> > > BeatIt Presents: Dixon PDS2244BN Snare Drum

Dixon snare drum presentation no. 4

Drummers and Drummerettes! Here is yet another instrument sent to us by the Soundtrade company – the official Dixon Drums distributor in Poland.

Having tried out three Dixon Artisan snares (the Chris Brady, the PDSAR654NMDW and the PDSAR554HB2), we give you the last instrument in this lot – the Dixon PDS2244BN piccolo snare, sized 14″ x 4″ and made from phosphor bronze.

dixon-classic-pds2244bn

We had to forget the beautiful weather outside and lock ourselves up in the control room and live room of Poznań-based Perlazza Studio, together with the establishment’s owner, a saught-after producer/sound engineer and a complete drum freak Przemysław ‘Perła’ Wejmann, we recorded a presentation, which we hope is a full or maybe even an authoritative one.

Let’s eye this baby up first. We actually think it should satisfy the most picky aesthete. The shell shines in the studio lights, the badge stylishly reminds of the instrument’s classic design. It is a sheer joy to watch and the owner will look great with it. Also, from the technical point of view, the snare drum is flawless – the tension rods and the throw-off mechanism work the way they’re supposed to. If so, time to investigate how this beautiful object does the job it was built to do, which is playing.

The settings presented in the clip:

  • High tuning (A) – rudiments (undampened snare),
  • High tuning (A) – groove (undampened snare),
  • High tuning (A) – side stick w/ groove (undampened snare).

Instrument specs:

  • Model: Dixon PDS2244BN
  • Size: 14″ x 4″
  • Material: phosphor bronze
  • Shell thickness: 1 mm
  • Hardware: chrome
  • Hoops: Power Hoops 2.3 mm
  • Lugs: full length
  • Number of tension rods: 10
  • Heads: Evans G1 Coated (top), Evans SS Clear (bottom)
  • Finish: Phosphor Bronze.

dixon-classic-pds2244bn-piccolo

We decided that dampening a snare drum built to be lound and ringy doean’t make much sense, just as tuning an instrument of this depth medium and low. However, we put all our efforts into presenting the sonic response of the Dixon PDS2244BN piccolo tuned high as best as we could.

Having been able to compare the four instruments, Maciej ‘Blindman’ Głuchowski describes the piccolo snare in the following fashion: “Very good sound. For a piccolo, it has a lot of warmth and attack (which I call “meat”) and can easily be used even as the main snare in a kit. Sonically exact and clear.

Drummers and Drummerettes! Here is our film presenting the Dixon PDS2244BN piccolo snare drum!

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