Some SS versions are brushed and others polished... brushed is real easy to tell.

Polished SS versus chrome, the chrome should be much "deeper" in the reflection, more morrir like (also it may appear slight more cooler in color temperature (more blue) that SS.

Also, if you might want to check this site out: http://www.finishing.com/home/about.html

nice thanks alot man MUCH appreciated!

many of the chromed wires are made of fairly malleable steel as a base material. that's why it is so easy to bend or deform them. stainless steel, by virtue of having nickel and chrome in the alloy has a higher temper ,naturally, so responds to stresses with more resistance. theoretically, stainless is non-magnetic because when it was being formulated during it's first 60 or so years of production , there were guidelines on the concentration of nickel and chrome( between 18%and8% and 20%and10% or even higher). for the past 20 or so years, though, anything that doesn't immediately rust ,if it gets a drop of water on it , goes by the name of "stainless steel". such formulations are usually magnetic and can have high malleability and be really crappy.

i usually pick up the wires and letting them dangle by the ends , give them a little tap to determine their natural frequency. cheap wires are dead and low and are for sure chrome on recycled tomato juice cans, or lousy stainless. the higher the timbre , the more likely you are getting into stainless(?), or some other good quality wire.. by far the best are carbon steel, though.

many of the wires from the past ( in U.S.A.until the 50's sometime, and then they went through 40 years of using garbage for wires====in Europe, into the 70's) were high carbon steel(spring and knife steel). unfortunately the old ones , often are only 12-16 strand but they are the best and now drum companies in their ever vigilant attempts to improve things have rediscovered carbon steel wires. they are, now , a cause celebre, from Fat Cat,---- Tama and Pearl are blowing a load over them, Drum gear---what next? someone will discover calfskin heads?

Doh!!! I was thinking shell material and not the actual snares.

(chromed aluminum or brass vs SS vs Chrome-O-wood popped into my noodle on this one).

Sorry about all that----i should have read a little deeper. The stuff about stainless, holds true though, irregardless. Magnetism is no longer a reliable test for stainless. Huge amounts of stainless sheet steel are shipped in from the orient ,now ------almost all of it from recycled sources and riddled with impurities, with low non-magnetic percentage.