cable snares don't require snare beds, but they do sound different from wire snares, and they aren't cheap.

 

[danswillys]

On the subject of snare wire buzz, forgive me but isn't that the point of a snare or would it otherwise not be just the sound of a shallow tom when hit!