Tama S.L.P. Duo Birch Snare Drum with Floor Tom Legs - 14x10

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I love this drum. I needed a snom for my new project and thought about making one myself out of an old marching drum, but in my experience, that could have been a rabbit hole of endless head combinations, strainers, bearing edges, etc. A free drum might have still cost me a few hundred bucks. It made sense to me to find an affordable drum from a reputable company that was designed, not adapted, to work equally well as a floor tom and a snare. I've got to say the Tama SLP Duo Birch really delivers. First, the heads are American-made Evans that do what they need to do really well. If the drum were made with cheap heads that needed immediate replacement and you were an Evans user, you might well pick these heads as your upgrades--a coated reverse dot top and a medium weight clear snare side make a lot of sense. I assumed I'd need to pick up a hydraulic or pinstripe, but I'm not going to swap out the heads or wires. It's nice that the drum doesn't come with hidden costs. The drum looks and sounds great and the construction is excellent. Birch was a good call for giving the drum focus and a little bite. It isn't hard to control the overtones with tuning and snare adjustment, or you can just use a moon gel. The tuning range is pretty wide and you have a few options for getting excellent floor tom sounds that become excellent deep snare sounds. As with any snom, you do run the risk of diminishing the snare sound by perfectly dialing in the floor tom sound or vice versa, but the more time you spend with the drum, the less of an issue that becomes. You do have to get used to the feel of a looser than normal snare head if you tune for a low or medium-low floor tom sound--you have to play your bounces more open, but that is to be expected. If you are debating between this drum and the 16", I haven't played the big one, but this drum really does do the trick. It's pretty loud compared to my Supraphonic 400, and I'm guessing the 16" version might be a bit overwhelming. If you want a drum that sounds like a floor tom but swiches to sound like a Linn Drum, Don Henley, Disco, or Levon Helm type snare, this drum is the one. It comes with a nice drum key, too. I have just one minor complaint: I had to swap the floor tom legs with some longer Ludwig legs with Pearl air suspension feet to get the drum to a comfortable height. I tend to sit a little high, though, so if you don't, the stock legs will work well. If you've checked out any review videos of the drum and wondered how accurate they are, they all are accurate. They all capture the range and sound of this drum. It dials in easily and sounds like you'd want a snom to sound, snares on or off.

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