Snare Shell Shootout | Comparison: Ludwig Universal Series Wood Snares

[@JamieStrowhiro]

great, now I want a walnut snare drum

[@peteyaskovic5567]

Walnut spoke to me the most, but all these snares sound killer (even with the stock UT heads). Great job getting the tuning to exactly the same!

[@alsdrumhang]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: We are living in a golden age of affordable, working drummer accessible snare drums. Between these, the Tama SLP line, Pearl's Modern Utility snares, Mapex's Black Panthers to name a few... you can really get a lot of choices for not a lot of bucks.

[@JFKDrummer]

They all sound awesome! I like the walnut best!

[@carlupthegrove262]

Very subtle differences but they are all beautiful so it's a no lose situation.

[@glennracoma7481]

Great demonstration really hear the subtle differences which helps in deciding. I'm thinking between the walnut and cherry leaning towards cherry. Thanks

[@johnmckenna1776]

The cherry & the walnut are my favs!!

[@timm1139]

I heartily agree.

[@trevormccabe585]

great job getting the tuning right. Great comparison, interesting to hear the very subtle differences.

[@NLind]

I noticed that the hi-hats rotated ever so slightly clockwise between each of the drums in the low and high tuning overhead shots.

[@timm1139]

Sometimes, ya knock stuff around when changing out snares... ah well, reposition & get to the next song!

[@beast_of_burden7762]

The cherry felt like home, it sounded very balanced in all ranges, can only imagine how good it would sound with Some nice heads and snare wires, the walnut was also great sounded very Crisp with the high tuning, both the cherry and the walnut sounded awesome, but I’d probably go for the Cherry if I had to choose

[@gordgibson6654]

From what I heard in my ears on this particular video it is the walnut in all the tunings, nice work Cody!

[@jonashellborg8320]

Loved this video! Nice format of showing how the shell material affects how the drum behaves at different frequencies. I don’t have a favourite, they all sound good. It’s more of what flavour I want : vanilla, chocolate, etc.. rather than “better” or “worse”

[@sarojaband4664]

Great video 📸👍

[@jobaecker9752]

I can really appreciate the time and effort it took to making this video look seamless and effortless. Great job! But I do need to add--and I realize I'm preaching to the choir here-- the sound of the drum itself is all fine and good, but it's more important to communicate the sound you want at the end of the signal chain. Live sound techs can improve (or ruin) any great snare sound in seconds. A studio engineer can squash whatever sonic dreams you had and leave you with a a disappointing recording - for eternity. Make sure you pick the right wood...and the right people to work with!

[@norbertrenner9364]

And the Stock Remo UT Heads seems to do their job quite well !

[@kushking420]

Cherry for me, great comparison guys

[@SvenElven]

All these drums would work in any context! The main thing I'm hearing is that the walnut seems to have just a little more «oomph» than the others. Could be a very minute tuning difference though.

[@jdidrums4142]

Great video as always! curious to find out where Oak sits in this shell hardness comparison and how it would respond in a test like this.

[@eucabusas]

And this is why I have a Tama SLP G-walnut for my main snare and a Gretsch Swamp Dawg mahogany as a snom!

[@cfusilier2]

Low-tuning mahogany has never sounded quite right to my ears. But, cranking it mid-high, and that becomes a sound I’d want as part of my identity. Is that weird? Anywho. Another great video :)

[@viktor7m]

Masterpiece video. So precise and detailed. i also favour mahogany. just one question: can you describe resonant head tuning?

[@Mauriesje]

Hi great video! Much respect for getting all these tunings to line up this well!!! Still a question regarding my own drums. I have two snares, everything is the same but smothered shell material; brass vs copper. Generally I tune all my drums ‘the same’: medium-ish. But here I’m wondering what the options could be. So in general, brass vs copper, which tuning range will you guys suggest me trying out as first option?! Thx!

[@JulianFernandez]

Ludwig still the GOAT

[@philmullins886]

Hi guys. I've been a subscriber for years. Thanks for this. Do you have a similar assessment of the Universal Black Brass snares in this line? Thoughts? I've been looking at these, and would appreciate a solid dependable opinion - particularly relative to the Black Beauty it's intended to emulate. I was looking at the Black Magic as well. Thanks again - always such good content.

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Hey there! Unfortunately we only got to do this sort of experimentation with the wooden shell snares within the Universal series.

[@matthewzagorski9161]

I feel like the low tuning is the only one that really showed a difference and even then it was subtle. I mean, they all sounded good, but I still think the idea of tone wood is more marketing than actual substance.

[@richboshart1201]

It’s nothing but marketing. For ply drums the wood species has minimal influence on a drum’s tone, as this video illustrates. Many other variables such as drum head, shell thickness, bearing edge cut, hoop type and hardware all influence sound more than the type of thin plies of wood that have glue between each ply.

[@Rhythmic1]

Cherry!

[@ForeverDownByLaw]

The Beech sounded most different to me, a bit more midrange. Never heard a Beech drum before, it's quite a nice sound.

[@sticksbass]

the walnut sounds slightly darker but the rest have no real difference to me.

[@DZNTZ]

The cool thing about walnut (and copper) is how it keeps that darkness regardless of tuning. I love it. A very thin 13x7 walnut stave shell with integral rerings by DaVille is one of my all time favorite drums. One of the coolest drums I’ve seen in a long time is the Acro reproductions in wood - can’t think of the maker, but they’re amazing.

[@SvenElven]

There's a consistent difference between all of them, but is there a difference that would really matter in a real world playing situation? I'm leaning towards no!

[@leeasbury7273]

Kinda like the mahogany and walnut

[@leeasbury7273]

👍👍 bonus

[@gregchapman3519]

Tonally all very close to each other. Id expect more variation between the woods to be honest.

[@ghiblinerd6196]

Not to sound like a jerk, and I know this wasn’t the point of the video to come to a conclusion like this; but to me they all sound SO close to one another that adding instruments and vocals would take away anyone’s ability to tell the difference. Add different heads and wires and you change your options more drastically than different woods ever could.

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

That’s not an invalid takeaway, though consider that there’s never any sort of comparison on the context of a track anyway. And not to sound like a jerk with this response, but subtleties are a large and valid part of our art form (I’m daft, they’re a huge part of every art form). Watch a producer audition vocal mics. The vocal is arguably the most important aspect of any modern recording and yet most people wouldn’t be able to hear the difference between the mics auditioned. But this isn’t about making passable content for the lowest common denominator - it’s about making music.

[@pollsayspaul]

beech and walnut sounds identical imo haha

[@brent3760]

Poplar!!! Wait.... 🤨

[@kyronnewbury]

They all sound great. But through a band and in various rooms they all sound basically the same. And the tonal differences could be made with an EQ or compressor. I'm becoming more and more convinced how we all got lied too through marketing

[@The_Other_Ghost]

I honestly think the best form of advertising is when it's not the focus. Evans should send you in the Hybrid snare head and a heavy weight so you can compare the two (or maybe metal kick drum heads).

[@BedPanAlley]

There’s a devil’s haircut…

[@adamalexanderray]

Cody has long hair again and I’m angry about it.

[@jonathanreddish8590]

i know wtf eh'?

[@lordhammerwind]

🌽🌽🌽

[@ryanforresterrenaissancesa4204]

The tone wood crap with drum shells is even more stupid than guitar tone woods. Companies love this idiocy because most of the time their tone woods are cheaper than or similar in price to the standard woods. But they charge extra for the tone woods anyway. Channels like this are the same as the companies as they profit in some way or another from this BS idea.

[@broad_cat]

I don't have quite as negative a take on this, but I agree I couldn't tell a difference at all even if I'm really squinting at it. Good for drummers that heads and tuning make 95% of the sound. Let's us be cheap!

[@ryanforresterrenaissancesa4204]

@@broad_cat Exactly.

[@dilankarun9172]

Hint: At the beginning it say's "Paid Promotion". No one is forcing anyone to watch it, he even say's for those who are reading CC, its a sponsored video 😁 These are cheap snare drums compared to other Ludwig snares. Will buy the Walnut & maybe the Cherry. I could tell the difference on all 4 of them. Loved the upload, thanks Cody !

[@soniquedrums]

A few things worth mentioning are 1) as a manufacturer, we can say without a doubt that tone woods are more expensive to source; there's no debate about that. 2) I think part of what you're seeing in the industry are ply shells that are using all maple or birch ply shells with an outer veneer or ply (and sometimes inner veneer or ply) of a "tone wood". In this case, some of the natural tone you get out of a given tone wood species is diminished somewhat because it only makes up 20% of the shell. (for example).