Pearl FireCracker 5"x10" Steel

I played on the Pearl Firecracker snare drum for a while before I sold it; probably about 2 years. Like all products there are great aspects, and downsides. I’m going to share all of these down to the detail.
I’ll start out with the good things about this drum. When I bought this, the first thing I noticed was its looks. Not to sound like a 5 year old, but I was attracted to its “shinyness”. Now it may seem immature, but you have to take into consideration that drumming is an art, and your gear has to look good! Another thing I liked about this snare is its versatility. As a side snare, it can contrast against the sounds of your main snare very well. Whether you want a loud crack or more of a soft “tick”, this snare can provide. The next thing I really liked about this drum was the dimensions of it all. Yeah, 10 inches is pretty small when it comes to a snare drum, but at least it didn’t fall under the ratio of a 14 inch drum; being that it’s still 5 inches deep. This gives you the projection and the volume that you would want out of a side snare.
Now on to the downsides of this drum. Like I said earlier, this is a very versatile drum, but only to an extent. Something I noticed about this snare drum was that no matter what tuning that you had it set on, it always had sort of a metallic “tingy” sound to it, being that it’s made out of metal. Another little downside is the fact that when I got it, right out of the box the tension rods were very stiff and gritty. It was almost like someone poured some salt or sand down into there. But after taking out each on of the rods and lubing it up, things went smoothly. The last thing is the stock heads. Like all drums you buy, you should replace the stock heads that they come with. This drum is no acceptation. The ProTone drum heads just don’t provide. I highly suggest a different head combination of your choice.