Humdrum Blog

When purchasing a new kit or snare you have many options, everything from brand, color, sizes and even the material it’s made out of. I want to touch on the last option I listed, and give a little description of the sound qualities you can expect from some of the most popular materieals used for drums today. 

• Maple:  Warm, deeper in pitch, with more resonance, great for recording.
• Birch:  More “attack”, brighter,cuts through,  great for live drumming.
• Acrylic:  LOUD, and bright.  Not much warmth here.
• Hybrids: (wood shell that has been split w/acrylic in the middle or vise verse):  If the bearing edge is made of wood, you will get those sound qualities, if the bearing edge is made of acrylic you will get those sound qualities.   These kits are mostly for visual appeal.
• Solid Shell:  (true solid shell, not stave or segment)  Warmth and full bodied sound.  The tricky part here is that “solid” shell drums also come in many types of woods, which will variety the sound qualities.
• Mahogany: (African mahogany, not the cheap stuff)  The most warmth of  ‘em all, great bottom end and still has attack.

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