When building a drum set words like tone, resonance, sustain, etc. come into play. With a snare drum, everything changes. Tone counts, but words like crack and body come into play and really changes how the drum should be made. You don't play a snare like you play a tom, or a kick, so you shouldn't build them the same. Here at risen, we went back to the drawing board when deciding how to make snare drums. This starts with the venting. We vent snare drums much differently than we do the rest of the kit, and even differently than other snare drums. That's just the beginning. We use different thicknesses of shells, a different lug set up, and lots of different options for shell types. Your risen snare drum will definitely separate itself from the rest of the snares in your collection!

Wood Snares

This is where the sonic-venting system was born. We began with a very confident idea of what a snare should sound like. During our development we achieved the rich, full, controlled sound we sought after all along. Now when you use your desired drum head you hear the tone of the drum, not just the head. There are endless possibilities of wood types for snares including exotic woods. Here are a few to start with:
Maple
This is our most versatile snare, it works with every song. The makeup is basic but detailed, and can carry a song really well. A maple snare is the workhorse of you snare collection and can work for any gig. Any size and thickness is available.
Birch
Birch is comparable to maple in sound. Birch overall absorbs sound waves a bit faster with the end result being a quicker note, a little more attack, and overall less sustain.
Mahogany
Mahogany shells are for the jazz and old school players. It is a much softer wood with less attack, but longer sustains. Mahogany is desirable if you are playing with brushes, or in less offensive acoustic environments.
Stave
The stave snare features wood grain that runs up and down, not horizontal. This very much changes the how the shell resonates and also opens up endless possibilities for wood types. With stave you can use any wood imaginable. It is common to use exotic woods that you wouldn’t see in a full drumkit. This affects the sound as different woods have different sound properties. Contact us with any questions you have.

Metal Snares

We offer two main metal snares:

Black Brass
Our brass snares sound as good as they look. They create a higher pitched tone and have an amazing pop with a great ring. Get this drum as your backup snare and you may never play your main snare again.
• 3″x14″, 5″x14″, 6 1/2″x14″ or 7″x13″ shell sizes
Aluminum
This snare is 100% Risen custom made. We make each of these ourselves. The aluminum shell is metal and will bounce and have a higher pitch like brass, but because aluminum is a much softer metal it will meet somewhere in the middle of the wood and brass snares. It shares the positive characteristics of both of metal and wood, and brings with it the great high-end pop of brass mixed with the warmer tone of a wood shell. This is a drum we are very proud of and you will be too.

Acrylic and Hybrid Snares

Acrylic shells used to be considered inferior to a wood shell, but at Risen Drums that is simply not the case. We cut our own bearing edge on all our acrylic shells and vent them differently than any other drum we make including snare drums. This erases the bounciness that used to come with an acrylic snare. This drum is going to crack big but carry a lot of tone with it. We have many color options for our acrylic snares. Call the shop for details.