So, I have to say that this snare looks amazing! Die cast hoops mixed with great finishes is a win win! But, it comes with horrible snares and good for nothing heads. Those can all be replaced. The real problem is the throw off. Had this for a couple of months and the internal plastic within the throw off split right down the middle. Well, ddrum quality loses again.

I recently purchased this snare, I was looking for a snare to use in the gospel genre. I saw this snare and the price, and I fell in love. Mine is the blackburst. When I took the snare out of the box I fell more in love. I followed all the your recommendations and switch the washers. Got a Eans Genera Dry. The sound is unbelievable. It sounds deep and with a very beautiful pop. If you buy this snare, it's like stealing it because the price is very low and the snare is like a high end snare.

I switched out the cheap plastic washers and replaced with nylon, swapped out the heads to Remo coated control sound on the top side and a Evans Hazy 300 on the resinator side. Awesome stick response and a clean, sharp crack. For the price you can't go wrong with this snare... by the way the shell quality is very good! The band loves the sound and I love the $$$ I saved.

I got the 13x7 natural edition and listen to me when I say this snare is amazing. It looks good and sounds even better. The best thing to do first (in my opinion) is to change tha cheap plastic tension rod washers. I've had experience with these before and they break/crack under high tension. Next definitely get new heads. I got an Evans ST Dry Vented head on top and Hazy 300 on bottom and cranked it high. This snare went from good to better and I acheived the Warm/Mellow/Slightly high-pitched crack I was searchig for...You can consider others but this snare is hard to beat.

If you're playing a basic beginner kit, the cheapest way to upgrade is with this wonderful snare. I got it and it has a good tuning range, from big and fat, to tight and bright. You'd be hard-pressed to find a better sounding drum for less than twice the cash.