Visual Design. Ferrone’s drum is a beautiful, customized old favorite. It measures 14" x 6-1/2", with a black nickel-plated brass shell with a center bead. Heavy-duty, flanged steel hoops. Tube lugs. Sound familiar yet? I mean, this drum is a beauty and it’s black!
Ferrone and Pearl have gone all the way with custom hot-rod beauty here. Drummers are hot-rodders, anyway. This drum looks cool like a restored classic car looks cool, with “old-school” component shapes recreated anew. It tunes and plays with modern smoothness, too.
The drum comes with 24K gold-plated Super Hoop II’s. The small chrome-plated brass tube lugs are accented with gold-plated ends, and allow free vibration of the shell. The SR-017 strainer and butt plate are chromed. This is a sharp, two-tone theme of gold over the shiny black shell, with the spice of chrome. Very handsome.
Mechanical Design.
The throw-off mechanism is great, works simply and smoothly and is a bit beefier than previous Pearl strainers. The lever travels parallel to the shell and is easy to use, with a great fit and finish. A nylon bumper prevents irritating metal-to-metal clicks when you activate the snares on and off, which is a nice touch. The knurled tension adjustment knob is finished in gold tone, and so are the screws that fasten the snare tension cord in place. The cords extend beyond the sides of the shell and are angled, giving them a smoother contact with the hoop. Drumkey heads adjust the clamp for the snare cords, eliminating the annoyance of stripped screws. The ten tension rods are each fitted with a nylon washer to provide fine tuning. The shell is heavy, looks great, and has one seam. I found a teeny-tiny bump on the bottom bearing edge at this seam. The bearing edges are rolled rather crisply, almost sharp. The snare bed is deep, and is formed at a long, slow angle.
Sound. Steve Ferrone’s 14" x 6-1/2" drum sounds fat. This drum can be tuned way down low or quite high, but you always hear the depth of the 6-1/2" shell, which is focused, throaty, with a lot of meat under each note. You hear a musical, pleasant resonance from the beefy brass shell, which reverberates nicely from both light strokes and heavy poundings. The snares speak evenly at any volume, everywhere on the head.
The Test. It’d been a while since I’d spent a night with a fat, rock snare, so I took it to a club gig and set up early. Before giving it a thorough tuning, the drum gave off a noticeable honk. Good news for Soundgarden or Van Halen, bad news for me. Fortunately, I found it to be very responsive to the drum key, and after a few minutes of tuning, a lovely sound was soon achieved. I felt very musical while playing this drum during the first set. By the third set — approaching 98 decibels with the guitar player crossing the four-beer mark — I yanked the Ferrone drum out of the stand, put my piccolo in its place and filled my ears with cotton. This gig had become an unmiked gunfight and I opted to trade the Ferrone drum’s musical character for an aural assault weapon.
Conclusion. Mr. Ferrone’s drum has a retro look, and is well built. A brass-shell snare drum with a center bead has been a good bet for years. All the little mechanical details are here, from the strainer that works smoothly to the nylon washers and drumkey head screws. It’s a very handsome drum with a classic sound. The suggested retail price of $559 is a good value for this much detail and gold plating. If you are a fan of 6-1/2" drums, this modern classic is a worthy candidate for your collection.
Marvin “Smitty” Smith Signature Snare Drum
Visual Design. The shell of “Smitty” Smith’s drum is copper, polished up to a rosy finish, and every piece of hardware is 24K gold plated — even the tension rods. It’s a very striking, love-it-or-hate-it color scheme. I didn’t care for it. With that rosy-copper shell next to all that yellow-gold hardware, it’s a pink drum! That said, I will admit that plenty of people who saw it, loved it. They said, “Hey, cool copper drum.” Fortunately, when I played it, I got a lot more than pink noise.
Mechanical Design. This copper kettle has ten tension rods per head, and uses an SR018 strainer. There are lots of piccolo strainers out there that don’t work. They slip, loosen, stick, get in the way, but this one works well, with a parallel throw and simple cam action. I would like to see Pearl add the nylon bumper to it that makes Ferrone’s SR-017 strainer so quiet. The strainer holds the strings out and away at a flatter angle to the head than the Ferrone snare. There are drumkey heads on the snare cord clamps at the strainer and butt. The CL-05 lugs are shorter than normal and in vogue with the current trend toward low-mass lugs, but big enough to allow the top and bottom tension rods to line up. (Some say offset tension rods lead to twisting of the lug and subsequent warping of the shell’s shape. Not a problem here). The shell has one seam, no bead, and the bearing edges are rounded, not crisp, with a deep molded snare bed. Pearl’s attention to detail is again evident in the fit and finish throughout.
Sound. The sound of this drum takes us into some enjoyable new territory. The copper approaches brass in the wet focus of the sound. There’s a dry attack that you would usually get only with a wood drum, but the whole shell sings out like metal drum. It really has some of the best of both worlds. The flanged Super Hoop II’s keep it sounding open. Very fun. Some of this I ascribe to the 14" x 4" shell, which is a very versatile, lively and funky size. When I compared the snare to my favorite brass 14" x 4" I decided that Smitty’s is another drum I’ve got to have. Copper and brass are just different enough to be happy stable mates. The drum easily tuned to high pitches, and can get kind of low, too. Low is a relative term in a 14" x 4" drum, though.
Conclusion. The copper-shelled drum from Mr. Smith is especially worth checking out if you are in the market for a 14" x 4" drum and can’t decide if you want wood or metal. The 14" x 4" size is known to be versatile. The hardware is well engineered. Obviously beautiful to the eye, if you like pink drums, this drum is worth a listen. At $459 suggested retail price, it is almost cheap, which is shocking for this much quality, plating and pinkness.
Specs
Size & Price: 14" x 6-1/2", $559
Part Number: SF-6514D
Shell Material: Black nickel-plated brass with center bead
Strainer: SR-017
Hoops: Pearl Super Hoop II, gold-plated
Heads: Remo Ambassador
Lugs: Brass tube lugs, gold plated
Model: Pearl Marvin “Smitty” Smith Signature Snare Drum
Size & Price: 14" x 4", $459
Part Number: MS-4014
Shell Material: Copper
Strainer: SR-018, gold plated
Hoops: Pearl Super Hoop II, gold plated
Heads: Remo Ambassador
Lugs: CL-05, gold plated
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