Walnut w/ Maple Stripes

My Walnut & Maple Stripe Stave Snare

This is my most recent snare build, and it was purpose-built to pair with my Walnut with Maple Stripe stave shell bank.

The shell is a 7×14, half-inch thick stave construction in Walnut with Maple accent stripes, built by Arden Keith Hatfield of Hatfield Drums in Asheboro, NC. Arden’s stave work is extraordinary, and this shell is no exception. Wide Walnut panels alternate with narrower Maple stripes in clean vertical lines that run the full depth of the shell — the kind of precise geometry that is the hallmark of quality stave work. The deep natural finish lets the contrast between the dark Walnut and bright Maple stripes speak for itself, and the chrome hardware pops brilliantly against it.

The twenty Yamaha lugs match the lugs on the rest of the shell bank, giving the entire collection a unified, intentional look. The Gibraltar Slingerland-style throw-off is a nod to the classic parallel-action snare strainers of the vintage era, and the three-position DW snare butt plate adds a layer of adjustability that lets the snare wires sit exactly where they need to be. Triple-flanged hoops complete the build — keeping the response open and lively rather than choked down by die-cast mass.

The result is a snare that sounds and looks like it belongs in this kit — because it was built for exactly that purpose.