Used Yamaha Tour Custom Maple Snare Drum 14x5.5 Licorice Satin

The shipping was quick and this online purchase was a good experience.

I'm quite pleased with this snare drum. I also have frequent access to the deeper 6.5 Tour Custom at the Church I play for and I really like the 6.5", but getting this used (back line use only, essentially a new snare) 5.5" TC, I think I prefer it slightly over the 6.5", although for me, that just depends on the song/application. After owning a couple low/mid-level birch, steel, and aluminum drums....all good snares that I will keep, I find myself preferring the TC maple sound most frequently. I made the mistake of playing it out of the box BEFORE tuning it and I was initially concerned. But when I got both heads tuned up, particularly the bottom/reso head, I couldn't stop smiling! Very nice, classic maple crack, warm, and articulate. I prefer the bottom/Reso a little tighter than the top. I just used the Drum Dial tension settings as a starting point. One hi-light about these inverted hoops / rims...the cross stick sounds fine (good/as expected), but I really dig the sound the TC maple snares make when just cracking directly on the rim, especially when mic'd. The black satin is beautiful, particularly if you lean toward that clean, straight-forward aesthetic. At this point, I consider myself a fan of Yamaha drums.
Qualifiers: Intermediate player, enjoys Funk, Rock/Pop, Worship/Gospel (gig), and beginning to tiptoe into Jazz. In my opinion, the stock heads are good, better than expected in fact, but it's still worth changing them at some point.