So, what's the sound difference in having more snare strands?

I see snares that have 10 strands, 12 strands, even one with 20 strands.

So what does having more (or less) do to the sound of a snare drum?

More snare strands = Greater snare articulation at lower volume and a more defined overall sound. Puresound and Grover make good wires. try them! A well cut snare bed and good bottom reso head makes all the difference too....

Think in terms of extremes.

Imagine you only had one snare wire stretched across the head. It wouldn't necessarily react that well to every light hit on the drum, and it would have a very simple and non-complex reaction to the head. Not very 'snare-ey' sounding.

Now imagine you had a drum with 500 snare wires running along it. ANY movement of the head would cause at least some of the snares to vibrate (talk about a buzz box!), and the 'snare' sound would be pretty lush.

So if you can imagine those two ends of the spectrum, you should be able to get a decent mental image of how a 10 strand snare would compare to a 40 strand snare.

The additional snares add more snare response at all volume levels, based purely on numbers. You have more wires vibrating against the bottom head.

Aurally, more snares = brighter sound. You will hear more *snap* from the bottom head as the number of wires goes up, as opposed to tone from the batter head. Maybe the way to describe it is, adding more wires "turns up the volume" on the bottom head.