Danny Carey Signature Snare

While you may not have heard of the band Tool if you are outside of the US, chances are you still may have heard of their drummer, Danny Carey, through the drumming media, as his playing has garnered a reputation for being powerful, creative and unique.

This new snare drum represents something special for Sonor. It’s constructed with a 1 mm bronze shell and comes with ten Artist Series lugs per head. The 2.3 mm hoops are intended to allow the snare to breath and all hardware comes in a chromed finish. The shell is covered in unique talisman symbols that are placed between the lugs, and the drum is also engraved around the air hole with Mr Carey’s signature, giving his final, personal touch. The drum also features TuneSafe lugs and a fairly standard action throw-off which supports 20 steel wires.

In addition, the bearing edges, while being relatively hard-edged, were slightly rounded at the contact point with the head. The snare beds were noticeable but not prominent and the inside of the shell looked to be neat, tidy and blemish free - the type of thing you’d expect from Sonor.

It’s a relatively heavy drum as you might expect because of its dimensions, although it’s not the heaviest drum I’ve come across (which, funnily enough, was also by Sonor) and, so I’m told, it was very loud front out front too.

At a moderate batter head tension the drum had plenty of crack but you could also hear the depth of the shell as well and this was still evident when cranked up even more, although there was slightly less body by that point. There’s also plenty of sensitivity across the batter head at a variety of stroke levels and I can honestly say I had no problems with it at all when I tried it.

Steve Smith also played brushes on this very drum as can be seen here - so it is obviously quite versatile and can be used for more than just a heavy rock two and four.

I was, however, a little surprised at the shell in that it was thinner than I expected it to be. I say this because I’m a loose follower of Tool and know what Mr Carey has been using previously and that drum definitely has more of a substantial shell, thickness-wise. All the same, any 14x8 shelled drum is going to be fairly no-nonsense to say the least.

I was also surprised that the drum came with Remo UT - ie. not US made - heads. When you pay £500 for a snare drum, I think you quite reasonably expect good heads on the drum you’re getting. Not that there’s anything particularly wrong with the heads that come with the drum, but they’re certainly not what I would have expected for the price.

There appears to have been a lot of interest in this new model from what I can see. It played very nicely when I had it and the only thing I can really say that was a downside as such was that you may need to get a new snare stand if you sit low: it really is a big drum.

For more on the drum itself go to here

David Bateman

October 2009