Living in a small house makes it hard to have even a small drum kit in it, so I've had my eye out for a good deal on one for a while. A month or so ago a deal that seemed too good to be true popped up in my local classifieds. It was a Sonor Safari in the red sparkle finish and they had it listed for $250, and claimed it was brand new. I was skeptical, since the cheapest I could see new online was $389. When I got there to check them out, to my happiness and surprise, it turned out to be legit. New in box, never been set up. Plastic wrap hadn't even been taken off. It was being sold by a company that basically buys stuff cheap from liquidation companies and then resells them. They were motivated to sell it locally because shipping a drum set is costly, and they really don't know drums very well.
Got them home, set them up, and they are awesome. I replaced the stock heads with Evans G2 clear over G1 clear, and Evans Genera HD Dry over Hazy 300 on the snare. I kept the stock bass heads on. I've been gigging with them 3 times so far, and they sound great in the restaurant we play at. Bass is nice and punchy, toms have a great attack and resonance. The snare is not bad, either. And they are so much easier to drag around than my larger kit, which isn't even that large (a Mapex Meridian Maple 5 piece with a 20" bass.) The larger kit now lives in my band's rehearsal space, which is awesome because I don't have to drag it back and forth from the house.
Anyhoo, I'm pretty stoked about the deal, here are some pics before I swapped out the heads.
Got them home, set them up, and they are awesome. I replaced the stock heads with Evans G2 clear over G1 clear, and Evans Genera HD Dry over Hazy 300 on the snare. I kept the stock bass heads on. I've been gigging with them 3 times so far, and they sound great in the restaurant we play at. Bass is nice and punchy, toms have a great attack and resonance. The snare is not bad, either. And they are so much easier to drag around than my larger kit, which isn't even that large (a Mapex Meridian Maple 5 piece with a 20" bass.) The larger kit now lives in my band's rehearsal space, which is awesome because I don't have to drag it back and forth from the house.
Anyhoo, I'm pretty stoked about the deal, here are some pics before I swapped out the heads.