erobillard « A wonderful maple snare at a great price. »
Published on 11/07/24 at 13:55
Best value:
Excellent
Audience:
Anyone
This tobacco-to-natural finished 14" maple-shelled PDP snare was part of a trashy parts kit I picked up for a rehearsal space. The kit has long been replaced but the snare stayed, it sounds so good I've used it to record (play Rock Star by Greg Clarke + The Madvarks).
Pacific Drum Company ("PDP") is a budget Drum Workshop brand, and the MX series was made in Ensenada, Mexico. The core is a 14" x 5" 8-ply maple shell stamped November 4, 2005. It has 8 DW TruePitch tuning lugs per side, which have a finer thread pitch than conventional lugs, and a DW-style throw-off. I replaced the 20-strand steel strainer (which had a broken strand) with brass and it came with a plain old Remo Ambassador head that I've just replaced. I've kept the original snare-side head, it's pretty standard. This snare tunes and sounds great from low to high pitches. I keep it fairly high and snappy, and it has a really small but sweet amount of natural ring, making it ideal for 60's rock or swing. A bit of damping, whether a ring or gel dot, makes it a punchy rock snare.
I honestly never throught I'd keep it around as long as I have, but it's hard to beat its versatility, it's light to move around, and sure won't attract the thieves. If you see one with an intact shell and a working throw-off for a decent price I would not hesitate to grab it. The True-pitch tuning lugs are the only "specialty" part here and should be available at any DW dealer. The rest can be fixed or upgraded and you'll have yourself a great-sounding snare quite literally for a song.
Pacific Drum Company ("PDP") is a budget Drum Workshop brand, and the MX series was made in Ensenada, Mexico. The core is a 14" x 5" 8-ply maple shell stamped November 4, 2005. It has 8 DW TruePitch tuning lugs per side, which have a finer thread pitch than conventional lugs, and a DW-style throw-off. I replaced the 20-strand steel strainer (which had a broken strand) with brass and it came with a plain old Remo Ambassador head that I've just replaced. I've kept the original snare-side head, it's pretty standard. This snare tunes and sounds great from low to high pitches. I keep it fairly high and snappy, and it has a really small but sweet amount of natural ring, making it ideal for 60's rock or swing. A bit of damping, whether a ring or gel dot, makes it a punchy rock snare.
I honestly never throught I'd keep it around as long as I have, but it's hard to beat its versatility, it's light to move around, and sure won't attract the thieves. If you see one with an intact shell and a working throw-off for a decent price I would not hesitate to grab it. The True-pitch tuning lugs are the only "specialty" part here and should be available at any DW dealer. The rest can be fixed or upgraded and you'll have yourself a great-sounding snare quite literally for a song.