Bo Eder
Platinum Member
Just throwin' this out there, but does anyone have these drums? I've never ventured around Pearl drums, and have never even seen or played their top-flight drums (hard to believe, I know) but after meeting up with Kevin Packard at the Pearl room at NAMM, and having the man himself show me around the different drum kits and getting to play them a bit, the concept of using different woods and bearing edge cuts depending on the size of the drum was a bit of a new revelation for me.
I was aware of the Tama birch/bubinga stuff, and other combinations of woods, but to me, all the drums in the kit were made this way, and usually that 'second' ply of different woods was always in between the main plies of birch or maple, depending on who made the drum.
But to see a solid maple 12" tom, and as the drums got bigger, they'd add African mahogony, and gave it a different bearing edge - snares got some plies of birch - it was very cool to hear the kit just get more thunderous as you went down the line. Their Session Studio Classics did this as well, but those shells were the same throughout the kit, the effect of the Reference Pure drums was multiplied exponentially in contrast.
I hate to say it, but I was extremely impressed, as my years observing Pearl was seen through "Export-colored-glasses". If anyone actually using these drums can chime in if what I say is true or not, it'd be nice to hear from someone outside of Pearl saying it.
I was aware of the Tama birch/bubinga stuff, and other combinations of woods, but to me, all the drums in the kit were made this way, and usually that 'second' ply of different woods was always in between the main plies of birch or maple, depending on who made the drum.
But to see a solid maple 12" tom, and as the drums got bigger, they'd add African mahogony, and gave it a different bearing edge - snares got some plies of birch - it was very cool to hear the kit just get more thunderous as you went down the line. Their Session Studio Classics did this as well, but those shells were the same throughout the kit, the effect of the Reference Pure drums was multiplied exponentially in contrast.
I hate to say it, but I was extremely impressed, as my years observing Pearl was seen through "Export-colored-glasses". If anyone actually using these drums can chime in if what I say is true or not, it'd be nice to hear from someone outside of Pearl saying it.