Hi, i just discovered the whole idea of cocktail drums a couple of weeks ago and I like it! I've started collected pieces to build a sit down kit. I experimented with a 16 by 16 inch floor tom and 12' tom as a snare, I liked the results. This tom doesn't belong to me though but it gave me some ideas. I'm going to use a proper hi hat stand, I can't imagine ever wanting to play without one.
The other day I bought a 14 by 14 inch floor tom and a 10 inch tom second hand for $70AU. I've taken the cheapo black plastic wrap off both and plan to finish them naturally, they look good so far.
I want to make the 10 inch tom into a side snare but i'm not sure what to do. I could cut it up and have a small snare and a slightly deeper tom each with only one skin.
-OR-
I could leave the 10 inch tom whole and put the snare parts on it. I'm worried that this will be too heavy to mount on the floor tom. The advantage is that it already has a tom mount.
What do you guys think of the sounds I will get out my my possible options? I really don't want to spend much more money, doing this on the cheap as a sort of mission.
Moding a 10 by 10inch tom into a side snare
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jim kooser
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Sat Aug 26, 2006 3:39 pm
I play a Premier 10 inch diameter by 8.5 inch deep snare with my set. I bought it used, and it had a nasty ring to it and quite a bit of snare buzz. I've reshaped the bearing edges and added some muffling to dampen the ring, and reshaped the snare bed to get rid of the buzz, and it's a sweet drum. Nice dry crack, higher pitched than a 14 inch snare but it works well with my band. The only drawback I've encountered with the small snares is the sound when using brushes; in my opinion any snare under 14 inches sounds crappy with brushes. A 10 by 10 snare might work pretty well, but watch those bearings and the snare bed!