Building the Bill Bruford Signature Snare - Part One

Bill Bruford's "rimshot" is one of the most unique and exquisite snare drum sounds ever heard. From his earlier days on his 14"x 5.5" Ludwig Supraphonic Super-Sensitive snare with Yes, to his brass 14" x 6.5" Tama Big Beat snare with King Crimson, Bruford's crisp rolls and sticking technique were a thing of beauty and a joy to behold. In his later years, Bruford moved away from the metal snare drums of rock, to the jazzier sound of the all-maple 14"x 6.5" Tama Starclassic snare drum with his all-acoustic group Earthworks. It was during that era that Tama offered the "Bill Bruford Signature Palette Series" snare drum, a customized, 6 ply Starclassic; 2 ply Maple, 2 ply Birch and 2 ply Maple. It was also outfitted with all black hardware; lugs, hoops, strainer and a custom "Black Metallic Sand Blasted" finish, with Bill Bruford's personally autographed and numbered decal. Listing for around $650, the snare quickly became a collectors item, but was discontinued not long after. Today, they can be found on ebay for $500 - $750; with a numbered and signed sticker on the inside of each shell by Bruford himself.

The drum sounded great; You can hear and see it on more than a few of Bruford's Earthworks albums and DVDs. I've always loved that Bruford sound. Now to be honest, you can tune a variety of Tama snare drums and get pretty close to that sound, yet Bruford's drum size, shell and hoops were unique. Readers of my earlier blogs will know that I successfully built a replica of Billy Cobham's Yamaha Signature Snare Drum. I wondered; Could I make a version of Bruford's snare? Now I have to confess, I'm really partial to chrome-over-wood snare drums; They go with any kit, and as much as liked the sound of the Bruford snare, I wasn't enamored with the all-black look of it. Did Tama make another version of it? Well, the answer was both yes and no. Tama briefly made a Maple Starclassic snare with the identical, all-black lugs like Bruford's, albeit a 12 ply shell with a gray finish and with black die cast hoops. The Bruford snare used black flanged hoops, something he preferred to use to make the snare sound more lively. So the origin of the black hardware was solved, but could I actually make an all-chrome version of Bruford the snare drum with authentic Tama parts?

Tama MCS50A Strainer

I began researching all the parts of the original Bruford snare and set about seeing if I could collect what I needed to build one. I was able to find the following parts: Tama's MFM14-10 and MFM14S-10 flanged hoops, batter and snare side; A Tama MS20N14S Snappy Snare Strainer, and 20 Tama MSL-SCT Starclassic lugs. So far so good, as everything could be gotten via ebay, Reverb and a variety of drum part stores, Salt City Drums, Drums Etc., Portsmouth Drum Center, etc. 

It was then that I ran into the biggest problem, one that had me vexed for a while: The Tama MCS50A and MCS50B Snare Throw Off and Butt. These two items are discontinued and seemingly impossible to find. I searched everywhere for them, even as far as Greece! I finally scored a throw off from Trimis Music in Athens, however the butt plate was all but impossible to find. Through the vintage drum forums, I learned that these two Tama parts are some of the most sought after, vintage drum parts around. Now I could've used newer Tama parts, but I wanted the authentic parts used in the Bruford snare. I actually own two Tama snare drums; One of them being a 14" x 5.5" chrome steel, Tama "Power Metal" Snare. It's one of my best snare drums; In fact, it would later become the basis for the Stewart Copeland Signature model. Believe it or not, it uses the same throw off and butt as Bruford's.

Tama MCS50B Snare Butt

Now I definitely wasn't going to cannibalize it, but I thought if I could find a used Tama snare with the same butt plate, I could cannibalize it for parts. Now the Power Metal snares are also quite rare, and go for as much as $450 in brass or chrome, however the piccolo version is a lot cheaper and as it happens, there are more than a few of them to be found on ebay and Reverb in various states of disrepair. I actually managed to find one such drum, (missing lugs, but with the butt plate intact!), and grabbed it for cheap. Now, at long last, I was finally good to go with all the parts I needed.

With all of the Tama chrome parts ordered, as well as Evans G1 Coated and Hazy 300 Snare Side heads, all that remained was to acquire the shell itself. Now Bruford's snare was 6 ply, made up with the aforementioned layers of Maple and Birch. My only option was getting a 6 ply, VSS Maple shell from Drum Supply House; Not a problem, as I happen to love their all Maple shells. After that, I'd order a chrome wrap from Jammin' Sam in Arizona and just wait for everything to arrive. It wouldn't take long for Evans heads, chrome lugs, strainers, hoops and decal to arrive, however I would get an unexpected surprise that would give my project a new direction, and one that I certainly didn't see coming! As fate would have it, I happened to come across an unusual find; A 14" x 6" Bill Bruford Signature Series snare drum that was missing all of its original, Tama Starclassic Black "MSL-SCTB" lugs and 14" Snappy Snare Wires. The rest of the remaining parts were in decent shape with only a minor amount of wear and tear. Because of that, the price was also considerably less than any other version I'd seen on ebay or Reverb. Apparently one of the original lugs had been broken, so the owner swapped them out for 20 black nickel, "bread loaf" lugs from Drum Factory Direct and Purecussion snare wires. Still, to find one like that was a surprise; I mean what are the odds? Needless to say, it seemed destined to be mine, so I got it. I now had a genuine Bill Bruford Signature Palette Series snare #405, signed and all. I suddenly wondered if I could I find any of those original Black Starclassic lugs long since discontinued? I searched around and discovered that those identical lugs are found on older Starclassic Maple snare drums. Unfortunately, those all-black lugs were even harder to find than their all-chrome counter parts, and those snares are extremely rare and so costly, that you'd never want to cannibalize one for parts. 

Since Tama had apparently discontinued the all-black Starclassic lugs years ago, I resigned myself to the fact that Tama's newer Black Nickel lugs were as close as I was ever going to get. Well, why not have the best of both worlds? I decided to restore the original drum, and then make the all-chrome version, using the original as the perfect reference guide. I soon discovered that the most popular approach to getting my hands on some of those Tama MSL-SCTBN Black Nickel lugs, (which cost as much as $350 brand new), was to buy a used Tama S.L.P. (Sound Lab Project) snare drum with the identical Black Nickel hardware; Strip it, and either resell it for parts, or as a customized drum with different lugs. Well, I happened to find a used Tama S.L.P. Bubinga 14" x 6" snare for under $250 and in great shape on Reverb and bought it. 

Now I really wanted to get started on restoring the original Bruford snare drum! The Bruford drum arrived first, and I immediately got to work by removing the old snare wires, worn out heads, the Black Nickel bread loaf lugs, and thoroughly cleaned the drum shell. Thankfully, the previous owner was very careful to only use lugs that precisely fit the Bruford snare, so he'd didn't have to do any additional drilling. Next to arrive was the Tama S.L.P. Bubinga snare which was in excellent shape. As soon as the Bubinga S.L.P. snare drum arrived, I removed the strainer, hoops, and began to strip all of the Tama Starclassic Black Nickel lugs from it, and add them to the Bruford snare. Next, I installed the 20 Black Nickel Starclassic lugs...



The lugs fit perfectly, and I then added Bruford's recommended Evans Genera G1 Coated Batter head for the top, an Evans Hazy 300 Snare Side head for the bottom, the original hoops, tension rods and a new Snappy Snare strainer wire. With a little bit of tuning to get that patented Bruford rimshot sound, I was good to go. I now had a fully restored, "Bill Bruford Signature Palette Series" snare drum, #405 signed by Bill Bruford with Black Nickel Tama Starclassic lugs, the original hoops, Black MCS50A Throw Off and MCS50B Butt! A very satisfying project to say the least, and one I couldn't wait to put it into action. Bruford's preference for a snare drum with all-black hardware and flanged hoops had begun to convince me of the aesthetic merits and appreciate the darker look of this iconic snare drum. With the original drum now completed, I proceeded with my plan to build a one-of-a-kind, 6 Ply, 14" x 6", all-Maple shell, chrome wrapped, with all chrome hardware version of Tama's "Bill Bruford Signature Palette Series Snare Drum". To be continued...