Thank you, everyone who has contributed to this thread. It has helped me so much. I would like to contribute myself but I pretty much just did a combination of some of the ways you all did it.

Thanks again.

BUMP.......i tuned my decently but i can't get a nice wet sound......any help is appreciated i think the bottom head is too tight but Im not exactly sure why my snare sounds so dry...please help me out

heres a video of my snare that I just recently tuned. I took the video out side so it sounds better then inside. Tell me what you think...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd0hwab-TMo

its kinda tight. I like mine on the lower end. As tuning concerns. I like the bottoms tighter than tops. The over tone of the drum is the sound from the bottom head and the snare strainers shouldn't be too tight. I like the sound of remo max heads over evens now but i use to prefer evans. i also like a thin KevlarŪ head on bottom but Mylar works well and i think gives a wetter tone. i have an evens disk that goes in drums but it doesnt do anything to major to my sound.

helle everyone! I'm new to the forum and I recently was cleaning out the closet and came across my Premier HTS series marching snare that I used in high school in the late 90's. While in high school with this drum I never tuned it as the drum instructor took care of all that. Now that I want to get new drum heads for it I'm stuck because I don't want to mess up the drum. I'll be reading over this thread to see if I can tune it myself and also I'll be searching for some drum heads that are being used these days to replace the old ones. If anybody has any tips let me know. Thanks.

Hey guys,
I am having problems getting the snare guts on my marching snare to touch the bottom head. The result is that I am not getting very good snare responce. The drum is a Pearl championship marching snare drum. The drum is relatively new (about 2 or three years but the person who played snare before me was pretty irresponsible and did not take care of the drum the way he should. Anyway the thing that is confusing me is that some of the snare guts will touch and others won't so, I don't really know how to fix the problem. I swapped the snare guts with a brand new set and put a set of old snare guts on a new drum. The old snare guts on the new drum still touched and the new snare guts on the older drum still didn't have the snare responce it should. Is it the entire snare mechanism that is no good? Are there snare mechanisms for sale, or do I have to buy a new drum? Can someone please get back to me on this. I am loosing my mind over here, it's driving me insane.

Thanks, Javier

If you look on the side of the drum opposite the throw-off there should be little screws attached to the individual gut strands. Try tightening the screws on the strands that don't touch. I think this will solve your problem.

Hello,
Does anyone know if you can buy new snare systems. I think the one on my drum Is ruined. The snare system is for a pearl championship marching snare.

Thanks, Javier

If you need to buy parts, you'd just need to contact a Pearl dealer. Unless something is obviously bent or broken, though, it's almost certainly just a matter of tuning or adjustment.

You mention that your guts aren't making good contact. One common cause for this on a Pearl drum is if the snare bed is misaligned. The snare bed is a subtle notch cut into the bottom bearing edge of a snare drum's shell. The snare bed gives the head a slight saddle-shaped contour to ensure the snare guts make good contact across the entire head.

To see if your snare bed is misaligned, look at the air vents near the top of the shell (see attached image). Are they directly above your snare strainer? If they're not, remove your bottom head, rotate the shell into its correct position, and replace the head.

Duuude!!!!!!!!

Thanks soooooo much skydog. This information will definatelly be pit to good use!!!!!!!!
YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!!!!