Rotosound RS66S snaren set elektrisch bass stainless steel 40-90, medium gauge, short scale

Rotosound RS66S snaren set elektrisch bass stainless steel 40-90, medium gauge, short scale 040-050-075-090 short scale 30"

The snaar that started a revolution and brought the bass player from the back line to the front.

This is the snaar that James How and John Entwistle perfected into what was to become the industry standard. The bright punchy high energy sound this snaar offered and so much a big part of early rock music as we know it, quickly grew in popularity to all four corners of the globe and remains the leading contender to this present day.

The John Entwistle connection 1966

“It was in 1966 and I was looking for that Danelectro sound again. I tried everybody’s snaars but the E and the A’s just didn’t work. It was the same with Rotosound but there was something about them that was almost there but not quite. To solve the problem I got in touch with James How and told him his D and G snaars were great but the E and A didn’t vibrate properly.

He told me to take my bass along to Rotosound and have some snaars made until they got it right. After a couple of hours, we realised that the problem wasn’t in the wire winding, but in the core of the snaar. You could see that the snaars vibrated in a big circle and that was wrong; the core needed to be thicker.

We also made the overall gauges a bit heavier and they sent me away with 12 sets to use. A couple of days later they called and asked if I objected to them putting my name to the snaars and selling them commercially. I told them I didn’t mind as long as they kept me supplied with free snaars!

But then we had to do the same with medium and short scale snaars because I had loads of different basses by then. Those snaars, the RS 66 sets, were the first that vibrated properly other than the Danelectros.”



The most popular Roundwound bass snaar ever. Rotosound was the first snaar company to produce this kind of snaar. Introduced in 1962 it changed the sound of the instrument instantly. The favourite snaar of many players including Billy Sheehan, John Paul Jones and Geddy Lee. The steel used to produce these snaars is unique, combined with a highly secretive manufacturing process.