Why Choose Free-Floating Snare Drums?
Free-floating snare drums eliminate all hardware contact with the shell, allowing it to resonate freely and produce a richer, more expressive tone. With longer sustain, improved projection, and greater sensitivity, a floating snare responds to your playing with unmatched clarity.
You get a fuller body, longer sustain, better projection, and a sensitivity that responds directly to your touch — not to conflicting overtones caused by bolted hardware.
A simpler system with fewer conflicting overtones, excellent tuning stability, and the freedom to swap shells without modifying them.
Build Your Custom Floating Snare
Choose your shell, hardware, finish, and configuration. Whether you want a warm maple snare, a cutting ash shell, or a dark walnut tone, your custom build starts with the Z‑ring floating system.
Every Z-drums snare is one of a kind!
You can now own the most unique snare built to your preferences.
Order today and have your snare in less than 2 weeks.
The Z‑Drums Floating System
Our Z‑Drums chassis suspends the shell without drilling or hardware contact. This modular system allows you to:
Swap shells in minutes
Experiment with different woods
Maintain perfect tuning stability
Upgrade your snare without modification
It’s the most flexible snare system for drummers who love exploring new sounds.
Handcrafted Stave-Shell Snare Drums
Every Z Drums snare begins with a solid stave shell, handcrafted for strength, stability, and character. Stave construction produces a thicker, more resonant shell with a powerful voice and exceptional tuning stability.
Choose from maple, walnut, ash, or exotic woods — each offering its own tonal personality.
Finishes.
The wooden shell will be finished with natural hardwax or water-based French polish.
The wood can be colored with water-based wood stain. The stain is spryed on with an air brush.
The outer metal ring can be powder-coated or spray-painted with automotive paint.
The tube lugs are custom-made and can be prayed in the same colour as the ring.
FAQ
A free-floating snare is a drum where no hardware is attached directly to the wooden shell. All lugs and hardware are mounted to a separate structure, allowing the shell to resonate freely like a true acoustic body.
The result is a clearer, more focused sound with fewer conflicting overtones and much easier tuning.
Every piece of metal bolted to a shell introduces its own overtones. On a conventional snare, each lug affects the sound slightly differently, which creates a complex and often unstable frequency signature.
By removing all hardware from the shell, that complexity disappears. The shell is allowed to vibrate naturally, producing a purer and more controlled sound.
The Z-Drums ring is a solid metal chassis that carries all the hardware. The wooden shell sits inside this ring without being drilled or touched by any metal parts.
This system allows:
Free shell resonance
Excellent tuning stability
Easy shell swapping
Simple upgrades without modifying the shell
It’s the foundation of the fully free-floating Z-Drums snare.
The Stealth line looks like a conventional snare drum but offers the option to use it as a free-floating system.
It uses modified, centre-based tube lugs that minimise shell contact and allow you to choose between conventional and floating operation — sometimes with just a turn of a key.
In a floating system, tension from the lugs is shared between the hoop and both heads. This naturally reduces many of the overtones that make a drum sound out of tune or unstable.
Even when used in conventional mode, the centre-based lugs reduce shell contact and help simplify the drum’s frequency response.
Yes. The converted Stealth tube lugs can be fitted to many existing snares, allowing you to reduce shell contact or convert the drum to a floating system without significantly changing its appearance.
Stave shells are thicker and stronger than ply shells. They offer excellent resonance, stability, and consistency, which makes tuning easier and more reliable.
The thickness also allows hardware bolts to be countersunk, keeping the inside of the shell smooth and unobstructed for better airflow and sound.
All wood is sustainably sourced.
Each wood has its own character:
Ash – Bright, punchy, and cutting
Red Oak – Full-bodied with strong mids
Cherry – Warm, smooth, and musical
Maple – Balanced and versatile
Spalted Maple – Similar to maple with added complexity
Beech – Focused, dry, and articulate
Alder – Warm with quick decay and a vintage feel
Only non-xic, water-based finishes are used, including hardwax oil and traditional French polish. These protect the wood while keeping it acoustically alive.
Shells can also be coloured with water-based stains applied by airbrush.
Yes.
The outer ring can be powder-coated or finished with automotive paint
Tube lugs can be sprayed to match the ring colour
Subtle or bold — it’s up to you.
Very easy.
Because all hardware is mounted to the outer ring, both top and bottom heads can be changed without removing the snare wires. The shell can be lifted out independently, making maintenance quick and simple.
Many players find that tuning is easier and more stable, and that the drum actually settles in while playing.
The hardware system supports:
14×5.5"
14×6"
14×6.5"
14×7"
All shell thicknesses and wood types can be used.
Most custom snares are built and ready to ship in less than two weeks.
No.
Every snare is built individually and is one of a kind. The wood, grain, shell, and finish all contribute to a unique instrument.
No, only where indicated a Hardcase© case is supplied.
Yes.
This approach comes from years of playing, listening, and questioning why snares are built the way they are. The goal isn’t to be different — it’s to make a snare drum that behaves like an acoustic instrument and makes sense to tune and play.
Easy head change and tuning.
The outer ring holds all the hardware, making it very easy to change both the top and bottom heads without removing the snare wires.
Tuning is effortless, and the snare will sound booming when the heads are tuned in sync with the shell. The tuning will improve while playing.
Details.
The hardware can be used for wooden shells sizes 14×5.5, 14×6, and 14×6.5 inches.
All thicknesses and wood types can be used.
The snare wires can stay in place when changing heads. After removing the top head, the wooden shell can be taken out, and the bottom head can be removed and replaced.
The snare comes with a Hardcase© case.
A collector’s item because every snare is one of a kind.
Pascal Zrour - drummer and drum builder
I’ve loved drums for as long as I can remember. From hearing drum corps as a kid to spending years playing, listening, and questioning why snare drums are built the way they are.
After experiencing how complex — and often uninspiring — conventional snares can be, I started looking for a simpler, more acoustic approach. Inspired by how instruments like acoustic guitars resonate, I began removing hardware from the shell and letting the wood do the work.
What came out of that process is Z-Drums: free-floating snare drums built by a drummer who cares deeply about sound, simplicity, and instruments that actually make sense.