Mapex Special Edition Black Panther Kung Fu Snare Drum

A standard 14" x 5.5" snare with 10 lugs per side and the standard Mapex 2.3mm Superhoops, this snare is basically just a steel Black Panther with fancy graphics. It is one of only a thousand with etched graphics of some Chinese warriors and the batter head also has some fancy Chinese writing on it. The batter head itself is a Coated Ambassador and the snare side is a Hazy Ambassador with snappy snare wires. The snare strainer has a sequential throw-off which is rreally cool, instead of just having an on or off lever, this has a lever spanning about 90 degrees and the further you pull it, the tighter it gets the snares. The deal also comes with a case which is somewhere in between a soft and a hard case, which is a sweet deal.

My personal preference is towards the sound of a Maple drum and this is my first steel snare, but I'll keep this review as unbiased as possible. It has a characteristic steel sound. Lots of the steel ringyness because of the density of the shell. It has massive volume and attack characteristic of steel shells and is also quite sensitive. Can definitely cut through the mix. I think it sounds good if you're doing a lot of snare work with your lines or play with lots of cymbals, but when the snare is isolated it sounds quite plain. It is also quite hard to get it to a good tuning, maybe that occurs with all steel shells but what I've noticed is that I can't stand the sound of it when the reso head is tuned lower than the batter. The effect of tuning the reso lower than the batter is a more choked sound, getting rid of enough overtones so the ring is now acceptable. It also gives it more warmth which makes it sound more like a wood drum. Because steel snares are already bright as hell, putting an Emperor on it made it really aggressive. Would only recommend that for metal applications. I would like to see how this performs with Genera heads though because I think they would work well. The snares are also really buzzy and prone to sympathetic buzz, putting on some puresound blasters I noticed a decrease in buzz and more brightness and attack which isn't partiularly preferred in a drum already this aggressive but eliminating the buzz is a fair trade-off. It has a decent sound like this but there isn't much potential there for the price I paid.

EDIT 8/10/2008:
This is an add-on to my other review, I have just moved house and playing this with the altered acoustics of the room, now I think it is awesome sound. Just as sweet as it sounded at the music shop, now I know why my ears started failing me when I got the baby home. I've tried it now with about 4 different Remo heads, the Ambassador is just the bet, but the CS does me well too. Emperor I find is too bright still, and the puresound blasters are working as good as ever. Every steel snare should be equippe with them because they just kill.

I haven't noticed big deviations in the tuning of the drum, and it seems well constructed so no worries here. It just now has to stand the test of time.

EDIT 8/10/2008:
I've notied the sequential strainer is starting to get a bit wobbly, probably me being picky though.

This was played with a Tama Superstar Birch/Basswood kit and Zildjian A and K Custom cymbals. I haven't been playing long but I consider myself a decent drum tuner. I wished I could have taken this home and had a bash on it before buying because I would have changed my mind. The build and features are nice, but the sound I think is lacking. I played many snares at the local music shop but chose this because it sounded decent in the shop and for the price it seemed like the best buy.

EDIT 8/10/2008:
Just to even the average ratings out I'll change a few figures here and there.