To change a snare on your snare drum, you’ll want to make sure you have the right size snare to put on, as a 14 inch usually won’t work on a 13 inch snare drum.

Each side of the snare will be connected to a plastic strip or a kind of string, which will be tightened down and held by a bracket with Tension rods, or some time of phillips or flat head screw. Begin by turning the “Throw off” to the “off” position, so the snare is loose. Any tension on this when loosening can be bad! Losen the snare brackets, and take the snare off.

When putting the new snare on, you’ll want to center it on the bottom snare drum, very minutely shifted towards the side without the “throw off”. Tighten that side (away from the tensioner) and then begin with the side of the “throw off” This is easier described in the video, since it’s hard for me to “show you” in words!

How To Change A Snare On Your Snare Drum

Starting with your tension rods on both the top and bottom being loose, you’ll want to hand tighten the tension rods simultaneously across from each other until they loosely touch the rim. Once they’re all touching the rim, (start with bottom drum head) you’ll want to use a drum key to turn about 1/4 turn and going strait across the drum (as shown in the video above) to avoid awkward tension and torque on the head. You’ll want to continue this process until there are no visible ripples in the head, and without over-tightening the head.

Once your bottom head is tight enough to get all of the ripples out, you’ll want to flip the snare drum over and begin taking the same steps as above (including the pattern of going across the drum). Continue at approx. 1/4 turn all the way around until the head starts to get fairly tight. Dependent on how you like the feel of your snare drum, I usually tighten until the stick will bounce naturally off of the head (it will sound like crap if you followed the steps right).

At this point, you’ll flip the snare drum over again and tighten the bottom a small amount at a time until the sound starts to clear up. You’ll have to repeat the process if you didn’t get it right, but once the bottom head gets tighter, you should be able to control the tone and amount of ringing, without messing with the feel you like on the top head.

How To Tune A Snare Drum

Basically, you gotta watch this video of me performing ‘Rumblin Train’ with Dog House. It was performed outside for a few hundred people at a resort in WV, so It started getting dark and the lights were really pumping me up, not to mention the energy of the other guys made it impossible for me to calm down!  If you want more, we have the entire show from the same camera angle, and I believe at least one other angle.  The Bass player has the board audio recording, so this is just from the camera itself.

Do you want more?  Let me know down here in the Comments section!

So who would like to play my set? Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

For the record, I can’t let anyone play this set. Including everything on the drum carpet, You’re looking at well over $10,000. You can come check out a show that they’re at, though, and I’ll let you get up close in it’s grill:)

Sometimes, replacing your snare drum heads is the most tedious and time consuming task out of any of the other drums. You need to take the snare off, the rims, and make sure it’s tuned right or it’ll throw your entire mindset off while playing. Check out the video, or follow along with my instructions to see the quickest, easiest way to achieve this.

Begin by taking the top head off. To keep tension even around the drum, loosen the tension rods as if you were tuning the drum, by doing opposite sides simultaneously, instead of just going down the line.

After the top head is off, flip the drum over and begin to take the snare off. For this step, I would losen the tensioner, to make the snares loose and easier to work with. The last thing you want to to be loosening a tightened snare and not have any idea what that tension is going to do once it lets go.

Once the Snare is out of your way, continue by loosening all of the tension rods the same way as the top. Upon getting the drum head off, check lug screws to make sure they’re all tight, and replace any broken pieces.

ASSEMBLY

I usually start with the bottom head, since it requires the most time. Be sure you have the right Rim (the bottom will have slots in for the snare wire), and make sure it’s properly lined up with the snare mounting hardware. The last thing you want is to get your head tuned up and realize the snare holes aren’t lining up in the rim.

Tighten the Snare back on after your tension rods are all in, tightening merely enough to get ripples out. When tuning the drum, you’ll want to start with the top in most cases, so get both heads on, as well as the snare, and experiment to make the drum sound custom to your liking!

Properly Change Your Snare Drum Heads