What is a easy way to get my Yamaha Sfz 14inch (With out MTS ) To sound like a Pipe snare ?

is there away to do it ?

If you don't want to have to drill holes or mount and hardware you could do the following:

1) Take the top head off
2) Place tennis racket string in close, horizontal rows across the suspension ring leaving a few inches of slack on either end. The more string, the more snarey so experiment with how wet of a sound you want.
3) Place the top head and rim back on over the tennis string, keep the string fairly tight.
4) As you tighten the top head down make sure the string is kept tight. I suspect the flesh hoop on the head will "grab" the sting and keep it tight as you increase the head's tension but having never done this myself I can't be certain.
6) Trim any excess tennis string from the ends if so desired for a cleaner look.
5) Voila! You should now have a jimmy-rigged pipe snare drum.

Of course, you cannot adjust the tension of the top snares much and you cannot turn the snares off without removing them but if you want that kind of control you'll want to get a true pipe band snare drum. The sound will also be less bright due to the top snares being cable/gut-like.

If you wanted to get real ghetto you could always take a set of wire snares from a drumset/concert snare drum and duck tape the snares to underside of the bottom head. Without any tension on the snares the sound would most likely end up being way too loose for a pipe snare sound.

o.k Thanks

Hey could gutair strings work better ?

And how many strings do you think that would make a good pipe snare sound?



Post edited by Moderator to include triple-posts.

Guitar strings would probably work just as well, perhaps better. The only issue I would see with is guitar strings are not as durable and might break quicker. I'd start with maybe 8-10 strings and add or remove to get the desired sound. Who knows, maybe you'll get the sound you want on the first try!

Well I might just get a Yamaha MTS snare for
X-mas . the MTS is a pipe snare right ?

no, the mts is not a pipe snare.

the mts is a double snare corps style drum.


pipe snares have spiral wire snares top and bottom.

the mts has gut snares on the bottom and straight (cable) wire snares on the top.


b

So what do a MTS sound like ?

An MTS sounds close to a pipe snare drum but it is not as high pitched and as "snarey". The gut and cable snares make the MTS a slightly darker sounding but it is pretty darn wet sounding with the top snares turned on!

A big difference between a pipe snare and the MTS is the pipe snares cannot be turned off easliy. Most of them have an adjustment that allows you to tighten/loosen the top snares but the MTS has a lever you can throw to turn the snares to an on/off position.

So would I be better off buying a Pearl are Premier pipe snare are just getting the MTS .(Cause I Heard 2 snare drummers playing pipe snares on t.v and I just loved the way they sounded .the snares they was playing was Pearl. lol It was on the price is right when I seen them to playing lol ( the had like a 50 year anniversary. and they had a pipe band playing ) but what do you think I should do ?

What are you going to use the drum for? Are you going to use it in a pipe band or just for your own practice time?

Sfzdrummer, unless you're planning on actually playing in a pipe band, I wouldn't get too hung up on the MTS option. It's more of a novelty than something you'd use with any regularity. If you play with a lot of power, you'll find that using the top snares is very uncomfortable on the ears (how often do you see pipe drummers high-sticking with rim shots?!? Not often, cause they'd end up deaf!).

I almost NEVER use the top snares on my SFZ/MTS.

o0o0o0o o.k thanks

I know this is a little late but for future reference...the easiest way I have seen to make a top snare system is this:

take 2 toothbrushes and cut off the handles, leaving the head with the brushes...remove the brushes leaving the holes open. Take the tennis string Hulka mentioned and weave it through the open holes until you have the desired "snare gut" and then tie off the end and melt it so the knot isnt huge and the string wont unravel. Make sure the length is barely over the diameter of the hoop. Then put your drumhead on top of that and put the rim back on....when you tighten the head, it will tighten the "snare gut" helping to create the desired sound.

how does the tightened tennis string affect your head and/or shell? Does it do any damage?

well, the mechanism will not effect the shell any because it stretches to where the brush is under the outer lip of the rim...so basically it just sits under the rim, against the shell.

When I saw this done it did have an effect on the heads. Down the center of the head where the "guts" were...you could see the lines of the "guts" in the head itself. So, it basically it marked its location. However, when we detuned the drum...the line disappeared.

Well can you tell a big different in the sound in the drum if so what do it sound like . do it sound louder . is it a clean high pitch sound . are what

it makes the drum higher pitched....like an mts system would do

The high pitch comes not from the top snare unit. That high pitch comes from using a very whippy light stick. If you use a pipe stick on a regular marching snare the same High pitch is acheived. And yes I have seen grade 1 pipe band drumlines high stick and do rim shots. I would not suggest buying anything from premeire. Their customer support is the worst in the industry. Also most dealer do not like serviceing these drums because it is hard to find the part numbers for replacement parts and deal with premeire.