This might be a dumb question, but I've seen snares that have the 4 middle strands taken off. What exactly does this do to the sound of the drum? I have a dynasty snare and I was thinking about trying this to see how it sounds. Also, if anyone has a Dynasty snare and has taken the middle four strands off on their drum, could you explain how to do it? It seems to me the only way to get individual strands off is to actually cut them, and I don't want to end up not liking the sound of it and not being able to put them back on.

To give an answer on the first part of the post. Removing 'guts' from the snare side of the drum does just that. It removes some of the 'snare' sound that a drum could have. A few DCI lines do this, Cadets being off the top of my head, so they have a consistent snare drum sound that blends well without it being too wet and distorting the notes being played.

As far as removing them, I believe the screws that are used to tune them could also help remove them if undone the entire way, but do not quote me on that as I may be misinformed.

As mentioned above, removing guts is intended to dry up the sound (less snare response). I would not recommend doing that to a Dynasty drum though. From my experience, they are the driest of the marching snares and removing guts could leave you wishing you had more snare sound. A couple lines I know of cut some guts off of Pearls that they march. But, Pearls are a much wetter drum, by design, than a Dynasty.

Just my opinion.

Thanks for the advice guys. By the way scott, I have actually noticed the cadets do this with their drums. I have been going to the cadets2 camps and we use the cadets snares. I was auditioning for snare but I got cut after the second camp, but i'm going back for either bass or front ensemble.

Good luck Koch, might see you at finals since it's in Annapolis. I don't really have the financial flexibility (nor any real desire as of now) to march Corps at this time.

Thanks!

I have some snares from Puresound Percussion and they make them with the gap in the middle and are called Equalizers. They made a drum with too much ring and snare buzz sound precise. So I think they may have got that idea for removing the snares from them it does tighten up the snare sound.

Yeah I guess it's really only useful on high tension snares if you have I whole line of them. Phantom Regiment is surprisingly clean though for how wet their snares are.

A lot of good advice here. I think you are missing the one piece of information,

cutting the strands drys out the drum, as said before Dynasty's are notoriously dry to begin with. But why corps remove snares (Cadets, some of Beddis lines) is to dry our a 8 to 10 person snare line.

Unless you have that many snares in your line, I HIGHLY recommend to not do it. If you ever head a Cadet snare individually they sound pretty boxy (not so much since Colin took over) but when you have 7 to 9 other snares playing together drying it out is pretty essential.

If you want a similar effect just add tape to the guts pretty much does the same thing just NOT permanent change.

good luck

Haha, yeah I noticed that the Cadets' snares don't sound to hot by themselves, they sound nice together though. I tried the tape on the guts, I'm just messing around with positioning of the tape. Is it better to have it towards the outside of the head or in the middle?

Exactly, removing the guts for a drum corps just saves them time trying to fine tune the guts with tape. For most of us, who are teaching H.S. lines we never know how many or what type of snare drummers we will have, so having something temporary for a season is the best option. IMO at least.


As far as taping, if you want a wetter sound, I found taping towards the guts the answer. Little dryer, tape closer to the center. also depends on how many pieces you use. I would only use 2 to 4 at most. Although I happen to see BDs drums up close in 2008 and they used packing taped down the length of the snare bed. it was pretty interesting to say the least.

Personally, I like two pieces of tape about a couple inches from the strainer and butt. Again, Experiment and find the sound you like.