What type of snares are those in the third picture? They certainly aren't the Cooperman's shown in the first two. Something more conventional, Pearl? Yamaha? Premier?

And why the switch? I like seeing traditional marching drums occasionally.

Those are Premier drums. We didn't get the Coopermans until early 2001. We switch out the drums based off of weather and whether the mission requires long distance air or ground transportation. The rope drums don't respond well to humidity and are hell on earth to fix if they are rained on. Monsoon season in Asia = unpredictable weather

Gotcha. Thanks for the info!