Butt Plate

On a snare drum, the butt plate, along with the throw off, are part of the system that engages and disengages the snare wires. While the throw off moves either up and down or side to side, the butt plate stays locked in its position. Think of it as the anchor for the throw off. Some butt plates on more high-end drums have screws to loosen or tighten the snare wires and, in the case of some DW snare drums, there is system to have three different positions for the snare wires, giving the player a lot of flexibility for creating different sounds using one drum.