On Drumming Well - Snare drum construction, timbre, heads and snare wires

My philosophy on snare drum tone and tuning is that the snare drum heads should be tuned as tight as possible, top and bottom. The shell will provide the most responsive and optimal tone with the heads tuned “tight as a drum”. Buddy Rich said,  "I don't tune them, I tension them. There's a great difference” and, of course, he had the archetypical snare drum sound, especially after the advent of plastic heads.

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1937 Ludwig & Ludwig-Slingerland Super Rare Abalone Pearl Super Ludwig Drum Outfit

The Ludwig & Ludwig catalog of 1937 offered a Super -Ludwig Drum outfit consisting of a 14”x28” single tension bass drum, 5”x14” Super-Ludwig snare drum in “Abalone Pearl,” plus various other traps and cymbals, but no ‘separate tension’ tom toms.  Slingerland, however, did offer separate tension tom toms in its 1936 (and presumably 1937) catalog in “Abalone Pearl.”

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