After tuning this snare and putting an Evans ST Dry head on, you won't find a better sounding drum. Hardware has a great finish, and is very high quality. The only problem I had was both of the stock snare holding ribbons eventually broke. Replaced them with heavy plastic Gibralter straps and haven't had an issue since. I went with the 13"x6.5" model, and love the deep notes it creates. Great Buy!

The Tama Metalworks snare drum is everything you would expect it to be. The finish is flawless and the black nickel hardware gives it a nice touch. The gig bag is nice and fits well; although I would get a nice hard case if you are doing any serious travel with it. It also comes with a Tama drum key (MF Part # 449239) which, oddly enough, get rave reviews for a key.

When this drum arrived the heads were tensioned just enough to make sure they were seated well. It rings like a gong until you tighten things up a bit. I also readjusted the snare wires as I could not loosen them up enough to get a stick underneath to keep them off the snare head for tuning. I found that I needed to tune the drum quite high to the response I was looking for - which is okay for me because I normally tension my snare drums that way.

I chose the 6x14 model and am very pleased with it. If you are looking for a good general purpose snare that looks good and doesn’t break the bank, this is an excellent choice.

I’ve played Tama for 25 years and they always deliver a great product. I would have rated this drum a perfect 5 stars but I am not sure about the plastic washers on the tuning lugs (I’m fairly certain they used plastic to protect the black nickel hardware). I think they will be fine once the drum settles in and the heads have been tensioned for a while but just in case I’ll be looking around for some black metal washers to replace them with.

Got it for my birthday, i had a 14 inch steel snare that came with the original kit but it was unreliable.The snare has an awesome pop to it and the color is just gorgeous and one of a kind. I usually dont like tama, but if they keep making stuff like this i might have to reconsider. The case is awesome too.

I just got the 6 1/2 by 13 snare not to long ago and it sounds awesome. It sounds great with the reverse dot head it comes with but I replaced it with a G2 because that is my preference and I like a little ring in my snare. This snare not only looks awesome but it has a nice crack to it. It is very responsive and it cuts through very nice. Not bad for the price either.

I had recently purchased and wrote a review on a used, in Like New condition, Metalworks snare drum that was terribly flawed. Either the drum had been dropped or it was defective the moment it left the Tama factory. As it turned out, the shell was out of round badly, so whether it was dropped or defective I don't know but I was offered a very good deal from Musicians Friend to replace the flawed Metalworks snare with a new 6.5x14 Metalworks snare, which I gladly agreed to. Now, having a new Metalworks, I can objectively review it. It's features are excellent and the drum looks great in a dark, industrial sort of way, just like it's advertised, however, it's not the best quality drum and being mass produced it does seem like the drum was slapped together in no time, little disappointed about that. The top hoop/rim on the new drum I received was slightly dented in one area and the bag it came with had two slight puncture holes in it. Anyway, I will overlook those slight imperfections because it's a very good sounding snare drum and I was amazed how full and deep it still sounded when it was tuned high. It has a good tuning range and has excellent articulation. I noticed it did have a little snare buzz at low volume due to the shallow snare beds but that can be eliminated easily by slightly detuning the 4 tension rods closest to the snare wires on each side. It doesn't have a nasty ring to it and only needs one moon gel or other minor dampening to lessen the ring. It's a fairly heavy drum, weighing about 8-9 lbs. It's very comparable in sound vs. my 6.5x14 Pearl Sensitone bronze snare and being a steel shell, it can be loud. This snare bites, in a good way! I'm glad I purchased the Metalworks, it was worth giving it a 2nd Chance.