Cutting Down A Tom Into A Snare // 15" 80's Gretsch 

Mike, I just want you to know how much I love watching your project videos. It’s fun being there with you in your garage and seeing a true master perform.❤️🙏❤️🙏❤️

These conversions are easily my favorite series on the channel. I really enjoy the lower undertones the drum creates!

Oh modern worship drummers would love that low tuned sound with the Snare weight 👍

I love a good project video. Restoring an old King Beat snare right now, myself.

l have a 1930's slingerland brass snare 15"x6.5".... love it

I came across your videos randomly and I love them! Greetings from a drummer from Madrid, Spain!

Just stumbled on your channel and watched til the end no scrolling on phone. That’s a good sign. Subscribed and looking forward to more. Thank you

Low tuning sounds MEAN 👿 love it 🙌🏼 Very nice to hear how you approached the snare bed. I had a 12" tom converted and at my first try I cut too deep so had to recut the bottom edge and redo it. It was stressful 😅 next time I may also do by hand and shallower.

Dude your videos are the highlight of my RU-vid subscriptions!!

A joy to follow your work. Watching from Denmark :)

Love the walnut gloss kits you have. 👌🏻

I love drum factory direct . I’ve been using them for years, their products and services are top notch. Beautiful project! Yo do fantastic work!

Sounds studio ready! Initial it shines with the low tuning.

Great job! Cheers from Brazil 🎉

Loox beautiful; Like the fat sound. Thanx for the 411!

Gorgeous! Looks sharp Mike.

I actually put two different weight, hoops on my newly acquired Pork Pie Little squealer 13x7 and it made a very nice difference and now it sounds even nicer. I went to Sam Ash to see what scraps i could find and I bought what I thought was a 14in 2.3 Gibraltar triple flange for my Ludwig Acrolite Black Galaxy but it turned out to be a 13in but it still worked out and for $8 it wasn't a bad thing. I have a lighter hoop on the bottom of the pork pie amd the thicker 2.3 hoop on the top and it did cut out a lot of overtones and it brought out more of the maple crack sound 👍.

Do you ever use brad point or Forstner bits when drilling holes? 1/4" brad point bits are really nice for drilling cleanly in wood, and the sharp point of the bit works well to keep the bit centered. It also helps with tear-out: the small point protrudes through before the main body of the bit, so if you're careful, you can drill the final portion from the inside.

Very nice work! I think it sounds awesome. I have a 15x8, and it took some getting used to. Keep up the good work!

Great work as always. I converted a 12x9 rom to a 7.8 deep snare. I didn't have access to a table saw so I used a Japanese hand saw. It actually was quite fast and a lot cleaner that I initially thought.

Awesome job Mike awesome video as always

Seeing Jeff in a drumkini was not on my list of things to see today. Love the vid!!

Fill the lug cavity with Shoe Goo to get rid of the sympathetic ring

I built one from an old 80’s 6 ply Ludwig and I couldn’t find the sweet spot either. I ended up loaning it to my buddy’s son. I don’t know if it’s a mental block since I’m not used to playing a 15x8 or if I didn’t cut the bearing edges correctly. It was for sure not my first go around either. Btw, it was a pleasure meeting you at the Chicago drum show this year.

Tuned high it sounds slightly like a timbale. I like it and it sounded decent on my sound system Thump speakers.

The low tuning sounded really sweet. Awesome work!

I love 15 inch snares. The drum sounded good in the middle to me

Amazing job 💪

Wow, great job on this Mike! Looks to me like you did a great job on the snare bed, that is the part I would be scared to do for sure. Bet that was pretty nerve wracking.

great tones!

Beautiful work! Don't need those lug gaskets though.

I have a 12x15 Tama Imperialstar just waiting for this treatment. I’ll probably cut it down to 8x15 and have a 3 1/2x15 scrap to maybe make another drum out of. Yours turned out nice.

I shortened a cheap snare ages ago, and totally knew nothing about snare beds 😂 No I wonder, I could never get it sounding like a snare again 🤣 Not to metion the shell cut ans bearing edge were probably terrible.

l recommend trying die cast hoops and single ply top head.... it sounds good though

Well done ! You can start a drum company ; ] But really, well done

Hey Mike, just wanted to know if you could give me some advice. I have an early 2000s Tama Swingstar kit. It sounds fine and tunes up decent with thicker heads and moongel. The hoops are rusted in spots and every one of them is bent in some place. I live in Pittsburgh so DFD is close by, I was wondering what new hoops you’d recommend from them that aren’t too expensive? I play in a prog/hard rock band and usually like a deep tone with plenty of attack. 13” rack, 16” floor, 22” bass with the Accu-tune hoops. Any advice on new hoops?

How much would roughly cost to get into doing this do you think? Starting from no tools at all

👍👍👍

Why didn’t you make a “snom” out of it? Regardless, it looks and sounds cool!

Sad part bout this drum it doesn’t have the 30 baring edge like Gretsch.

Why make an 8 lug? For a 15' snare you got to have at least 10 lugs.

Your content is always interesting, so I enjoy it. However... this is my opinion, but the wood filler is really... untidy to be used for anything higher than a low-priced, entry level shell. It might be a 6 lug snare, or a low-priced shell snare such as poplar or basswood. That's a disappointing item for the Gretsch shell. 15x12 shell, good size. If it were me, I would not cut it and make it a fat and deep SNOM. Because that is the way to preserve the original appearance of the shell as much as possible. And... this is a personal question of mine, why are all Gretsch rack toms 5 lugs? No matter how good I try to look at it, it's nonsense. The same goes for SONOR's vintage BD Spur, and old drum makers seem to have strange stubbornness... that's my review. There is no need to insist on 5 lugs rather than 6 lugs. There is no need to produce all BD spurs as vintage types. What do you think? All Gretsch rack toms, even USA custom ones, are 5 lugs. There may be an advantage to having fewer rugs, but my position is that there is no need to insist on it. Sonor also does not need to always produce only vintage spurs... It seems to be a tradition of old brands, but... it seems old and unconvincing to me. Mike, I'm curious what your opinion is. Thanks.

Be aware folks, there are examples out there pretending to be genuine vintage snare drums