This excerpt is taken from the complete review that appears in the August 2015 issue, which can be purchased at: http://wp.me/p1bQfj-fuj

Product Close-Up

Fidock 6×13 Heartbreaker Series Snare

The crème de la crème of one of Australia’s finest tonewood connoisseurs.

Fidock (“fye-dock”) is a boutique manufacturer from Australia that specializes in handcrafting high-end stave-shell drums with rare Aussie species like blackwood and myrtle. Part of the company’s Limited Edition series is the Heartbreaker lineup of snares built from premium-grade, air-dried figured blackwood (called fiddleback) that was hand-selected in the temperate rainforest of Victoria and cured over a period of five years.

These unique drums feature standard Fidock specs, including slightly rounded 45-degree bearing edges, sculpted reinforcement rings, a 6–7 mm shell wall, eight tube lugs, a Trick multistep throw-off, a Remo Coated batter head (either Ambassador or CS black dot) and Ambassador Hazy bottom, and matching blackwood hoops. The drums are carefully finished with hand-applied orange-flake shellac to ensure that the natural look and open tone of the timber remains intact.

The main difference between the Heartbreaker series and Fidock’s standard blackwood snares is that Heartbreaker staves are cut from a single tree, and only the first 1.6 meters are used, so the wood is denser and the grain is much tighter. This results in a more focused sound with fewer overtones and a slightly higher note. Advertisement

For the complete review, check out the August 2015 issue, which is available at: http://wp.me/p1bQfj-fuj

Review by Michael Dawson