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I purchased a 14x6.5 Gretsch Legend brass snare online from zzounds.com a month ago. Normally I would wait to hear the drum and/or read some reviews from people that I trust, but I was in the market for a brass snare and seriously looking at the Ludwigs when I stumbled onto the Gretsch announcements about their Legend brass snare drum. Price-wise, it fits into the range of the Acro/Supra/BB knockoffs like the Pearl Sensitone, BOB, and the Black Magic, but in my opinion, it has the little bonus features that make it much more desirable than the BOB or BM, plus, it's from Gretsch (yeah, I'm a fan-boy, what can I say?). (disclaimer: I've owned a BOB, gigged with it as my main snare for a year, and sold it about 6 months ago. There was just something about it that didn't work for me) I received my Legend Brass snare a few weeks ago, and unfortunately didn't have a chance to do more than unpack it, put it on a stand, and do some preliminary tuning on it. I tuned it up medium tight on the batter with the snare head a bit tighter. The stock heads are an Evans coated G1 batter and a Hazy 300 snare side. This is a good head combination and it only took a few seconds to make sure that the tension was even and the heads were tightened up to produce a good tone. The snare strainer was a little odd with the dual adjustment (a micro-sensitive one on the strainer and a normal one on the butt plate) but I think I got the hang of it quickly. Gretsch could have put some documentation in the box about that strainer. Once I got the hang of it I really liked it. After tuning, I played it by itself for a minute or 2 and made some fine adjustments, then put it on my kit and left it there. Finally had a rehearsal last weekend and I expected to have to tweak the tuning, snare responsiveness, etc before playing it with the full kit, but all I really needed to do was to take the batter head up 1/4 turn all around to dial it in to where I like the snare to sit within the kit. Last week, I ordered an S-Hoop to try on this snare (it didn't arrive in time to put it on before rehearsal). I've heard really good things about the S-Hoop on snares (and toms, too), and I wanted to try one on the Legend Brass snare (I play a lot of cross-sticks and need a nice loud and full cross-stick sound). The maple rims on the PDP Woody snare I was using wasn't cutting it, and the normal flanged hoops on the Legend were OK, but I wanted to see what the S-Hoop lived up to the hype. The S-Hoop was delivered yesterday and after I replaced the stock flanged hoop I was amazed at how "dialed in" the snare sounded. With the stock head, the snare sounded good, in fact it sounded like every medium- to high-end brass snare I've ever heard: crisp, sensitive, full-bodied, and with a nice bit of ring to it. The S-Hoop added in that bit of body that I was looking for and it toned the ring down a tiny bit. It was like putting an O-ring or a bit of moongel on the drum. It really focused the sound and now it sounds freaking amazing. The marketing on the S-Hoop is all about how much better the tone, rim shots, and cross-sticks sound and I totally believe it. This a really nice well-rounded snare drum and just from the one rehearsal I think this will be my main snare drum from now on. It has a full-bodied presence but it also has the ability to really crack. Overall, this was an excellent purchase and I can highly recommend the Legend brass snare to all of you other Gretsch lovers who secretly crave the Acrolite or Supra sound but want your favorite logo on the drum. :-)

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