Excellent thread topic!

I am not a huge snare guy, but if I were adding to my collection and had unlimited funds, I would look for:

Any Brady snare

Any Craviotto Snare

Some marquee name stave or solid shell snares

Stanton Moore Signature

Ludwig Black Beauty (any era)

Ludwig Super Sensitive (any era, particularly hammered brass)

Ludwig Supraphonic (any era)

As far as the snares I own, I love all of them! I have two B/O Badge Acrolites that are great, and I have a Ludwig Black/White badge 5.5" x 14" Copper that is one of my favorites too. I also really dig my Pearl 5" x 14" Sensitone (a more affordable version of a Supra, in my opinion).

I'm going to mix it up a bit do the best of brass snare top 5 followed by the best of steel Top 5 and finally the best of wood Top 5. (#1 being the champion)

Best of the Brass

#5. Ludwig Pioneer 5 x 14

#4. Slingerland Radio King

#3. Sonor Tear Drop

#2. Rogers Dynasonic

#1. Ludwig Super 400

Best of steel

#5. Rogers Super 10

#4. Slingerland Sound King 1970's

#3. Ludwig Supra-phonic 5 x 14

#2. Sonor D500 Ferro Manganese

#1. Ludwig 6.5 x 14 1960's

Best of wood

#5. Leedy Broadway 7 x 14

#4. Ludwig Jazz Festival (Barrett Deems) Mahogany

#3. Slingerland Radio King 7 x 14

#2. WFL Buddy Rich Model

#1. Rogers wood Dynasonic

I`m not even in the scheme of things here as i`ve never owned ten snares in my entire life and as a matter of fact i`ve only had "four",three of which i still have.So my list of my top three are as follows:

1-1987 Sonor HLD 590 14x8

2-1966 Rogers 7-line dyna cob

3-1980 Ludwig b/o badge Black Beauty

And the one that got away was a trade in for the Rogers and it was a 1964 Bollero wood snare in "Ice-Blue" pearl wrap.

Sorry for not being able to list more but that`s all i`ve ever had...

Wayne

'70's Ludwig Acrolite

Late '50's WFL Barrett Deems or early '60's Ludwig Jazz Festival

'60's Slingerland Radio King

'60's Slingerland Hollywood Ace

'60's Slingerland Gene Krupa Sound King