Tambourines

I've been using this tambourine for about 4 years. It was a gift to me, so I didn't select it myself. I have to say, this is not a good tambourine. First of all, the head on it gives a very hollow, annoyingly tuned ring which is hard to completely deaden if you just want the usual tambourine sound. Furthermore, you can't change the tuning on the head, so you're stuck with that particular sound. That being the case, I removed the head, hoping the tambourine would then be more useful. While that did slightly improve its use, what was left was still not great. This tambourine is extremely bright, and it's very difficult to get a sustained sound that you would usually want for recording. Since it is so overly bright, I've found it very difficult to get it to fit into any mixes without extreme EQ - and even then what you're left with sounds very muted and lame. It's as if it is all just bright attack, and nothing else. I've got some other tambourines, and it's much easier to get a desirable sound out of them, such as quarter note length hit on top of a snare drum. With this one, it is just too trebly and short lived to get that effect. Perhaps someone has found a way to use this well, but I certainly haven't. I'm not sure what the price was as it was a gift, but I wouldn't pay more than $5 for it. I am surprised really, because Remo makes high quality drum heads. This one is just a dud. I would not get it again - there are a lot of cheap, yet far superior tambourines out there to outfit your studio with. Don't bother with this one.