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Gretsch Snares
Gretsch Snares Gretsch Contoured Wood Hoop Snares The two models in the new Gretsch Contoured Wood Hoop Snares range offer large, maple wood shells with wood counter hoops instead of the more usual metal hoops top and bottom. Both drums offer much the same spec apart from the detail of the hoops which I will come to shortly. The main details on both include 14x6.5” 10 ply maple shells with 30 degree bearing edges, 10 double ended lugs, a new drop thrown snare lever, 20 strand wires and Evans heads (G1 coated batter and Hazy 300 snare side). The classic Gretsch silver interior is present on both models and, as mentioned, both have maple solid (one piece) contoured (shaped) hoops. The only difference between the models is the presence of an inner hoop of metal within the wood hoop on the S-6514-WMH-MPL, where the standard wood hoop S-6514-WH-MPL model does not. |
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The look of both models is big, smart and, well, woody! The large, glossy finished shells are complemented by the wood hoops and chrome hardware to offer a classy and slightly traditional look. The workmanship appears excellent and details such as the silver lacquer and octagonal Gretsch badge (with air hole). The lugs and snare throw and butt look well balanced with the drum image and again, look not too modern – but in a good way. The throw mech itself releases the wires with a simple drop off action levering away and down from the shell. This is quiet, smooth and functional, although not my favourite design as this can catch your inner leg when thrown off. The wooden hoops make these drums look big and, as a result can be a tight fit onto a snare basket, but once in place are no problem. As a piece of woodwork the hoops are well made, made from laminated wood (like a drum shell) and shaped to accommodate the drum heads, tension rods and even offer cut outs to ensure there is no clash with the snare mech or wire straps underneath. Their ‘contoured’ profile is not unlike that of a metal die cast hoop with a raised inner rim, although thicker, and the tension rod square heads are recessed to almost hide them from view. A nice bit of manufacturing all round. |
So, onto the sound. The standard wood hoop model (S-6514-WH-MPL) is everything you expect from a deep, maple snare. Rounded and full of body of sound with quite a bite to centre hits. There is no unpleasant ring, likely due to the mass of wood in shell and hoops but it cuts well even at moderate volumes. Rim shots are not unlike those with a metal die cast hoop but, as expected the wood hoop rounds off the tone to provide a warmer, smoother crack that is most pleasing. Cross sticking also cuts with this warmth to the tone and the contoured shape of the rim feels like a metal hoop under your stick due to the similar shaping of the rim. Despite the 6.5” depth these drum work well with brushes for tone and snare wire sizzle and the ever popular Evans head coating is one of the loudest I have used so you can get right up and down on brush dynamics straight out of the box (after tuning). The head tuning is easy and almost enjoyable as the wood rims have more give than a die cast hoop and yet holds the tuning well. As with many a 14x6.5” shell I personally prefer a tuning in the middle to upper middle ranges although you can get a low fat ‘blatt’ with looser tuning and the higher tensions still offer the warmth with a back beat crack. |
The metal-wood hoop model (S-6514-WMH-MPL) is much the same as the standard wood hoop model in terms of performance and sound although there is that metal inner rim on the batter side wooden counter hoop. This looks great and, from what I know, is pretty unique in the snare drum world, although I will stand to be corrected. The idea is to offer the best of both metal and wood hoops and I think this does work to a point. Because the inner metal rim extends slightly over the wood this is what your stick will contact and so there is a slight extra click on rim shots and cross sticking although I can hear no real difference in regular head strokes. Otherwise the woodiness again comes through in the overall tone. There is the additional benefit that the metal will protect the wood hoop and so should last longer which is a bonus as I have seen some pretty sorry looking wooded batter hoops on other snare drums! Gretsch must have made a lot of snares in their many years in the game and these new models certainly show that experience. These offer a very nice spec for the money (you will likely pick one of these up for around £300) which is cheaper than a lot of wood hoop models out there and they look and sound the part. I can see no specific music genre that these are aimed at as they sound good and will cater for most tunings and volumes, although I think the more mature player will likely pay these more attention. Just watch out for those large hoops wood which may struggle to fit on some (cheaper?) snare stands. See link to Gretsch website: http://www.gretschdrums.com/?fa=snaresub&sid=658 |
Gretsch USA G-4000 Metal Series 13x6” Solid Aluminium Snare A new addition to the metal snare drum range by Gretsch is the 13x6” Solid Aluminium snare code G4168SA. This has a 3mm thick solid Alu shell with 2mm thick reinforcement hoops at either end giving a 5mm thickness at both bearing edges. There are six double ended lugs, a throw action ‘Lightning’ snare lever with 24 strand wires and die cast steel hoops top and bottom. A coated, reverse centre dot head and clear resonant head are included. Finishing off the exterior is a silky ‘Satin Aluminium’ finish, metal octagonal Gretsch badge with air hole, a separate larger chromed circular air hole and a subtle knurled band design encircling the middle of the shell. I would say this is a minimalist looking drum. With only 6 lugs and the understated look of the grey/silver metal shell are classy and distinctive. The new Lightning snare mech and butt are streamlined in design with the snare tension knob on the butt side which provides a balanced look. The mechanism throws off away from the drum with a simple two part lever system. The drum is actually quite heavy due to the thickness of the shell which is one solid, continuous metal piece machined to include the reinforcement hoops all from one lump of aluminium. The bearing edges are quite defined with a keen machined edge so there is relatively minimal head contact with the shell. The die cast hoops house standard Gretsch brand ‘Permatone’ heads. Straight away this drum offers the sound you expect. The 13” diameter and metal shell combine to offer a high, bright and tight tone. There is a distinctive metallic ring from the shell, not unpleasant and easy to remove with a thicker head or the old Moongel. Hitting the batter head dead centre produces less ring, although there is only a little lea way, but the results are good. Without the ring overtone the body of the sound is like a gun crack without resorting to rim shots. This sound will cut through 6 foot of peat and then some. The bright character of the tone has a little bit of warmth lurking beneath, so is less brittle sounding than, say steel, although generally the overall sound is a bit one dimensional. You can play dynamically but there is perhaps less timbre change between the volume levels than other snare drums so you get a pretty consistent tone at any level. The snare wires react quickly and sharply so, for me, a better wire set than the standard Gretsch brand provided would help to ensure clean control of that sizzle. Tuning was not so productive on this drum. For me eight lugs would have been preferable, while six is not a problem for day to day purposes, they feel like there is a lot of tension on each one as each rod took quite some pressure to crank the head. This may also be in part due to the materials of the tension rod and insert nut, so the overall effect while tuning felt like a cheaper drum. Once tuned, though the drum was ideally pitched either tight or really tight. There is an almost timbale quality to the very high tunings and this will appeal to many players longing to really cut through on stage. Lower tunings were not so great as the looser head only offer the deader tone while being overrun by that aluminium ringing. Overall this is a good snare drum. The shell and snare mechanism are well made but I felt there is a little bit of a let down with the number and quality of the lugs and rods. This drum sounds great cracked up but you hesitate as you do it because of the obvious pressure on the tensioning system. At around £700 I would expect better and it seems that the majority of this cost is on the shell material and manufacture. Otherwise, this does what it says on the tin, and if you have not heard an aluminium snare drum before, this is a prime example of the benefits of a shell made from the most common metal in the Earth’s crust. See web link: http://www.gretschdrums.com/?fa=snaresub&sid=599# Chris Dennis July 2010
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