Gretsch Drums 12"x5,5" Mighty Mini Snare BK

Honestly, this snare has no business being as good as it is for what they're charging for it. Like I said in the title: This. Thing. CRACKS.

Granted, you have to put in a little time tuning it up and situating the heads (or replacing them), but once you've got it dialed in, get ready to pick your jaw up off the floor.
I started out by putting this up on my practice kit to sort of break it in, but I was immediately caught by how powerful the rimshots rang out. They genuinely weren't joking by calling this thing "mighty".

Positives: Unparalleled sound quality for price point, solid hardware, built-in mount for easy side-snare option

Negatives: Stock heads beaten up quite quickly, tuning may not hold long-term, finish on shell not very scratch-resistant, side-mount may get in the way of some setups

The only place where this snare may be lacking is in "zone diversity". If you just need a solid center hit/rimshot sound for your kit, then it's a fantastic option. If you're looking for something with a lot of nuance and flare, then you may be slightly disappointed.

All in all: Great snare. 10/10 would buy again.

I wanted a 12" side snare for a long time, but since it's more of a fun "toy" for me, not something I regularly use on gigs, I tried to save a buck. This one came up to me and I thought that for the price you can't really go wrong - even if it sucks, it's just 100€! Luckily it doesn't at all! I use it in a high/medium-high tuning range where it kinda sounds like a timbale and when I turn the snares on, it sounds wonderful.

However I do have a couple of complaints:
- The stock heads, although decent, aren't that great. I managed to wear through the coating on the batter head in the first day, and I'm no heavy hitter.
- The stock snare wires lack top end. Just something to be aware of. I replaced them with Tama Starclassic wires, which were incredibly cheap and sound quite a bit better with more crack.
- Easily my biggest complaint however is the throw-off mechanism. It gets loose very very easily and the knob just doesn't hold. In some instances the stainer even jumps into the off position while playing. For the price, though, I'm willing to live with it - not the end of the world if you position it right -, thus it's still a total 5 star rating from me!

First off, I have fit it with an Evans Onyx, and tuned it low, so that it doesn't sound like a 12' but more as a medium 14'..
I'm relatively new to drums and tuning but I can tell 3 things:
1) This snare sounds better than my 13x7 black wax snare and my 14x6,5 Mapex snare, have put it as my main snare now. I said I'm noob to tuning, but didn't even have to touch the reso.. Put the Onyx, tuned the batter, and it sounded so wonderful I don't dare to touch it more!
2) It is QUIETER! I love the sound of rimshots, but they'd probably deafen everyone in an acoustic gig. Not with this snare! This has certainly to do with the low tuning also (to fit the frequency range of my previous main snare..)
3) It is cheap and gets the job done. Buy it.