Thoughts about Sonor SQ2 and Thomann - beware!

Whether it is true or not, we'll never know--only Sonor truly knows where every piece of an SQ2 is coming from. That's all--just sharing what I've heard, which is basically that Designers were delivered from Cloud 9 and never had flaws, but SQ2's have not had the same reputation.

I see what you are saying.. The metal parts are most likely coming more and more from KHS,,... but those are actually top notch pieces.. as I don't think many have the same experience as them..

The actual build of the drum is what I am concerned about.. but you can see all the factory photos over on Sonormuseum... and check out what is going on. However, SOMTHING has changed, ever so slightly, in the regime in Germany and the politics there.. I bet.
 
Ok, I'll be the wet blanket.

If I was in the loop, I wouldn't have refunded your money.

Honestly, I think people who go for a custom build don't necessarily have a right to a Refund.
It's a tremendous investment in time and materials for a company to do custom builds.

Once a custom order is made, I think the money is spent.
In my book - no definite right to a refund, but surely a right to being 100% satisfied.

If it was me managing the situation, I would have built you another kit before talking
about a refund.
 
I was just sharing stuff that I had heard from some different dealers who really loved Sonor's Designers stuff, but have been skeptical about the SQ2 line. Some of them suggest connections to KHS, as in doubts about where things are really being made and assembled, etc.

Whether it is true or not, we'll never know--only Sonor truly knows where every piece of an SQ2 is coming from. That's all--just sharing what I've heard, which is basically that Designers were delivered from Cloud 9 and never had flaws, but SQ2's have not had the same reputation.

Im calling shenanigans....this is the first Ive heard of any issues with the SQ2 line....can you document any of the other issues, or is it just heresay....

F
 
Im calling shenanigans....this is the first Ive heard of any issues with the SQ2 line....can you document any of the other issues, or is it just heresay....

F

Hm... Do you want to see pictures of issues I'm talking about?
 
Hm... Do you want to see pictures of issues I'm talking about?

Avey.. Florian is talking about "in general" and on a more wide-spread basis. I don't think he is doubting YOUR specific case. We definitely know what happened with your situation.
 
Avey.. Florian is talking about "in general" and on a more wide-spread basis. I don't think he is doubting YOUR specific case. We definitely know what happened with your situation.

Ummm... Ok. English is not my first language, maybe I misunrestood something :) Anyway, if somebody is interested, I posted some pictures of flaws on a sonormuseum.com forum.
 
Ummm... Ok. English is not my first language, maybe I misunrestood something :) Anyway, if somebody is interested, I posted some pictures of flaws on a sonormuseum.com forum.


Avey,
Your case is well documented with pix and description, Im certainly not calling BS on your case. The fact that others have bad-mouthed the SQ2 line is nothing more than speculation. I would doubt that most people have seen an SQ2, including drum shops - as most shops wont carry that sort of big ticket inventory. To assume that the SQ2 line is less than the Designer line due to the affiliation of the Chinese manufacturing is a non-starter. SQ2s are German made, by German workers, pure and simple. I have yet to hear of any other problems with the SQ2 line....yours is the first and Sonor backed their product 100%. I think that speaks volumes for Sonor.
Glad to hear you got your issue resolved to your satisfaction, and I hope you consider Sonor for your next kit..


F
 
I know that you're upset, but this is the third time you posted this... or are there more?

Dennis
 
Florian: A well-respected dealer I know in Ohio, USA, who has been in the drum business for over 20 years told me about personally witnessing a customer's new SQ2 kit arriving at his shop and the kit had scratches over the lacquer finish on a few of the drums. Given his past experience selling Desingers and the like, he was utterly shocked--not something he had ever seen with a high-end, German-made Sonor kit. He had nothing but praise for the Designer kits he had sold in the past, and he was shocked to witness at least two instances (I think) of SQ2 kits arriving at his shop with flaws.

I've also talked to some folks at a jazz drum shop in NYC who mentioned to me that the vibe they've received from long-standing jazz Sonor players is that the SQ2's were greeted well but not at all with the same kind of immaculate praise that the Designers and Hilites and Phonics had back in the day.

So, one example is documented--and I trust the dealer in Ohio. He's looking out for his customers, I've bought from him, I've known him for years--he's total quality. The second example is more hearsay, but the folks at the jazz shop service big jazz players in the NYC region, so I trust, to a degree, the anecdote they shared with me. It's not documented, and they still think the SQ2 kits are very good, but they just mentioned** that the SQ2 kits haven't been wholly greeted by players and fans in the same way that old Phonics or Designers were, which is, I think, generally interesting given that the SQ2 line was supposed to replace the Designers. (I mean, if the Designers were Cloud 9, why mess with that success??)

**Regarding other stories, I just talked to an acquaintance today, who's a Berkelee graduate and jazz player, who owns two Sonor kits: an old Hilite kit and a newer SQ2 kit. He told me that he ordered the SQ2 kit to the exact specs of his old Hilite kit. The SQ2 kit arrived in perfect order, and he likes the sound of it and gigs with the kit, but he also said that the SQ2 kit still cannot touch his original Hilite, despite the specs being identical. He said the bite of the drums and tone of the Hilites are just better than his SQ2's. Again, subjective impression, but not the first time I've heard experienced Sonor players say this.

So, in the end, what I've heard is a mixture of actual flaws, like what Avery unfortunately experienced, and just subjective impressions of folks who know high-end Sonor kits well and have played them for a long set of years and love them.

It is not shenanigans; I'm not trying to bad mouth Sonor SQ2's at all--I think they are still beautiful drums, personally. I was just sharing what I had heard because it chimed with Avery's experience, that's all. And as a fellow drummer who loves to play drums and just admire the beauty of drums, I took an interest in the somewhat bizarre reaction some folks have had to the SQ2 kits because Sonor for years earned a reputation for amazing drum quality.
 
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From Skyking...I'm sorry I put my message on 3 different Sonor threads. I've since deleted them. My intention was to add to other warnings that Sonor is not paying attention to quality control, at least not in the Chinese Force models. I truly believe that you can not let your standards down in one line without affecting (infecting) other lines as well. The dealer tells me that Sonor will make it right and maybe this was just one incident of a really bad finish. I'd love to show the pictures but that might be inappropriately piling on to a factory mistake. But honestly, I think they put out a product that should have been rejected and that's my warning.
 
You know you bumped a four month old thread, right?

The thread I actually bumped was current as of last evening and I posted in two of his threads. Since it was posted on three different areas of this forum, it was probably deleted. So my evidence is gone since I didn't quote him. The OP that posted the thread that I'm referring to had a very limited post count. I might foul up once in a while, but not with the same information three times in one night. I'm old but still have a few brain cells firing, lol.

Check out the Sonor Tama thread below. You'll see I made a comment about a double thread that now does not exist.

Dennis
 
Hi guys,

The problems with the Avey Sonor drums made me worry.
I‘m from Brazil and I‘m buying in UK a new Sonor kit. I already contact the dealer and got the £££££ to this kit...
But I‘m a little bit afraid. I can‘t take a bad kit, because i‘ll spend a lot of money to buy this kit and take it to Brazil.
I already considered a DW collector‘s, but generally people have better opinion about the SQ2.
Any opinion???
Is there a best drum manufacturer?

Thank you guys, sorry for the bad english...
 
Hi guys,

The problems with the Avey Sonor drums made me worry.
I‘m from Brazil and I‘m buying in UK a new Sonor kit. I already contact the dealer and got the £££££ to this kit...
But I‘m a little bit afraid. I can‘t take a bad kit, because i‘ll spend a lot of money to buy this kit and take it to Brazil.
I already considered a DW collector‘s, but generally people have better opinion about the SQ2.
Any opinion???
Is there a best drum manufacturer?

Thank you guys, sorry for the bad english...

Well, it all depends on what kind of sound you want and what kind of hardware you like, etc. The SQ2 drums are lovely, but there are also plenty of other high-end builders out there. For example, Craviotto drum kits are pretty amazing (steambent, solid shells with solid brass tube lugs) and are equally (if not more) expensive than SQ2's.

Sonor's tune-safe, solid lugs and hardware are great, and in this vein a good competitor might be Canopus Drums from Japan. They make great, high-quality drum kits and snare and use solid brass lugs with double metal-leather sandwiched washers as their own tune-locking mechanism. Very nice.

If you have already considered the big players alongside the SQ2's (that is, Pearl Masterworks, DW Collectors, Yamaha PHX, etc.), I would recommend checking out Canopus and Craviotto (Steve Maxwell's Drum Shop has plenty of sound and video files of Craviotto kits and snares).

Hope that helps some!
 
Thanks Robert...
I like the sonor in part because I like the sound of Gavin Harrison... I have a Gavin Harrison snare drum from sonor and really like the sound. If you already heard the song "19 days", or "plason", you‘ll understand the kind of drum sound that I‘m looking for and appreciate.
I like the deep sound of DW drums too, but I feel that sonor have more atack.
I know cannopus and craviotto, but never heard the sound of these drums in a song.
I imagine that craviotto fits better in a jazz style than prog rock and jazzfunk that i like to play more.
 
I like the deep sound of DW drums too, but I feel that sonor have more atack.
.

They do have more attack.. or you can get their super thin shells and get a deeper sound than a dw IMO.. There are a few things that Sonor do that are key to the sound they make.

Ritmico.. go over to this forum I post and talk with these current SQ owners about their drums.. Ask questions.. They will answer you specifically.

http://www.sonormuseum.com/forum/
 
Not to dwell on this, but I've been to the Sonor factory in Germany and seen these drums being made. The people that make them are proud of what they do and many have been there a long time. I'll add that the man at the top is also very proud of what his company does.

I reviewed an SQ2 a while ago and subsequently bought one and it is the best ply kit I have ever played or owned. The only thing I could top it with is a solid kit by Craviotto, although that may only be when I've finished buying up all of his rare snare drums first.

Not arguing with what has been said, but I am very very surprised.
 
I would like to share my story about Sonor Customer Service. In 2002 when the Sonor S Class Pro was the new hot item. I ordered the 5 pice kit in Emerald Green from a local drum shop in Portland , Oregon. I also ordered the 14 X 16 Floor Tom which was additional for that kit and it costs an additional US$700.00. The only floor tom that came with the kit was a 12X14 stand mount.

The Dealer told me the floor tom had to be shipped from Germany and I would have to wait longer. After the five piece arrived I went to Portland and picked it up. Shortly after that the drum shop filed for bankruptcy. Under US law there was nothing I could do to recover the money I paid them. With little hope left of ever getting the money or the drum, I called the Sonor US in New England and told them my story.

Sonor shipped me that floor tom and never charged me a dime for it.
They had no obligation to do that. It's just who they are.

During the same transaction, I lost over $600.00 in Paiste cymbals, and Paiste said Sorry about your luck, basically.
 
Refreshing to see a bad QC thread where the members actually support the OP. I posted on another forum about the absolute nightmare I went through with Ludwig and you would not believe the flack I took. A couple of guys were even trying to make me out to be a scammer who intentionally damaged my kit to create flaws. Whatever, it didn't bother me that much, and those folks are entitled to their opinions, but after a while I just started to wonder why I even bothered going on that forum anymore and stopped altogether.
 
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