Buying a custom DW set

Ha! DW owns Gretsch. Know your stuff before you go telling people what to do with their money!


I do know my stuff. DW owns rights to distribute Gretsch. Hell, even if they DID own Gretsch outright, they're still different drums, with different construction.

There may be some nice DW drums out there. I've just never experienced them for myself, and I have played many of them. Donati and Lang seem to get good results out of their drums, that's for sure.
 
DW tom mounting requires way too much time to adjust properly. If I remember correctly, the PDP system worked a bit better. Yamaha system can be adjusted very simply and easily. You just have to compare them and work with them to see the difference. It's night and day.

Are you talking about the STM mount how it attaches to the drum itself? If so, there's no adjustment. It hangs on the lugs with rubber gaskets. If you're talking about the ball joint, then that doesn't make sense because everyone besides Pearl uses that mount, including Gretsch.
 
Thanks for the comments guys. I am glad that this is still a talker long after the thread was started. I'll try to post updates from time to time, but at this point, I'm just socking away cash. I basically started at a thousand bucks when I started the thread; I'm at around $5k now. Hitting around 1k/month that I can rightfully dedicate to this without changing anything else financially.

I'm leaning toward waiting until I have 10k in cash ready to go, and then booking a trip out to CA and hitting the Reagan Library along with a factory visit, and then building out the set. Most likely that gives me a little extra cash to work with, but puts me in a position that I don't have to say no to anything either.

Meanwhile I'm enjoying the conversation.
 
Thanks for the comments guys. I am glad that this is still a talker long after the thread was started. I'll try to post updates from time to time, but at this point, I'm just socking away cash. I basically started at a thousand bucks when I started the thread; I'm at around $5k now. Hitting around 1k/month that I can rightfully dedicate to this without changing anything else financially.

I'm leaning toward waiting until I have 10k in cash ready to go, and then booking a trip out to CA and hitting the Reagan Library along with a factory visit, and then building out the set. Most likely that gives me a little extra cash to work with, but puts me in a position that I don't have to say no to anything either.

Meanwhile I'm enjoying the conversation.

Gawd.... I love what your doing here. Rock on brother and more power to ya.
 
Hire a professional photographer and take staged pics and close ups, so the haters heads can pop off! LOL!
 
Wow awesome. Can I expect any retailer to offer that and they still make money? I'd like to support a small local drum shop if at all possible.

this is a great idea and almost any retailer would jump at the chance, but if it were me I would ask the retailer when they last ordered a DW and how long it took them to receive the set. And how much effort they are willing to put toward providing you with updates and not leave you in the cold.
 
this is a great idea and almost any retailer would jump at the chance, but if it were me I would ask the retailer when they last ordered a DW and how long it took them to receive the set. And how much effort they are willing to put toward providing you with updates and not leave you in the cold.

I second going through a smaller local shop and Grunt's advice. Smaller shops don't have big buying power like GC, so don't be surprised if the % off of list isn't as high though.

There's never a shortage of great looking DW kits for sale online (Memphis, Forks...etc) Have you looked at existing inventory for anything that catches your eye?
 
There's never a shortage of great looking DW kits for sale online (Memphis, Forks...etc) Have you looked at existing inventory for anything that catches your eye?

True this! I knew what sizes and finish I wanted. They didn't have quite so many lines and shell options when I got my Collectors kit, but I don't have a single regret. I found mine in 2014 as a new, old stock 2008 kit sitting in a Guitar Center halfway across the country. Found it on their website and picked it up for less than half what a new one would cost (10, 12, 14, 16, 22 for $2200ish shipped).

Even lightly used can be a great deal. I picked up my Frequent Flyer in absolutely mint condition from (again) Guitar Center used online for $750.

I'd still do the factory tour thing first since you've got the funds to do so, but afterward, at least check out inventory before ordering new.

Oh, and DW service is FANTASTIC! My 16" Broken Glass floor tom was cracked in shipping from GC to me. At first it appeared to just be ply separating as I noticed it when installing new heads. I shipped it to DW for review and they confirmed it to be a crack all the way through the shell and since it corresponded with a FT leg mount, it seems it was truly shipping damage. DW still built me a brand new drum, no charge and no questions asked. They included a T-shirt and pack of drum keys too. Awesome folks!
 
Il be the devils advocate here then. Try a DW kit and other kits before you actually buy. Because I did the same, I wanted that sweet DW because its the most expensive blah blah blah. Oh my heart sank when it turned up. Its like when they say dont meet your heroes. Just try one, and compare it to other offerings first. The satisfaction of owning the most expensive kit out there fast fades away and youl realize the bucket list will have a new entry reading "buy my REAL dream kit" afterwards.
 
. The satisfaction of owning the most expensive kit out there fast fades away and youl realize the bucket list will have a new entry reading "buy my REAL dream kit" afterwards.

So, shoot for your dream kit and be prepared to eventually re-aim your sights and shoot again. No shame in that!

I've known many people who designed and built their dream home, and within five years they were at it again because once they lived in it, they realized it wasn't really what they wanted.

Buy that ultimate kit and do it in the way that you like best. Don't do extra research unless you like doing that. But.

Keep in that back of your mind that this may turn out to be the kit that helps guide you to your true dream kit, and that's perfectly fine too. It's not like you only have one shot at this, so there's no pressure.
 
Il be the devils advocate here then. Try a DW kit and other kits before you actually buy. Because I did the same, I wanted that sweet DW because its the most expensive blah blah blah. Oh my heart sank when it turned up. Its like when they say dont meet your heroes. Just try one, and compare it to other offerings first. The satisfaction of owning the most expensive kit out there fast fades away and youl realize the bucket list will have a new entry reading "buy my REAL dream kit" afterwards.

I completely appreciate this sentiment. I do intend to do this. Hopefully I can find the venue to really try out a few kits, as it is getting harder to do in today's day, but I may just make a trip to a city with a good drum selection to do just that. It sounds like Memphis may be the best place to do that.
 
I would like to type this out at least once:

I think a lot of the DW hate and "overpriced," "sound like garbage," etc comments come from 2 camps:

1. People who can't afford them and therefore feel the need to speak down about them in some way to convince themselves they don't want them.

2. People who don't know how to tune.

I've found Pearls and Yamaha's to be much easier to tune than DW's. The difference is that once you learn the nuances of tuning DW's, you'll be able to get sounds out of them that you'd never get out of a Pearl or a Yamaha. I also think head selection has a lot to do with it. I think a lot of people's experience with a DW kit is to sit behind one on display in a music store with factory heads on it and then there's this huge let down when it doesn't sound amazing.

I speak from experience here because I'm actually on my second go-round with DW. I bought my first Collectors kit back in 2003 and it was a 2001 model in Black Velvet. I bought DW 100% for the name. I'd never heard or played DW's before. I took them home along with a brand new set of Evans heads, did my best to tune them, and was 100% disappointed. I spent a lot of time with Pearl drums after that and they were nice drums that sounded good, but lacked the warmth and depth that I found myself beginning to crave. In 2014 I got my second DW kit and played it side-by-side against my Pearl Masters kit. There was no comparison. It those 11 years, though, I'd learned a great deal about tuning, head selection, hoops, and shell construction. I'd begun to understand what features were likely to give me the sound I wanted. Turns out that sound is the magic DW has created in their Collectors Maple drums with thin shells, re-rings, flanged hoops and somehow the hardware plays a role as well. A lot of video's you'll see of people comparing DW to another brand has the other brand in-tune and the DW with dissonant overtones still. If you'd take the time and learn how to get that DW in tune, it would be a much better comparison and DW would probably come out on top.
 
I haven't had a ton of experience with playing a slew of different kits, mainly, because I've been playing at church mostly, so one or two kits, or my own. It's only been in the last year or so, that I've been on a quest to find the perfect drums I can afford and like the tone of. Up to recently, my environment has been very controlled. That said, after getting my Premiers to sound killer back in the 90s, I played a shared DW kit for a gig back in the late 90s and was blown off my throne! I did everything I could to get the Premier to sound close and could never get that sound.

Fast forward a few years and I picked up a used PDP kit for cheap and had the bearing edges reworked and I had at least achieved some of the DW sound. The super thin shells made a big difference for sure. They can get close to the Performance series, but the performance series is still deeper, richer and warmer. In some respects I like them more, but the Collectors have so many variations, it's tough to make a blanket statement.

A few years later, my church bought a Gretsch set and I had a hell of a time getting the heads to tune. I think I ended up giving it three full tries, before I could get them to sound close to something I liked. I was fighting bizarre overtones and those five lug hoops on the smaller toms really threw me for a while.

Sometimes, you just have to bring them home and fuss with them to know for sure if they are your sound. There are definitely drums that sound like crap, no matter what you do, but they tend to be under $600 new. Most mid level stuff can sound pretty awesome with some time and tuning, so yes, blanket statements about this brand or the other sounding like crap don't serve anyone well.
 
I would like to type this out at least once:

I think a lot of the DW hate and "overpriced," "sound like garbage," etc comments come from 2 camps:

1. People who can't afford them and therefore feel the need to speak down about them in some way to convince themselves they don't want them.

2. People who don't know how to tune.

I've found Pearls and Yamaha's to be much easier to tune than DW's. The difference is that once you learn the nuances of tuning DW's, you'll be able to get sounds out of them that you'd never get out of a Pearl or a Yamaha. I also think head selection has a lot to do with it. I think a lot of people's experience with a DW kit is to sit behind one on display in a music store with factory heads on it and then there's this huge let down when it doesn't sound amazing.

I speak from experience here because I'm actually on my second go-round with DW. I bought my first Collectors kit back in 2003 and it was a 2001 model in Black Velvet. I bought DW 100% for the name. I'd never heard or played DW's before. I took them home along with a brand new set of Evans heads, did my best to tune them, and was 100% disappointed. I spent a lot of time with Pearl drums after that and they were nice drums that sounded good, but lacked the warmth and depth that I found myself beginning to crave. In 2014 I got my second DW kit and played it side-by-side against my Pearl Masters kit. There was no comparison. It those 11 years, though, I'd learned a great deal about tuning, head selection, hoops, and shell construction. I'd begun to understand what features were likely to give me the sound I wanted. Turns out that sound is the magic DW has created in their Collectors Maple drums with thin shells, re-rings, flanged hoops and somehow the hardware plays a role as well. A lot of video's you'll see of people comparing DW to another brand has the other brand in-tune and the DW with dissonant overtones still. If you'd take the time and learn how to get that DW in tune, it would be a much better comparison and DW would probably come out on top.

This is a great post.

The question I would have is how does this reconcile with the concept I've heard that DW tunes great at the factory, ships them, and they stay in tune, and they have a reputation to stay in tune great? Is that not as true as some say?
 
This is a great post.

The question I would have is how does this reconcile with the concept I've heard that DW tunes great at the factory, ships them, and they stay in tune, and they have a reputation to stay in tune great? Is that not as true as some say?
I'm a DW Drum guy (through and through, check out my Album), and I can tell you, all 3 drums needed tuning when I received them.

Sure, I've seen the YouTube video on DW, where they claim all drums that leave the factory are ready to play, and I won't argue that point, providing you don't mind playing a drum that sounds like a pre-schooler tuned it, not to discredit DW in any way, just saying.
 
I'm a DW Drum guy (through and through, check out my Album), and I can tell you, all 3 drums needed tuning when I received them.

Sure, I've seen the YouTube video on DW, where they claim all drums that leave the factory are ready to play, and I won't argue that point, providing you don't mind playing a drum that sounds like a pre-schooler tuned it, not to discredit DW in any way, just saying.

Stroker, I would be interested in hearing your album but can't seem to find it in your profile.

Cheers
 
Stroker, I would be interested in hearing your album but can't seem to find it in your profile.

Cheers
Greetings, GE! Album contains only pictures so far, but hoping to get up and running on sound and videos soon.
 
I'm a DW Drum guy (through and through, check out my Album), and I can tell you, all 3 drums needed tuning when I received them.

Sure, I've seen the YouTube video on DW, where they claim all drums that leave the factory are ready to play, and I won't argue that point, providing you don't mind playing a drum that sounds like a pre-schooler tuned it, not to discredit DW in any way, just saying.

It's those crappy stock heads. It's the one thing I've never understood about DW. Why not just ship with real Remo Ambassadors, instead of those things they do now. They are too thick and too stiff to not sound like a Sponge Bob drum set. Everyone else seems to ship their mid to high end stuff with branded, but real heads. It's the first thing I'd rip off of them, except maybe the kick drum reso, but I wouldn't really care if that said DW or not.
 
It's those crappy stock heads. It's the one thing I've never understood about DW. Why not just ship with real Remo Ambassadors, instead of those things they do now. They are too thick and too stiff to not sound like a Sponge Bob drum set. Everyone else seems to ship their mid to high end stuff with branded, but real heads. It's the first thing I'd rip off of them, except maybe the kick drum reso, but I wouldn't really care if that said DW or not.
Re: Remo Ambassador heads, would I notice a significant difference in sound compared the stock heads I'm currently using?

I've watched a number of YouTube videos related to snare, tom, and bass drum heads, and by the time I've finished watching, they all seem to sound the same, so I keep playing the stock issue.

I'll take a look at the Ambassadors. Appreciate the mention, Az!
 
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