When SONOR designs drums, their intention is to continuously improve the acoustic quality in any given situation. For SQ1, SONOR worked closely with Chris Coleman and other SONOR artists in the development of this new drum series. The SQ1 series snare features the same advanced design technology as the shell packs.

The Shell choice for SQ1 was birch because of its characteristic high end frequencies and clearly defined low-end. In blindfold tests SONOR tried many different types of shell construction, from pure birch to hybrid versions. The pure birch shell came out as a clear winner in all test situations.