seriously. a client brought in his Pork Pie Little Squealer snare drum. when i hit the record button, i had to get up and check my signal path ... that thing sounded like it was being compressed right off the bat! VERY NICE, hardly any overtones. all the muffling that snare had was a 1 inch dot right under the remo logo. and the size? 5X12! what??? it sounded a lot fuller than that actually. i asked the client why it sounded so much like WOOD. because it is, maple in fact. didn't notice, no laquer or anything, just a black little innocent looking snare drum. the best part is it costs only 170 USD. hay ... gas galore.