Meinl THH1B-BK Hi-Hat Tambourine

The sound of the jingles is a little lower and less cutting than stainless steel is, but they have a very nice mellow tone (I thought they had a better sound than many hand-played tambourines actually). I've found they work best in studio applications and smaller gigs due to this.

The construction of this tambourine is surprisingly heavy, I like that it's so solid-feeling and rugged, but it pulls down a lot on the hi hat rod when it's attached and I could do without having to adjust the position of my clutch every time I want to use it. That said it's quite easy to place and remove this ching ring, and it doesn't slip while you're playing either, unlike a few other quick release-style hi hat tambourines.

It plays well when you hit the frame with a stick, and it's even okay to use as an impromptu hand tambourine, but you have to stamp hard on the hi hat pedal to make it 'ching'. That might just be a consequence of my stand tensioning, but it isn't great for the feel if you're trying to play quieter music and you're stamping out loud quarter notes to get any sound out of the tambourine.

Apart from that, it was a great addition to my kit and added in some accents to my playing, and for an okay price. Maybe consider getting one with brighter metal alloy / greater number of jingles if you're looking to play loud gigs