Product: Pulse 14" Steel Piccolo
Price Paid: USD 29
Submitted
04/09/2008
at
09:03pm
by
Merlin Coryell
Features
:
10
14x3.5" steel shell piccolo snare from Pulse. Simple design and hardware, but with a little tuneup on arrival, the parts hold up just fine. Includes clear and coated ambssador style heads, which wont hold up without dents very long and require heavy muffling. I use felt strips on all my snares, so thats no issue with Ambs or pinstripes replacing the batters. With a bit of service to tighten screws and adjust the throw off, and decent heads and muffling (if you like crisp sounds), and this is a fantastic value at $35-40 at most merchants.
Sound Quality
:
7
Has a high and dry tone, like you would expect from a piccolo, easy to tune above main snare and holds the tuning suprisingly well. Very good attack, and will cut through the sound well, even if at the side of the kit.
Again, unless you like the ringy, loose sound, you will need some sort of dampener to keep the overtones out and maintain crisp strikes.
With the strainer off, it gives a clean high tom sound, with no buzzing at all, less than my old Ludwig Supraphonic for sure!
Reliability/Durability
:
10
As mentioned above, it holds its tune very well, considering the cheap hardware and is built plenty solid. For the price, you can throw it around and not worry about it.
Mine gets pretty good use, less lately due to playing more straight forward hard rock, but in my fusion and prog metal work, it gets obliterated and stands strong.
Overall Rating
:
9
I have been using this for a few years with great results. The cleanest and highest sound I could hope for to go against my 14x6.5" wood snares on my main and right positions. This guy also fits great between my left side floor tom and high hat/splash. I recorded with it in 2005 on a fusion project where its lighter feel fit great, and if you need to pump some cutting blast beats it works great for a "no-mud" sound.
I wish it was better to look at, the chrome finish is boring, and I wish they would make one blacked out like some of their other hardware is.
The fact is, if you are in the market for a new snare, and dont have $199+ to drop, you should check this out. at under $50, it is a fun addition that gives great sound options as a snare or tom/timbale style drum.
