7 ply,11 ply,20 ply,40 ply....difference??

retardED

Hey everyone
Ive been wondering this for a while and now i decided to ask...
What difference do extra plys make to a kit??ive been on the OCDP site and i see that they make 40 ply shells (for extra $ of course).
Now is this a good thing...cause in my head....wow 40 plys of maple sounds pretty kick *Horse's Patoot* but is it the case??
For rock or punk music would more or less plys be better and how would the extra plys change the sound??
Thanks!!

alex_knappenberger · House Cat Joined: 10 Jun 2004 Posts: 153

It just has to do with the quality of the drums. The more the better the quality.

TaYl0r · Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2004 2:08 pm Post subject:

That's not neccesarilly true, is it? I know that low end Mapex kits are 9 Ply Basswood, whereas Pro M and Saturn series kits are 7 Ply Maple.

DWcannibal · Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2004 5:42 pm Post subject:

ADman · Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 7:17 am Post subject:

# of Plies has nothing to do with quality.

When looking at number of plies, be sure to notice the shell thickness. Some companies plies are larger/smaller than others. OCDP's plies are much smaller than some companies plies.

I don't know if that made much sense. I'm pretty tired right now.

bytor · Admin Joined: 12 Aug 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Kansas

In many cases, thinner plies are desirable. With toms and bass drums, thin shells are also desirable. Having more plies does not directly translate to a better quality drum, but generally, the more plies you can get into a shell while still keeping it very thin translates to a stronger shell with a lot of resonance. The quality of the wood in the plies has more to do with sound quality than the actual number of plies.

When you hear about a drum having 10, 20, 30, or even 40 plies, you're almost always talking about snare drums. Thick shells like that are usually undesirable in toms and bass drums because there will be less resonance in a shell that thick. Snare drums, however, are different because many drummers like them to be dry sounding with little resonance. In addition, they like their snare drums to cut through. This is where numerous plies comes into the picture. Generally, a snare drum with many plies is going to be both dry and loud. Adding large vents to the shell, as many custom companies often do, accentuates these characteristics even more.

rawrock · Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2004 2:20 am Post subject:

I have a 20 ply snare and a 6 ply snare both are maple. The 20 ply snare isn't as dry as you'd think, although it is dry. It is very sensitive (mostly do to the vents) It's almost too synsitive actually. And yes it is loud, you can't notice the volume too much when your sitting behind the kit, but in front of the kit it is rather loud. My 6 ply snare is suprisingly just about as loud (it only has one 2" vent as compared to the 20 ply which has four 3.5" vents). It really projects and has an awesome crack. And when you hit a rim shot on that baby you have to cover your ears. It took me along time to tune though and it seems as though I have to tune it tighter than the 20 ply to get a good crack out of it.