Thread: Jarrah snare drum

Just thought I'd show off a project that was started several years ago and has finally seen the light of day: my jarrah snare drum.

It's a 26 stave construction and at 12"x5" (final thickness 15mm) it is smaller than the standard snare. This snare really demonstrates that size isn't everything: it has a cracking bite that not many 14" snare I've played could match. This thing really

The first photo is of the shell after I finished it. On the outside it's finished with 2 coats of Treatex for all but the 10mm below each bearing edge. The edges, and the inside of the shell are finished with one coat of danish oil. I did this because: 1) I did not want to interfere with the contact between the bearing edges and the drum heads, and 2) I wanted to preserve the wood texture as much as possible on the inside to allow the wood grain surface to influence the sound. I polished the Treatex finish with UBeaut's Traditional Wax. There are three 10mm vents near the bottom of the shell.

The second photo is of the snare with all hardware (free-floating system from Sleishman Drums) and heads installed.

And the last photo is of the snare as part of my kit. Note that this photo was taken before I applied finish to the snare. I just couldn't wait to try it before putting the finish on it. By the way, the Sleishman free-floating drum system is an Australian invention and this is the best sounding kit I ever played. Having no hardware drilled into the wood interfering with resonance makes these drums really sing!

(PS. I have no vested interest in the company other than being a very satisfied customer)