Drum set for $800??

[MKS]

You can't go wrong with Mapex. I currently have a Saturn kit and I owned a set of Mapex VX drums. Great sounding drums and rugged hardware. Highly recommended.

Go to massmusic.net. They'll beat any deal and free shipping.

 

[rushzil2112]

It is funny seeing all remo pinstripes then one Aquarian studio x on the kit. I think you can make almost any kit sound good if you slap on some aquarian heads. I have a ludwig vistalite kit I have been playing for 13 years(the ones from the 70s, not the new ones) and I absolutely love them, and they are amazing for metal because they project and I love the bass drum sound I get with the super kick 2 from aquarian using a wood beater. I have a huge set of blue vistalites; some guy sold me 6", 8", 10", 12", 13", 14", 15", and 16" concert toms, 18" floor tom, and two 22" bass drums for $700 a long time ago, and I already had a blue vistalite kit with one 22" kick, 13" tom, 16" floor tom, and matching 14" snare(that I got for 300), so for $1000 all together I got all those 70s vistalites, so can't beat that. All I use now(well, I haven't played in almost 2 years because I hate apartments and can't afford a practice room) is my dw snare drum(which is mirror chrome plated with gold plated hardware(it was once owned and is signed by Johnny Barbata who played for jefferson airplane and starship, crosby, stills, nash, and young, and also a few other artists)), a 13" tom, my 18" floor tom, and 1 kick(all fitted with aquarian heads). I need to find a band or find some people to start up a band because I am in dire need to play again. If anybody in the Dallas, Texas area is looking for a drummer, hit me up, I am open to whatever ya got.

 

[ahjteam]

I have really good experiences on PDP sets, you should check them out. They are DW's cheaper brand, just like LTD is to ESP.

 

[Erkan]

I don't recommend Pearl Export, they don't sound good. Taye drums sound pretty good for the money. But most important is learning to tune the drum heads properly. A lot of drums are built to be tuned fairly high, watch out for the "PVC pipe" sounding toms.

To be honest, the majority of the drum sound is in the drummer's hand, then it's in the tuning, and then it comes down to what wood/hardware/screw/atoms/particles/quarks/strings your drums are made of (sorry for the little sarcasm ).

I recorded my whole solo project with a Pearl Export (not the old disgusting looking ones with the tune lugs going all across the drum), and I've gotten a lot of credit for my drum sound on that project. It took me a couple days to lay down drums for 5 songs, but I hadn't practised on the songs and I redid the takes like 8 times per part

So in response to the topic, wether it's Pearl Export or something else in the same price range, I don't think it will matter that much. Hell, I don't even believe there's a huge difference among brands these days... feels like they're all copying eachother and themselves, and in the end all parts come from China.

I do believe that a good drummer can make a shitty kit sound fucking awesome though. Not saying I can but... I'm working on it, haha.

Edit: Also have to add that I remember a kid telling me that his parents were going to buy him Tama Starclassic drums, he was 13 or 14 when he said that. I was like "Oh you are so lucky", etc. and then he goes "Yeah those drums sound so good, you don't even have to be able to tune to make them sound good!", and I fucking, FUCKING hope you guys are not thinking the same because let me tell ya from experience that it's the worst fucking statement ever I've played on a Premier Artist Maple series kit for 2 months while filling in the drummer spot for a swedish band named Steel Attack (what a name btw... geez), and it sounded like any 600$ kit I've played/heard. Why? It wasn't tuned well, so of course it sounds fuck.

Another interesting thing is that my friend bought a PRS guitar recently, cost him 3400$ or so (rougly converting from swedish currency), and we tried it out through Revalver mkIII and the only difference we could hear between his guitar and my other friend's Yamaha (which costs about 300$ max), was that the PRS had a little more high-end and crisp, but that's it. Seriously, we analyzed it long and hard (he is a guitarist obviously, and you know how defensive they are about their guitars, ESPECIALLY new guitars, but he still said the difference was very small). We could probably get the Yamaha to sound like the PRS by turning a couple knobs But I'm sure the PRS would kick ass in every other music style than metal, since metal is like a process that kills a lot of the natural sound and only brings out a tiny fraction of it, and adds alot of artificial stuff instead (distortion anyone?).

 

[Machinated]

I haven't found Exports to be too bad, but I had a good experience with an M Series. Got really good sounds from it considering the price.

 

[Joematthews]

The best kit I've ever heard was a gretsch renowned maple. It has the most preposterous sounding bass drum ever, unbelievable loud and massive bass. I've recorded a few exports and they've all been alright, just nothing at all special. A mate I know is getting a £600 pdp in a day or 2, so I can report back with how that sounds soon if ya like.

Joe

 

[Sloan]

I bought a Gretsch Catalina Birch kit back in '05 and it sounded great. Every drummer that ever used it complimented it. Only cost about $500.

 

[PhilR]

The last kit I recorded was a battered Stagg set liberally coated in gaffa tape. Probably the biggest piece of shit ever, but in the end it was buried in d-beat hardcore so it didn't matter at all. I'm kinda surprised at how well it came out..

I future I think I may post a notice to this effect on our website:

OUR DRUMKIT COST OVER £700 FOR HEADS AND SHELLS
DID YOUR DRUMKIT COST OVER £700 FOR HEADS AND SHELLS?
NO?
THEN DON'T BOTHER BRINGING IT.

Thats not even getting started on folks with their lovely brass cymbals.....

 

[cyrus ghahremani]

I was considering buying a kit and was recommended Pacific also. Made by DW.

Here is a nice 7 Piece for $749.97 or 3 payments of $249.99.

http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-DRU-PDX72207-LIST

i have this kit in white. wonderful stuff. it was the first production model (i.e. the one actually photographed in the picture below) and it's all-birch, which sounds a lot better than i expected and fine for my studio purposes, especially since i am resampling most hits on the heavier stuff. my understanding is that recent output for this line have had poplar shells, but i may be wrong.

anyway, i got it for $600 through my friend, a DW dealer. still amazed i got 7 good sounding, great looking shells (and stock heads and hardware) for that price. the tom mounts are very cool and the kick is like a cannon

 

[Damian B]

I'll throw in my vote for PDP kits. I've got PDP MX Maple 5 piece maple kit, it cost my $600 used with all new heads, all of the hardware, and new throne, and hard-shell cases. What really pissed me off is that I saw the exact same kit on craigslist months later for $300!!!! Check around on ebay and craigslist, it really isn't worth buying new as long as you thoroughly check out any used stuff you think about buying.

 

[cyrus ghahremani]

here's a brief recording of that kit, raw mic'ed as far as i remember

http://cyrusghahremani.com/mp3/drumsample.mp3

 

[vespiz]

PDPs are great. OK, so I sell them here also so maybe I'm biased, but our drummer has two sets of them already. His Tama set is just gathering dust and waiting to find the right buyer.. (wink-wink, nudge-nudge)

Just replace the snare with something half decent, get some good cymbals and yer :Smokin: