This excerpt is taken from the complete review that appears in the October 2015 issue,
which is available here.

Product Close-Up

DTS 6.5×14 Oscar Seaton Hybrid-Shell Snare

Marrying birch with maple for ultimate clarity and depth.

 DTS, or Drum Tech Services, was founded in 2011 by acclaimed tech Steve “Steevo” Morrison, who has worked with Tommy Lee, Stephen Perkins, Teddy Campbell, Joey Jordison, and Nate Morton. (Morton uses DTS snares on The Voice.) Morrison’s mission, as stated on the company website, is to “provide handcrafted instruments at reasonable prices.”

The options DTS offers are nearly endless, starting with premium Keller shells of various wood types and including any choice of stain, custom paint job, veneer, inlay, or lacquer finish. DTS uses PureSound Custom Pro snare wires and Remo drumheads (Evans and Aquarian heads can be used on request), and it offers many bearing-edge profiles and hardware options and finishes, including powder coating. All DTS snare drums are made to order.

Our review drum is a unique 6.5×14, 10-ply hybrid built especially for renowned R&B/pop/fusion drummer Oscar Seaton, featuring a top half of birch and a bottom half of maple, plus a checker-pattern maple inlay. It’s outfitted with black nickel tube lugs and die-cast hoops, black tension rods, a Trick GS007 throw-off, twenty-four-strand PureSound Custom Pro wires, and Remo heads (Coated Ambassador top and Hazy Ambassador bottom). The edges are 45 degrees with a rounded back cut, and the snare beds are fairly flat. Advertisement

Michael Dawson

For more on how this drum performed, check out the complete review in the October 2015 issue, which is available here.