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I have TAMA Artwood snare that is sounding off-pitch (a bit tin-ny - like Lars' snare in St.Anger) after replacing the TAMA stock heads (i believe made by REMO?). I use EVANS drumheads in all my drums from years and never had this issue with other snares, or any drum at all.

I've been playing this snare for over a year with the stock heads and it sounded great. About 2 months ago, I replaced the batter head with an EVANS Hydraulic Snare head and the reso head with a EVANS Resonant Black. And now the drum sounds thin-ny. Here are the things that I have tried without success:

  • Tune the heads very high for a day. Detune them and let them sit for day and then re-tune both heads:Tin sound still there.

  • Put up to 4 gels on the batter head: no difference

  • 2 Gels on reso head: tin sound there but more in the background.

  • Replaced the reso head back with the stock head and keeping the new hydraulic head: Tin sound is there.

  • Replaced the batter head with EVANS ST Dry (from another snare) keeping stock reso: Tin sound got less perceptible, but still there, specially when hitting the drum "normal"

  • Replaced the batter head with a new EVANS Onyx (my go-to head) keeping stock reso: Tin sound got less perceptible, but still there, same as above.

  • Replace the stock snares with a PURESSOUND 24 strands set (also from another snare): Tin sound got a bit less perceptible when single hitting the drum. If I do a flam, a double, or a roll, you hear the tin sound.

  • Add gels to both batter and reso heads: the tin sound is almost gone when playing the whole kit. However, it comes through when drums are miced.

Any advice is appreciated.

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    I’m not a drummer but from a purely troubleshooting perspective did you try putting everything back to original? If it sounds exactly the way it used to then it’s probably just the sound quality/brightness of the Evans heads. I know bass strings can have a profound effect on the tone of my upright bass as an analogy. If you still hear the tinny sound in its all-original setup go over the drum with a fine tooth comb and make sure there’s nothing loose or foreign present. Good luck!
    – John Belzaguy
    Commented Feb 11, 2021 at 20:23
  • @JohnBelzaguy - that's exactly the thought I had. Any new equipment is going to sound brighter than what it replaces. Why wouldn't it? All guitar strings, including bass, sound brighter than those being replaced.
    – Tim
    Commented Feb 11, 2021 at 20:38
  • @JohnBelzaguy - that was my goal by switching back to the stock heads, except with the batter head which is broken and instead I used the head from another snare which I know is not having this issue.
    – Baratier ErebusDuHalm
    Commented Feb 11, 2021 at 21:00
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    Not sure if you noticed but the link you put in your comment is to a video that is not the original drum recording from the actual album. The snare sounds totally different in the link you shared compared to Lars Ulrich's actual snare sound on St. Anger. So you don't want to get that "ping" sound I guess? I'm assuming that's it because there's a huge amount of ping on the St. Anger snare. What are the dimensions? Is it like 12x6.5? A 12" snare will generally sound higher. I think you want to detune one of the heads to get it to have less ping.
    – Todd Wilcox
    Commented Feb 11, 2021 at 23:39
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    Your new resonant head is 7.5 mils thick. That's a typical weight for a tom, but it's over twice as thick as the typical snare resonant head, which is 3 mils thick. I've never put a tom head on my snare but it seems very likely that it could add to the "St. Anger" sound. Even if not, you might want a snare head on your snare drum if the super thick head was not on purpose.
    – Edward
    Commented Feb 12, 2021 at 1:20

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