[review] ddrum AMX Dominion 7×13 Snare
I grew up marching in drum and bugle corps; I played snare for several years. As a result, I’ve always preferred snare drums that are comparatively deep. I’ve tried piccolo snares and even spent some time playing a 5” deep bronze snare snare, but I’ve always liked the throaty character of deep snares. However, when playing deep 14” snares, I’ve found that they can be more drum than I really need for most of my playing. Even when they’re not tubby, they’re just monstrous. That can be a great thing, but again, for me it’s usually too much.
Enter the 13” diameter snare drum. I used a Ludwig 6×13 Classic Maple Snare on the first Hypaspace recording, but I thought it was little too contained to be my everyday drum. Recently I decided to give 13” snares a try again, as many more companies are offering 13” snares in depths of 7” or more. I was intrigued enough to order a ddrum AMX Dominion 7×13 snare online. The Dominion line has been discontinued by ddrum so I was able to pick this drum up for just over $100 in May, 2011.
I’m unclear on how many plies the AMX Dominion snare is made up of, but it is a combination of maple and ash, and the shell is fairly thick. The drum has eight small lugs for each head and die-cast hoops. The hardware is finished in gunmetal gray. The drum itself is finished in a beautiful lacquer called Blue Burst, though the color appears more as Teal than Blue. The strainer is a simple lever that pops outward away from the shell to disengage the snares. I like this simplistic design though it doesn’t provide much downward motion on the snares when they’re disengaged and this could cause rattle when playing with the snares off.
When I got the drum I gave the bearing edges a quick sanding, as they were even but not overly smooth. The snare beds are nice and wide and deep, which was a pleasant surprise, as often times less expensive snare drums will scrimp on snare beds as a cost-cutting measure. I set the drum up in one of my preferred configurations, with an Aquarian Coated Studio-X Head on top, an Aquarian Classic Clear Snare Side Head on the bottom, and the Rhythm Tech Active Snare System.
With the aforementioned setup the drum tuned easily and sounds great. Probably because of my drum corps upbringing, I like snares to be on this side of dry and articulate, and the ddrum AMX Dominion snare pulled that off in spades. The maple/ash shell provides a nice degree of warmth and body, and the combination of heads and snares certainly helped, but I truly believe that the magic of the drum is the 7×13 size. The die-cast hoops contribute to a wicked rim-shot and cross-stick sound, which fills the dynamic range and color choices of the drum. I can play anything from super-quiet buzz rolls to stick-splitting rim-shots and the drum tracks with me the whole time. It has followed me through blues and metal and jazz and fusion and rock and country and more, and never felt over-matched or underutilized. It handles everything. Setup this way the drum is dry, no question, but that’s how I like my snares. It’s certainly nowhere near as dry as drum corps snares, but it is difficult for me to say whether it would be able to deliver a sloppy, ringy sound, as it’s setup to give exactly the opposite type of sound. I was a little worried about the cross-stick sound on a 13” drum, but the die-cast hoop more than makes up for that lost inch; the cross-stick sound is amazing. I was also a bit concerned about playing with brushes on a smaller drum; it’s a slight adjustment to be sure, but it wasn’t as big a deal as I feared. Brush work is quite doable and sounds lovely.
In case it’s not obvious, I’m smitten with this drum. I’ve picked up some other 13” snares recently, and I’ll be reviewing them soon, but this is my favorite of the bunch. It sits in a special spot of versatility and character that is exactly what I was looking for. The combination of my setup with the maple/ash shell, and I believe most importantly, the 7×13 size, is just knocking my socks off. The ddrum AMX Dominion 7×13 snare drum gets my highest recommendation.
~~Penny Larson
Thanks for the review! I don’t understand the hate from others on the web: From the web Dominion Ash sings great. I suspect that Ddrum uses Asian maple in concert with ash for this—given that the company is a key Chinese fabricator and the price level. I like the tone, though Someone indicated that the shell on theirs cracked–they continued to use it, though. I’m unlikely to do that, so I think I’ll go through with invoking PayPal. Why not? This isn’t a $3,000 shell pack, and it won’t prove the end of snare purchases. Need to order cyber.
(As far as I know, the company’s Reflex series is the only one currently using red American alder (sweet gum)–a tip of the hat to the genius of Fender Guitar! Boldly, Ddrum designs and fabricates it’s own line of hardware, as well: Continually and predictably, praise for the hardware increases over time. After all, patiently and deliberately–in Asian fashion–the company thinks in terms of decades–not mere quarter years or, typical American nanoseconds. Ddrum never stops tending its rich garden of novel ideas, either. I have to admire the company’s innovation and moxie–it’s ability to face the headwinds of criticism. Instead, smiling knowingly, the company merely uses all-too-rare insight to its advantage: By setting its corporate sail (and prices!) smartly downwind, Ddrum always confounds nervous and jealous competitors in the U.S.and Europe, its Asian colleagues–and us!
By dismounting from our high horses, now nearly lame and worthy of lead poisoning, we should learn a lot now from Ddrum.
Thanks for deleting my dup posts. Well, I received my blueburst 13×7 today. I tuned it up and thought it sounded really awful at first. As the heads adjusted, it started to sound as I had expected. Rings too much at this point, though.
AMX uses maple with an ash veneer. According to others, my brash assumption concerning the maple’s source is dead wrong–it is from Canada. It’s a beautiful lacquer snare. I just like lacquer much better than wrap.
I’m interested in different heads for this. Stock, the top is a Remo Chinese head (UK). The bottom (snare side) doesn’t say who the fabricator is, and it’s horrible–that has to go. (I think even my Attack clear, fitting the snare side, is better than this. Attack is too cozy in “ring city,” though.) I’m thinking Emperor (for the top) or Ambassador. As usual, it’s Remo vs. Evans in limited web cackling on youtube. (I think they’re both good.) Hard to find suggestions for heads since this isn’t Pearl, Gretsch, or Tama. Anyone wanting to chime in with some ideas is very welcome. I want to know what Aquarian fans who use AMX Dominion Ash think, too (I have to order Aquarian from here). Thanks!