Trying different hoops on snare drums.

[Jules]

I hope we end up with a nice compilation of videos and commentary, on this. Please feel free to join in the conversation.

To start us off, here is our friend Aaron Edgar with S Hoops on his Phil Rudd snare...

[Kelly]

Just my preference but I've grown to hate Die Cast hoops. With one exception, Signature snare drums. They really complimented those drums.
On toms, they're awful. They really kill resonance and low end. Maybe work for some dude in a studio, I dunno. Not my thing. I play live.
I have bought complete kits with diecast hoops (Premier) and swapped them all for triple flange. Night and day difference.

[DaveInNZ]

I've been engaged in a bit of tomfoolery in this area by association the past few months, but all with Ludwig drums. Good friend of mine long-term loaned my LM402 6.5" Supraphonic as I was thinking about selling it and he was into Supras, just never found one he loved. It's a 2019 drum, so current modern construction and I'd been on a slow path towards turning it into the 'vintage' sound. Firstly by putting Pearl 42 strand wires on it, then later by swapping the hoops out from the standard 2.3mm triple flanged hoops to Pearl 'Fat Tone' 1.6mm triple flanged hoops. I'm still tempted to remove the lug gaskets but haven't got there yet.

Anyway, friend plays it and proclaims it as the 'magic' and the sound he's been after forever. I confirm, that no, I'm not selling it so he goes out and buys a new 2025 drum. At my suggestion he also fits it with Pearl Fat Tone hoops and the magic is right there. Allegedly Fat Tone hoops are a premium product, though how you get a premium cheap as possible, thin as possible hoop versus the normal cheapo 1.6mm hoops I don't know? Better tolerances maybe? Or maybe just marketing.

Anyway, he's happy, I'm happy, we have one each. He then continues his experiment and puts another set on his 14x8" Black Beauty and also much prefers it. He then scores a vintage and a new-ish 14x5" Supraphonic to assess the 'vintage Supras and Black Beauties are better' theory and much, much prefers the newer drum, but only once running the Fat Tone hoops.

Armed with this 'Fat Tones make everything better' knowledge, he then fitted them to his newly acquired Jon Theodore signature snare. Here, they made the drum much worse... In theory the only difference between a 14x6.5 Black Beauty and the Theodore snare is a 1.2mm vs 1mm shell respectively, and the colour of the nickel plating. You'd think if the Fat Tone hoops made an 8" Black Beauty better, they would do the same to a 6.5" too, and that would also align to vintage Black Beauties being better as they have thinner hoops.

So why they would work on the Supra, in theory work on a Black Beauty, but not on the Theodore snare, all at the same size is voodoo to me.

The point of that explanation being, swapping hoops around is fine in broad strokes theory, but I genuinely think differs from one drum to the next. There is no rule, just rough approximations and then trying it for each drum to see what holds true.

[Jules]

I realize that what works for one or some won't work for all. That said, I do tend to favor metal shelled snares that also tend to be on the heavy side and typically they seem to lend themselves well to die cast hoops. I like a solid sounding cross stick and rim shot and I get that with die cast hoops.

As to the Pearl Fat Tone hoops, though 1.6mm hoops they are certain not typical hoops. Here is a video that explains. And I THINK the Gretsch 302s could be in the same ball park. They are a double flange hoop but the stick copper style flange is really beefy and also gives a combination of formed/cast hoop characteristics.