Drums: Beat Head Snare Drums
Author: Steve Clarkson
 |
The first drum (I have two for this review) is made of African mahogany, built from a series of bonded wooden hoops lathed into a very unique looking shell in a 13" x 5" finished size. The first thing to notice when you take a look under the hood are the two large wooden hoops forming the inner drum rim on the top and bottom of the shell. This could be the drum's best kept secret. The rim protrudes inwardly by 2-3cm and away from the edge at an angle of about 30 degrees.
I literally took this drum straight out of the bag for a gig one night and only adjusted my snare stand to accommodate its 13" frame. I did nothing to alter the tuning of the drum which had been left for some time. Normally I prefer a coated Ambassador head on top but this had an Evans Genera g2 clear top instead, with a Snare Side 300 hazy on the bottom, and these skins felt like they were made for it.
I tend to approach a new drum with caution and with a pair of Hotrods I gave the drum a wee thwack, a flam with a rim shot. This is how I generally play most of my snare patterns when using sticks. The drum responded with a resonant note that was sustained naturally by the drum itself and switching to sticks made the true volume of this snare apparent. I found myself wanting to play it more on its own before launching around the rest of the kit. When I did mix things up I found the Beat Head snare nicely complimented the sound of each of the other drums with heaps to spare under the hood - reassuring when you are half way through a sound check. I don't often get to play with a 13" snare but this one slotted in perfectly with our repertoire of songs and lasted the entire night without any re-tuning.
Being handmade the Beat Head snares are effectively all one-offs and the second model for review is a 12"x 6" shell made from a NZ native rimu tree with a birch bearing edge, cut at 35 degrees. It is formed in the same manner as the first but with brass hoops held in place by eight black one-piece tension mounts. The snare strainer mechanism is a Dunnett R-class which has a positive solid feel and is gold-plated with a very smart fold away feature.
I literally took this drum straight out of the bag for a gig one night and only adjusted my snare stand to accommodate its 13" frame. I did nothing to alter the tuning of the drum which had been left for some time. Normally I prefer a coated Ambassador head on top but this had an Evans Genera g2 clear top instead, with a Snare Side 300 hazy on the bottom, and these skins felt like they were made for it.
I tend to approach a new drum with caution and with a pair of Hotrods I gave the drum a wee thwack, a flam with a rim shot. This is how I generally play most of my snare patterns when using sticks. The drum responded with a resonant note that was sustained naturally by the drum itself and switching to sticks made the true volume of this snare apparent. I found myself wanting to play it more on its own before launching around the rest of the kit. When I did mix things up I found the Beat Head snare nicely complimented the sound of each of the other drums with heaps to spare under the hood - reassuring when you are half way through a sound check. I don't often get to play with a 13" snare but this one slotted in perfectly with our repertoire of songs and lasted the entire night without any re-tuning.
Being handmade the Beat Head snares are effectively all one-offs and the second model for review is a 12"x 6" shell made from a NZ native rimu tree with a birch bearing edge, cut at 35 degrees. It is formed in the same manner as the first but with brass hoops held in place by eight black one-piece tension mounts. The snare strainer mechanism is a Dunnett R-class which has a positive solid feel and is gold-plated with a very smart fold away feature.
|
Matt Vickers was drummer
in Kiwi band Marginal Era and
started building custom
snare drums from his adopted
Swedish home
in the early '90s. |
The tension placed on the snare wire by way of cloth straps is another feature that I like. This drum had an Evans Genera g1 coated top and a Snare Side 300 hazy on the bottom. I much preferred the sound the 12"produced with the coated Ambassador than the 13" with the clear head, it felt more comfortable to me, giving the drum a raspy feel and sound to it.
You might anticipate a drum this size would not deliver enough volume, if using brushes for example, and although I didn't play it this way in a gig situation I don't think volume would be an issue here. This drum's strength lies in its true and tight sound quality - I would really like to hear it miked up live or in a studio as I'm picking it would be an engineer's dream to work with.
The nature of this drum might however require you to review your reverse stick technique when you are playing a reggae beat for example. If you use long sticks like I do then the extra length could catch you out on this size drum, especially when you want to strike the meat of the stick on the rim to get that fat 'knock' sound.
All the same this snare has what I would call a secret weapon. Its sound was evidently designed to make you feel that it will never let you down. I haven't been so impressed by a drum since my first ever Harmony House special, a silver sparkle Beverly drum kit - and that didn't sound so good! Yet straight out of the box (this time) again without any tuning I could not help myself from smiling knowing that Beat Head Drums could make a snare drum fit any groove, any gig and any drummer who revels in making drums rock.
Steve Clarkson played drums for one-time top Kiwi pop/rock act The Narcs. (Search The Narcs on YouTube.) He admits the band were drawing near their use-by date as NZM was preparing to launch back in 1988, but Steve continues to gig regularly.
