Building the Bill Bruford Signature Snare - Part Two

In my last blog, I was preparing to build a replica of the Tama "Bill Bruford Signature Palette Series" snare drum from scratch, with all-chrome, authentic Tama parts. Most of the parts I was able to find quite easily, however the vintage Tama MCS50A Throw Off and MCS50B Butt proved to a real challenge to obtain. Eventually, I found them; (I even had to search as far as Athens, Greece and Lindau, Germany; Thank you Trimis and Thomann Music!). As I had mentioned before, Bruford's Tama snare was unique; A 14" x 6", 6 ply shell consisting of 2 ply Maple, 2 ply Birch and 2 ply Maple. My version would use a 6 ply Keller VSS Maple 14" x 6" shell. Not exactly the same, but as close as I could get. In fact, all of my Gretsch, Mapex and Yamaha snares were 100% Maple, each warm and wonderful sounding. 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.  I luckily found a used Tama S.L.P. Bubinga snare drum with Tama Starclassic "MSL-SCTBN" Black Nickel lugs which I stripped off of it and added them to the Bruford snare. With a little bit of tuning to get that patented Bruford rimshot sound, I was good to go. I now had a completely restored, "Bill Bruford Signature Palette Series" snare drum, #405 signed by Bill Bruford himself! 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, my plan of building a one-of-a-kind, 6 Ply, 14" x 6", all-Maple shell, chrome wrapped, with all chrome hardware version of Bill Bruford's snare was also about to come to life!

Tama MCS50A Strainer

As I mentioned in the previous blog, 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 proved to be the most difficult. 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 6" 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 the Bruford snare!

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 the Bruford recommended Evans G1 Coated and Hazy 300 Snare Side heads, all that remained was to acquire the shell itself. Now Bruford's signature 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 a custom-made decal from StickerApp to be delivered.

During the course of my research into making the all-chrome version of the Bruford snare, I came across another interesting discovery. It seems Tama, like Gretsch, Ludwig and Slingerland, made "chrome-over-wood" versions of their snare drums. I came across one such snare that seemed to be a newer version of the drum I was planning on building. This Tama Starclassic snare was indeed a COW version and had newer Tama Quck Touch MCS70A Strainer and MCS70B Butt. These are the parts that replaced the older, aforementioned Quick Touch parts found on the original Bruford snare. Although the original Bruford snare was painted black on the inside of the shell, I opted to keep it bare, just like that Tama COW version, as well as my Maple Gretsch, Mapex and Yamaha shells. Like the other Maple Starclassic snare drums, this chrome version was also outfitted with diecast hoops. Bruford preferred to use flanged hoops on his snare drum to give it a livelier sound. My version would mirror Bruford's preference, and so I decided to use Tama's flanged chrome, Steel Mighty hoops. 

One of the other benefits of having the original Bruford shell meant that I now had the perfect template for laying out of all the holes that I needed to drill on the VSS Maple shell. and placement of my custom decal. The decal from StickerApp was not my first foray into making custom badges for my drum kits. I've used PlaqueMaker to reproduce square badges for my Yamaha and Mapex kits, and oval badges for my Ddrum kits. This was my first decal and it came out quite nicely. When the 6 ply Maple shell from Andy Foote's Drum Supply House finally arrived, I was overjoyed. Andy does great work; I've gotten many shells from him and each one has been flawless; Perfect bearing edges and snare beds. After lining up all the holes for lugs with the Bruford shell, I began drilling the holes for the lugs, strainer and butt. Once the drilling was done, I added a "JS Chrome" wrap from Jammin' Sam in Arizona. (Sam is the best in the business IMHO; Check him out if you ever need to wrap any of your drums). 

Next, it was time install the chrome hardware, beginning with the Tama Starclassic lugs; I needed 20 of them and they varied in price. Fortunately I was able to get all of them from ebay, Reverb, 2112 Percussion and Thomann Music in Germany(!) for very good prices. Finally, I added the Tama MCS50A and MCS50B Snare Throw Off and Butt, the Bruford recommended Evans G1 Genera and Hazy 300 snare heads, and lastly the Tama flanged Mighty Hoops, (MFM14-10 and MFM14S-10), and the MS20N14S Snappy Snare wires. The only thing left to do was to add my $27 custom made, 3" x 3.9" "Bill Bruford Signature Palette Series" decal from StickerApp. I trimmed the excess clear adhesive from the decal and placed it next to the snare butt, exactly where it is on the original. The new drum was finally complete! How did it sound compared to the original? The original Bruford snare has a thinner, brighter and crispier sound. This new Maple snare was warmer and sounded more like the classic Bruford of the 1990's King Crimson and Earthworks groups. All in all, the chrome version of Bruford's snare was a successful project. I'm looking forward to putting both of them to good use in several upcoming sessions and live performances!