Just got one last week. I'm very impressed. I've long wanted a brass snare and finally have one. I love the groove hoops, which are like S hoops in that they flange in towards the center of the drum instead of outwards like typical triple flanged hoops. It seems to me to be a nice middle ground of the triple flanged and die cast hoops. It has held tuning rather well so far. It came with a G1 Genera coated, which I thought would be too light, but has worked well so far. It also came with a muting ring, which is a nice touch, because without it it has a beautiful ring, but can be beefed up a bit by putting the muffling ring which on shortens the sustain for a thicker sound. It has a very rewarding cross stick sound and produces rimshots that are as loud and definite as you could ever want. I haven't played with the tuning range too much. It was rather low pitched out of the box and then I tuned it up (~332Hz batter ~342Hz reso for an overall 205Hz fundamental). I would consider this rather high and I couldn't imagine wanting the batter any tighter ever. At this tuning it really cuts and has a beautiful ring to it, great for the Primus song I've been jamming along to.
The engineering in this drum is what really grabbed my eye. The freedom lug design is a great idea. It doesn't seem to have affected how well it holds its tuning, as it hasn't changed much in the week I've been playing it. The cut away reso hoop is brilliant, and the butt plate can be removed via two square headed bolts. It makes tuning up the reso head a breeze! I have read in a few older reviews when these drums first came out that the tuning rods are only just barely long enough to get free from the grooved hoop before falling out. I don't know if Tama has addressed this issue or not, as I haven't taken a head off completely. Given it's just a single ply head on it for the time being, I'm guessing it won't be long before I swap out the batter on it, so I can comment on that later. It has duel strainer tensioners on it, like my G-Bubinga, which is nice I suppose. I haven't cranked the snares on it as it seems to choke out quickly, but sounds great with a moderate to loose tension on the snares. The drum over all is very responsive. It makes delicate little rolls and ghost notes very rewarding to play. It's not nearly as dry as my G-Bubinga snare, so it's a nice compliment. I would like to try throwing an HD-Dry on it and see if it still offers that beautiful ringing quality or not.
My only gripe with the drum is all my other drums are wood. The G-Bubinga is dark, even though it as a glossy finish, so finger prints aren't easily seen, and since it has dark hoops and hardware, they're not apparent on those either. My kit has a dark satin finish and I rarely touch the chrome hardware on those as much as I do on a snare. The finish on the Starphonic is brilliant and has a lot of chrome, and my fingers/hands sweat a lot, but it's a small quibble. As far as the sound goes, I'm very happy with it. It's full, responsive, articulate, and can be made very sensitive depending on how you tension the snare wires. I got it for around 460 USD, so I think it's a great bargain. It will spoil me with the advances made in hardware design. Unless this thing warps over time, I really don't see why every drum doesn't offer the freedom lugs and grooved hoops. Seems like such a great idea. I know there will be comments made on the weight of such systems, but I think it sounds great regardless, and as far as Tama drums go, it's not like they don't have a ton of hardware on their drums anyway. My Prolites aren't exactly sparse on hardware either.
I hope to record with it this weekend, maybe get a take of Tommy the Cat with it. For the money, I can't see how you can go wrong with it. I've always wanted a brass snare since hearing a friend's and now I've got one. I'm very pleased and would recommend it to anyone looking for a loud, articulate and responsive snare drum.
Tama Brass Starphonic...
The engineering in this drum is what really grabbed my eye. The freedom lug design is a great idea. It doesn't seem to have affected how well it holds its tuning, as it hasn't changed much in the week I've been playing it. The cut away reso hoop is brilliant, and the butt plate can be removed via two square headed bolts. It makes tuning up the reso head a breeze! I have read in a few older reviews when these drums first came out that the tuning rods are only just barely long enough to get free from the grooved hoop before falling out. I don't know if Tama has addressed this issue or not, as I haven't taken a head off completely. Given it's just a single ply head on it for the time being, I'm guessing it won't be long before I swap out the batter on it, so I can comment on that later. It has duel strainer tensioners on it, like my G-Bubinga, which is nice I suppose. I haven't cranked the snares on it as it seems to choke out quickly, but sounds great with a moderate to loose tension on the snares. The drum over all is very responsive. It makes delicate little rolls and ghost notes very rewarding to play. It's not nearly as dry as my G-Bubinga snare, so it's a nice compliment. I would like to try throwing an HD-Dry on it and see if it still offers that beautiful ringing quality or not.
My only gripe with the drum is all my other drums are wood. The G-Bubinga is dark, even though it as a glossy finish, so finger prints aren't easily seen, and since it has dark hoops and hardware, they're not apparent on those either. My kit has a dark satin finish and I rarely touch the chrome hardware on those as much as I do on a snare. The finish on the Starphonic is brilliant and has a lot of chrome, and my fingers/hands sweat a lot, but it's a small quibble. As far as the sound goes, I'm very happy with it. It's full, responsive, articulate, and can be made very sensitive depending on how you tension the snare wires. I got it for around 460 USD, so I think it's a great bargain. It will spoil me with the advances made in hardware design. Unless this thing warps over time, I really don't see why every drum doesn't offer the freedom lugs and grooved hoops. Seems like such a great idea. I know there will be comments made on the weight of such systems, but I think it sounds great regardless, and as far as Tama drums go, it's not like they don't have a ton of hardware on their drums anyway. My Prolites aren't exactly sparse on hardware either.
I hope to record with it this weekend, maybe get a take of Tommy the Cat with it. For the money, I can't see how you can go wrong with it. I've always wanted a brass snare since hearing a friend's and now I've got one. I'm very pleased and would recommend it to anyone looking for a loud, articulate and responsive snare drum.
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire