DRUMANDSTAGE FORUM

As the title - I'm interested as to if anyone can shed any light to the 17.5" depth on Sonor bass drums? Was there a reason for this over 17 or 18? In the current German range, I think Prolite and SQ1 are the two series that have this depth. It's not available on SQ2 and any of the limited runs like the Infinites had bass drums to the nearest inch. When and what series was it brought in?

Good question

The first appearance of deep bass drums comes in 1980 with the Signature Series

17 and 18 but no 17.5 at that time

I don't have a conclusive answer. I would imagine that Sonor did some R&D and discovered this depth was ideal for some reason or another. As to why it is not an option on the configurator, as it was recently explained to me; a third party carries out all the changes to the Configurator and each change actually requires multiple other changes due to things like, language, denominations and so on. MAYBE AI will help relax some of the labor intensive work and they can make some new additions and changes more easily. Personally, I would like to see metal snare drums added. Chose your shell, single/double lugs, hoops, and color of each as is already available for wood shell SQ2's. I would probably have 6 new snare drums a year, if they ever did that!

Started on 3005's and carried over to S Class Pros.
Both of those kits are the most underrated kits Sonor has ever put out.

Kelly wrote: Tue Oct 07, 2025 9:53 am

Started on 3005's and carried over to S Class Pros.
Both of those kits are the most underrated kits Sonor has ever put out.

My Force 2003 is a 17.5, so I guess they were at least in from then. The whole Force and S class pro section on the 2003 catalog have 17.5's, were they brough in prior to this?

I get the feeling that a lot of this stuff was like: "Hmmmm...a the 17" sounds too thin, but the 18" sounds too boomy. Let's make it 17.5 inches deep."

I don't know what else it would have been, because I'd think that a spectrum analyzer likely wouldn't even detect much of a difference in that 1/2" of depth. And it's not like 17.5" is an even number when expressed in centimeters (44.45cm).

Those wacky Germans...

I've got two 17" deep bass drums that don't sound thin. As tcbetka said, there's no way half an inch of depth makes a discernable difference on a bass drum of that size. IMHO, it's nothing but marketing and a desire to ba a little bit different than other brands.

SonorBart wrote: Sun Oct 12, 2025 12:05 pm

I've got two 17" deep bass drums that don't sound thin. As tcbetka said, there's no way half an inch of depth makes a discernable difference on a bass drum of that size. IMHO, it's nothing but marketing and a desire to ba a little bit different than other brands.

My 14" depth Vintage series bass drums are anything but thin! I agree Bart. The new Momentum series has some interesting bass drum depths - to .25"

Noted also that the Delite 20" bass drum is 17.5" deep. I bought one recently to check out the size since I'm researching a new SQ2 and going back and forth with an 18 or 20 and at what depth. Thought I'd really like the sound of the 'vintage' shell on the Delite but though it's a BIG sounding drum it has a strange attack which is one I've in many brands. Not sure how to describe it other than it reminds me of sound men who get a less than tone full quality. Sold it. Don't remember that being an issue when I had an 18" Delite many years ago.

If and when I order an SQ2 it'll have to be either a 14" or 16" depth so that it has capability to use the rocket launcher. No other sizes are an option to fit those, at least, that I know of.