Metal snares are some of the easiest vintage drums to buy online. There's no wrap to hide a repair, and the hardware usually survives. They're also easy to get wrong, because brass, steel, aluminum and bronze can all sit under the same shiny finish, and the same model name can cover very different drums from one decade to the next. Here's how to work out what a listing is really selling.
Start with a magnet
Vintage Drum Guide's webmaster gets asked "is my drum brass?" more than almost anything, and his first answer is a magnet. Use a weak one, like a thin fridge magnet. If it sticks to the shell or drags against it, the shell is steel. If it doesn't, the shell could be brass, aluminum, bronze or Ludwig's Ludalloy, and you'll need other clues. The same test works on the hoops, lugs and strainer. He notes that most big makers used brass shells before 1960, but not all of them. He's had a 1960s Sonor that turned out to be steel.
You can't run a magnet over a photo, so ask the seller to do it. A short video of the magnet falling off the shell settles the steel question. Then ask for the drum's weight on a bathroom or kitchen scale.
Ludwig Supraphonic, Acrolite and Black Beauty
The Supraphonic appears in Ludwig's 1960 catalog, which was put together in 1959. Most Supras have a shell of Ludalloy, a Ludwig alloy, but some are brass, and those are the ones collectors hunt. Vintage Drum Guide gives a rule-of-thumb chart. A brass Supra usually has the small round tone-control knob, a keystone badge with no serial number and chrome with no pits at all. A Ludalloy Supra usually has the baseball bat muffler, a keystone or blue and olive badge, and some pitting. The webmaster has heard that brass Supras weigh about 8 to 9 pounds and Ludalloy ones about 5 to 6, though he says he isn't sure of the exact gap.
The exceptions matter. Brass shells have turned up wearing the early cut blue and olive badge, there are brass Supras from the 1970s, and some brass shells carry a B or BR stamp inside. Ludwig's 1988 catalog even has a page for a Brass Supraphonic. So a seller who calls a 1970s Supra brass may be right, but ask what they're going on. Vintage Drum Guide's hardware notes date the P83 strainer to 1955–1969 and the black-center P85 to the 1970s, so the strainer should fit the badge.
The Acrolite was announced in the spring 1962 issue of Ludwig's Drummer magazine. It's an aluminum shell with no chrome to pit, so look in the photos for dents and gouges instead. Ludwig's 1984–85 catalog shows it with a new powder coating, and by the 1993–94 catalog it came in black powder coat with a black and white badge, the version collectors call the Blackrolite.
The Black Beauty is where the magnet stops helping. Ludwig reintroduced it in 1977 with a brass shell, and the 1980 catalog offered brass shells with custom engraving. After Selmer took over Ludwig in 1981, the shell switched to bronze to save on material, the 1988 catalog shows the Black Beauty in bronze, and the 1994 catalog lists brass again. Brass and bronze both ignore a magnet, so date the drum by its badge and hardware. Vintage Drum Center warns against spray cleaners on Black Beauties and other lacquered metal drums and suggests mild dish soap and water, so ask the seller what they've cleaned it with.
Rogers Dyna-Sonic and Superten
Rogers made the Dyna-Sonic from about 1961 until the mid-1980s, mostly with chrome-over-brass shells, though Vintage Drum Guide also shows wood-shell Dyna-Sonics. Its snare wires ride in a cradle, or frame, that lets you set their tension on its own. That frame is the whole point of the drum, and Vintage Drum Guide notes that frustrated owners sometimes take it out. Ask for a photo of the bottom of the drum, and make sure the frame and the Dyna-Sonic strainer are both there. A Dyna-Sonic without its frame is a different drum, so fold the missing part into your offer or pass.
The Superten shows up next to the Dyna-Sonic in Rogers catalogs from 1973–74, again in 1976–77 and in a 1983 flyer, and it has its own badge in two versions. Rogers had moved from Ohio to Fullerton, California, in 1969, before the Superten appears. We couldn't confirm which shell metals it came in, so use the magnet and the scale.
Gretsch and Slingerland chrome over brass
Vintage Drum Guide has Gretsch metal snare catalog pages from 1961 and 1964 and photographs a chrome brass Gretsch from about 1970. Gretsch's own badge history dates the round badge to 1971 and earlier, the octagonal badge that reads "That Great Gretsch Sound" to 1972–1979, and a second octagon to late 1979–80. A round-badge Gretsch chrome-over-brass snare is from 1971 or before.
Slingerland moved its plant from Chicago to the suburb of Niles. Vintage Drum Guide shows a Niles-era chrome-over-brass Radio King from about 1960 with the 3-point strainer. Vintage Drum Reference dates that 967 3-point strainer from 1927 to the late 1960s, the Rapid strainer to the 1950s–60s and the 982 Slapshot to the early to mid 1980s, and Vintage Drum Guide's photos show the Zoomatic on 1960s–70s Artist and Buddy Rich models. Run the magnet over any Slingerland chrome-over-brass snare before you trust the listing title.
Sonor Signature, steel or bronze
Sonor's 1987 catalog lists two Signature metal snares, the HLD 588 and HLD 582, with one-piece ferro-manganese steel shells, a parallel snare action and die-cast rims. The bronze ones aren't in that catalog. The 1989 catalog shows the Signature Bronze HLD 590, a 14 x 8 cast in one piece from bell bronze about 5 mm thick, with 20 tension rods, copper-plated fittings and a listed weight of 33 pounds. Its 14 x 4 sibling, the HLD 593, uses a throw-off and weighs 15. A magnet tells the steel and bronze Signatures apart in a second, which matters because both carry the Signature name.
Pearl Free Floating
Pearl's 1983 catalog sells chrome-plated brass snares with the lugs mounted on the shell. The 1984 catalog adds the Free Floating System, where no lugs touch the shell, in maple, copper, brass and steel, with a 3.5-inch brass piccolo too. Because the shell lifts out like a head, the shell you're buying may not be the one the frame shipped with. Copper looks redder than brass in good light, and steel takes the magnet. Ask which shell is in the Free Floating snare and get a photo of it out of the frame.
Plating, pitting and the strainer
Vintage Drum Center's inspection guide tells you to angle a drum so the finish catches the light, which shows up scratches, dents and pitting. Ask for that photo. Dirt can hide pitting and can also look like it, so their tip is to test-clean a small spot first. Pitting doesn't polish out, so treat it as part of the drum's condition and price it into your offer.
The strainer gets more use than anything else on a snare. Ask for a short video of the tension knob turned all the way both ways and the throw-off going on and off. The knob shouldn't bind, slip or wobble, and the wires should lift clear of the head when the throw-off is off. Strainers have different mounting-hole spacings, and Vintage Drum Reference photographs each one's footprint, so a replaced strainer often leaves filled or extra holes. Ask for a photo of the shell under the strainer from inside.
Which one to buy
For a working metal snare, a Ludalloy Supra or an Acrolite is the easy pick, because there's no brass question to settle. If you want brass, go by the clues, and ignore the title until they agree. If you want a Dyna-Sonic or a bronze Signature, only pay for one once you've seen the frame or the magnet test. Our badges and date stamps guide helps with dating, and the eBay red flags guide and shipping guide cover the rest. Then browse the snares we track.
