What snare wires you all have on your Ludwig’s?

  • Thread starter jptrickster
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Seb77 said:
There is the topic of how much upward pressure the wires exert on the snareside head, and what kind of dynamic response you want. Snare beds and end plates/cord or strap mounting work together here. Most Ludwigs have shallow beds. I found angled end plates without "channels" mounted with string work best for the response I like.
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Fat Cat offers their wires with or without “pitch”, which is their term for the angled end plates. They recommend the angled (pitch) versions for drums with shallow or no snare beds, and the flat (no pitch) versions for standard to deep snare beds.
 
jptrickster said:
Ludwig’s always sounded pretty good with thier factory stock wires even the plastic end brass wires have a good throaty growl. Am I missing any that might be superior or worthy?
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Factory on my modern CM, Puresounds on my 70's Acro and Supra. They all sound great! Can't say there's an audible difference between factory and Puresound.
 
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DrumPhil said:
Fat Cat offers their wires with or without “pitch”, which is their term for the angled end plates. They recommend the angled (pitch) versions for drums with shallow or no snare beds, and the flat (no pitch) versions for standard to deep snare beds.
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Very good info!
 
If I need new wires for any of my snares, I tend to gravitate towards Puresounds, since they're easily available at my local shop and I like the quality. A guy I know sings the praises of Canopus wires and I'm intrigued, but I'm happy where I am for now.
 
LudwigGuy said:
I use the Ludwig factory wires on both of my BB's. If they broke, I'd probably get more Ludwig factory wires. My second choice would be whatever wires are the cheapest and to avoid Puresound like the plague.
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Same here. All my Ludwigs (5" CM, 6.5" CM, and "Blacrolite) have Ludwig wires.

I tried Puresounds on the Acro many years ago. It lasted one practice session. I'd use Gibraltar wires over Puresound any day.
 
Canopus vintage 26 strand on my Supra and BB. They are now discontinued, regretfully.
 
AtlantaDrumGuy said:
I’ve been wondering the same, most of my vintage wires are bent up and not really useable.
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I’ve cleaned up a few of those stretched and bent by snipping the
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wires off closely to the plate. Still functioning till the bitter end!
 
brady said:
Same here. All my Ludwigs (5" CM, 6.5" CM, and "Blacrolite) have Ludwig wires.

I tried Puresounds on the Acro many years ago. It lasted one practice session. I'd use Gibraltar wires over Puresound any day.
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I've always found that the cheapest snare wires sound the best. I think it may be due to the lack of mass which makes them more sensitive or something. I grabbed a few sets of the cheap SPL snare wires from GC and they sound pretty good.
 
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After trying virtually every set of wires, I've found the Canopus to finally get me where I've always wanted - an airy drum with a silky snare sound, that positively responds to different tensioning. Looser sounds good, medium is great, and a little tighter is super clear without choking the drum. At any dynamic. Arguably the single most effective investment to a drum I've ever made. I can't see myself ever wanting anything else.
 
My all time favorite snare wires are Gretsch 20 Strands. My next favorite are Canopus Vintage Wires, either chrome plated or the slightly darker sounding non-plated version.
 
Yep, Canopus for me too. Most have the vintage dry 20 strands, but my 8" Copperphonic and 6.5" BB have the 42s, and one of my 6.5" CMs has the 16 strands. My 402 has Gretsch 42s on it right now, though.
 
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