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MODERNDRUMMERThe World’s #1 Drum Magazine May 2012

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P R O D U C T C L O S E - U P

MODERN DRUMMER • May 2012

by Michael Dawson

Provenance Cast-Aluminum Snare

The U.K.-based Provenance Drumsmakes one-of-a-kind instruments out

of recycled top-grade aluminum culledfrom discarded high-performancemachines, like the engine of a Jaguarsports car, a NASA rocket, or, in the case of this snare, the wheel of a retired F-4Phantom fighter jet.

The drum’s 51/2x14 sand-cast aluminumshell is lathed on the outside to ensurethat it’s perfectly round, but the inner wallis left rough to break up the sound reflec-tions a bit, which is said to produce a driertone. To further mellow out the lively, bell-like sound of the cast-aluminum body,Provenance employs classic rounded bear-ing edges, plus flat snare beds for supremesensitivity.

The shell is outfitted with ten tube lugs,a Dunnett R-Class throw-off, PureSoundsixteen-strand snare wires, triple-flangesteel hoops, and Aquarian drumheads(Texture Coated batter and Classic Clearbottom). The drum is surprisingly heavy,considering that aluminum is known forbeing a lightweight metal, but it doesn’tweigh much more than a standard wood-

shell snare and cer-tainly isn’t as back-breaking as drumsmade from cast steelor cast bronze.

I put thisProvenance snarethrough its paces inthe MD studio,recording it at a rangeof tunings fromextremely low (80 ona DrumDial) all theway up to super-tight(90 on a DrumDial). It was superlative ateach point along the way, combining alively, present snap with tons of depth,punch, and power. Lower tunings offeredmore smack and overtones, yet the drumdidn’t ring so much that it needed to bemuffled, even when close miked. Tightertunings produced a ton of “crack” with a focused, high-pitched bite, whichrecorded great and sounded super-funky.Medium to medium-tight tensions hadthat classic Mitch Mitchell/Keith Moonopen tone. In short, you could get this

drum to do just about anything; it’s one ofthe most versatile metal drums I’ve everplayed. The hard part is deciding how youwant it to sound.

To authenticate each drum, Provenanceincludes a disc containing photos andbackground information about the build-ing process. This particular snare alsocame with the original servicing disc from the F-4 wheel mounted inside thedrum, beneath one of the lug-casingscrews. List price: $1,980.provenancedrums.com

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