Tell me I made the right choice.

[Drum4Him]

Hi, guys. I just bought an older Pearl Export fusion kit in wine red for 250. They are in great shape and have only one noticable ding on the bass drum. These have the high-tension lugs, so I believe they are late 80's early 90's. I also bought a Pearl maple 13x3piccolo snare for 75.

Here is the question though, I could have gotten a new Visons for 480 or a new standard size Superstar for 393. Did I make a really bad choice, or are the Exports fairly comparable.

Thanks for the help.

[GRUNTERSDAD]

I think you did well, and I had no idea that the new Visions were so inexpensive.

[TitanSound]

The older Export kits are a lot better than the newer ones. I have had a '96 Export for 12 years now and its still going strong. I also use the same snare you got as an aux snare, crisp and tight, so it looks like you got a great deal!

[jonescrusher]

250 what? USDs? Pounds?

[Drum4Him]

Thanks for the replies. The price was $250.00 USD. I'm sorry about that, I don't always think of an international forum.

It has Pinstripes on the rack toms, and a Wether King on the floor tom, all pretty new.

This same guy sold me a Sabian AA 20" Rock Ride, and an AA 16" Rock Crash for $150.00 USD.

[DrunkenGarbageCan]

I have been asking myself the same question on the past few pieces I bought recently.

The decent heads are probably worth $40 alone. No tax, (or shipping?)

I think you did good. The other two kits you mention were close to 50- 100 percent more than the amount of your investment.

You could probably sell them (whole or pieces) on ebay and get your $$ back if it really starts to bother you.

[Jeffrey99]

I'd also agree that you done good. While the Visions my only have been another $250, that is double what you spend on the Exports. Plus once you add in buying new heads and what not.

[baz]

...It sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Do you like the drums? Do they make you want to play? do you smile when you hit them? Is your girlfriend jealous because you don't look at her the way that you look at them?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, you did okay.

good luck and good drumming.

Barry

[Drum4Him]

You guys have no idea how glad I am to here that. I was concerned that the difference in quality between the Visions/Superstars and the Exports would tell me I made a bad decision. I haven't had the chance to play them yet, only bang on them a bit before picking them up. I think the sound good, although they are tuned a little too open for my taste.

They are so much prettier than my old kit too.

[razorx]

OMG. ware do you shop. I just bought a 5 piece superstar for 933!

[Drum4Him]

That Superstar kit was at Guitar Center in Durham, NC. It was on clearance: $368.00 + tax. About 393 total.

[Mystic]

You guys have no idea how glad I am to here that. I was concerned that the difference in quality between the Visions/Superstars and the Exports would tell me I made a bad decision. I haven't had the chance to play them yet, only bang on them a bit before picking them up. I think the sound good, although they are tuned a little too open for my taste.

They are so much prettier than my old kit too.

I love the sound out of my export, and the export is cheap enough for people like me that don't make jack at work to be able to do easy and cheap add ons every now and then, like more toms and so on.

[Class A Drummer]

I personally think it would have been a better buy to go for the Vision, but thats just me.

When it comes to drums and cymbals now that my knowledge about equipment has increased, i realize it always worth it more in the end for myself to buy the higher quality better sounding peice of equipment. That way i will probably never have to replace it unless it breaks, and i will also get the best possible sound i can get.

[Drum4Him]

I was going to get the visions, but when read a lot of negative posts on here about the ISS mount bending the rim, and then noticed that they weren't that much more expensive than the new Exports, I wasn't sure it was worth it. I was told the older exports are better than the new ones, if that's true, I reasoned that these should be at least as good as the Visions. I hope my logic holds true.

[Mediocrefunkybeat]

The old Exports are pretty much bullet proof. They're not spectacular, but they are solid and will sound good with some care. Definitely durable and always great as a reliable and sturdy kit. $250 is a good price and I prefer the older hardware, the ISS mounts can take the drums out of tune and are a major weakness of Pearl's current product line. A good deal. Sure the Visions have more bells and whistles, but they're not much superior and in my opinion the older intrusive mounts are better.

The older Exports are better in my view. They just seem better made and the mounts are certainly an improvement over the newer Exports. I'd be happy to play an older Export kit at gigs and suchlike but luckily I'm in the position of having a very high-quality set that also just happened to be incredibly inexpensive.

[gmrakich]

I think you are safe....

[razorx]

what kind of superstar was it? is it a wrap or a lackqor?

[burnthehero]

As long as they looked good and still had good bearing edges on them, I think you did the right thing.

[Drum4Him]

Thanks for all of the replies. The Superstar set was a Vintage Red wrap in standard sizes.

As for the Pearl's, the bearing edges appear to be fine, and there was only a small deep scatch on the bass drum, probably where a rack tom fell on it or something.

[Bossa Nova]

That Superstar kit was at Guitar Center in Durham, NC. It was on clearance: $368.00 + tax. About 393 total.

You live in Durham? I think you should have spent the money on a ticket to the Duke-UNC game in February.

[pcmckay]

I think you did very well. Like "Titan Sound"said the older Exports are much better then todays model. I know a couple of guys that have been playing the same export kits for the past twenty years! All you need for the exports are some decent heads and they have a really good sound.