Snare Wires

[some jive turkey]

Not to whore out Puresound, but I was perusing their page and found some useful info, that I thought I would post a link to on here for anyone interested in tweaking or improving the sound of their snare drum.
http://www.puresoundpercussion.com/SnareBeds.htm

[alvyn]

that was quite helpful!

but im confused. all along i've been thinking that more snare wires = increased sensitivity... so does it mean that a 40 strand wire would sound more muffled and more poppy as compared to a 24 strand?

and puresounds really rock. a little pricier, but the difference is quite obvious when compared to other strainers. or maybe i'm just trying to console myself after blowing that wad of cash on 24 strands of metal.

[zfzgg]

The way I see it, more wires would restrict the resonant head's natural rebound more, resulting in less sustain and a more 'concentrated' (or muffled) sound.
Less wires would allow the head to rebound more freely, resulting in more resonance and a more open tone.

[some jive turkey]

I've always thought of it as:
greater # of snares gives more snare sound (more snap)
fewer # of snares gives more shell sound (more resonance, more tom-like or timbale-like sound , depending on if it's wood or metal)

Sensitivity has a lot of factors, like drum construction, thickness of heads,etc....but as far as snare strands are concerned, as it says on the the puresound site, it depends on light/med/heavy gauge.