The BIGGEST, FATTEST Birch Snare Drum EVER

The Dave Grohl snare – it's iconic. The example here is a different finish, but it's still got the same CHUNKY tone!

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Need the punch of birch and the beef of a burly, deep snare drum? This is the one for you. I was super surprised at just how sensitive this vintage 14x8" Tama Superstar snare drum was. You can tune it up or down to any pitch extreme, and it'll sound great every single hit! Despite having 40-year-old heads on this puppy, it sounds just as good as a new drum (or better) too. If you've never heard of this thing before, you should definitely give this video a watch. I'd never tried one of these until now, but I think I need to find one for my personal collection soon! Enjoy!

Tama is one of those brands I just haven't had a ton of experience with. My second drum set was a metallic blue Tama Rockstar from the early 2000s, and I LOVED those drums. They got me through a thousand gigs. But it was their Artwood 14x8" snare drum that really changed the way I looked at Tama. That drum was a beast – but not as much a beast as the drum we're checkin out today. Unlike the modern Superstar drums made out of maple, this big boy is birch. And while modern Starclassic, Star, and SLP drums all have their place in the product catalog, it's this vintage drum that just makes me a happy little drummer today!

The drum set in this video is a 1987 Yamaha Recording Custom in hot red finish. The sizes include a 22x14" kick drum, 12x8" and 13x9" toms, and a 16x16" floor tom. I've also got Turkish Cymbals going here too – 15" Millennium hats, 20" Meta Crash, 22" Millennium Ride, and a 24" Prototype Special Dry Extra Thin Ride.

Audio was captured with two Universal Audio Apollo x8p interfaces using 1073 preamp modeling. Mics include:

SE Electronics V-Kick (Kick In)
Dr. Alien Smith Alien8 (Kick Out)
Shure Unidyne III SM57 (Snare Top)
Rode NT55 w/ Cardioid Capsule (Snare Top)
Audio-Technica ATM650 (Snare Bottom)
Sennheiser MD-421 (Each Tom)
AKG C414 TLII Pair (Overheads)
Apex 210B Ribbon into Soyuz Launcher (Room)
Shure 588SB (Vocal)

I use Logic Pro X, Waves Audio plugins, and I like to use organic argan butter to moisturize daily.

And that cool mic cable? It comes from Sorry Cables in LA. – https://www.sorrycables.com/

Questions? I do lessons on drumming, recording drums, social media, and more. Plus, I've been working with drum companies on all sorts of cool stuff. Check out my website!

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