Ebenor Percussion Snare Drums

Back in 2021, I looked at a beautiful Applewood snare drum from Ebenor Percussion and was thoroughly impressed with it. You can find my thoughts on that drum here – http://mikedolbear.com/reviews/ebenor-applewood-snare/

I really liked that snare drum; it was both beautiful and sounded/played wonderfully. Having kept up with what Ebenor has been doing since that time, I was really excited to try these two further snare drums from the Canadian company.

First up is a 14×7 Heavy Feather drum.

William from Ebenor said about the Heavy Feather line:

It is important for me to be consistent and especially in the name of a new collection. That’s why I decided to use ” feather ” (feather) for the lightness of the aluminum and to make a contrast with the heavy sound that produces this little beast!

I think this is a great description.

Aluminium is my personal favourite metal for snare drums. I love it because it is bright yet controlled.

This Heavy Feather drum features an 1/8″ thick, straight (not rolled edges), aluminium shell with a 45’ bearing edge. It also has a Trick throw off, 20-strand wires and triple flanged hoops, all finished in black, including the tension rods. The drum normally ships with an Evans Power Centre Reverse Dot batter and a 300 snare side head, but I tried it with a black Hydraulic as that is what it came to me with. Due to the way the shells are finished, each one is visually different which adds a real defined level of character.

Sound-wise, the drum exhibits the classic traits of aluminium; the aforementioned bright, controlled sound with warmth and low end. The drum has a wide tuning range, being able to comfortably cope with high to low. The Hydraulic does affect the sound slightly, making it thicker sounding and less resonant but at the same time, it provides the drum with a more convincing wet sound in the lower tensioning area. The shipped head would provide a more open ring and cleaner tone.

The second drum is made from figured curly walnut and is beautiful to look at.

This is a 14×7 special edition stave drum with 24k hardware and a gold-plated badge. It has heavy cast hoops, a Trick throw off, 20-strand wires and Ebenor makes the brass lugs in house.

This is a really solid drum to play. I found that it easily handled a heavier stroke from a rimshot but still retained the ability to articulate gentler playing as well.

The drum’s sound was more dry than I initially thought it would be, but it’s loud and full of tone, and the hoops have a lot to do with this. That said, I think it would make it a great recording drum as the decay the drum has is very natural but is controlled and not prolonged.

These are premium drums, although to be fair, that’s all Ebenor makes.

They’re high quality in terms of both design and manufacture, unique in the way they look and sound really fantastic. I would be happy to own and use either of them. My personal favourite was actually the walnut drum because it felt so good to play and sounded like a perfect studio snare.

As Ebenor is a custom builder, William can build out a basic design with any specific requests the customer might have. Check out the photos of the other Heavy Feather drums on offer which are slightly different to the drum I tried.