What is classified as professional gear?

T

The Old Hyde

Guest
I was just thinking about my kit. Someone asked me if it was a professional kit and i said yes but is it really? My drums certainly are, or at least were when they were new. My pedals are top of the line Pearl and my stands are top of the line PCD, my cymbals are played by some pros. Does all that really add up to being called a pro kit though? Is it the gear or the money spent? Do you have to spend over 4k to make it professional or do only certain brands get the right to ba called professional? How do you guys classify your gear and what is professional?
 
The smart ass way to answer is, "I was paid while using this, thus it is professional gear."

I would say anything above what could be classified as entry level gear could be professional gear. The next way to classify is calling professional gear the most expensive or top of the line offered by the manufacturer.
 
The Old Hyde said:
I was just thinking about my kit. Someone asked me if it was a professional kit and i said yes but is it really? My drums certainly are, or at least were when they were new. My pedals are top of the line Pearl and my stands are top of the line PCD, my cymbals are played by some pros. Does all that really add up to being called a pro kit though? Is it the gear or the money spent? Do you have to spend over 4k to make it professional or do only certain brands get the right to ba called professional? How do you guys classify your gear and what is professional?
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Usually "professional" is nothing more than a marketing gimmick to get people to pay more for a product which is far more than what they need to get the job done. And it's misleading, because what people call "intermediate" kits now are far and above better kits than what Buddy or Philly Jo or Keith played when they were at their peak. And back then there were no "starter" kits or "budget" kits. Usually each manufacturer made one kit, maybe two or three if they were Ludwig.

Generally speaking, "professional" refers to the top two or three lines of kits a manufacturer offers, and has to do with the quality of the shell, the hardware, the finish, the little doodad features, etc. It also means that drum for drum or stand for stand, the line should have better workmanship, better quality, and fewer issues than a lower-priced line, and should last for longer without issues. As far as cymbals go, it's all about sound, durability, and workmanship.

However, many "professional" drummers gig with "intermediate" or even "budget" kits and gear, giving the lie to the whole terminology debate. Steve Gadd has used Yamaha 700-series single-braced stands for years, despite all the marketing hype about double-braced stands. Good enough for Gadd, good enough for me, I say.
 
Pro-grade minimum for me would be a DW Performance Series kit on DW9000 Series hardware with 5000 or 9000 pedals, Attack or Remo heads, Sabian RADIA, Paragon or HH series cymbals and Vic Firth sticks (TB1 or METAL). A 1-up, 2-down kit by these standards could be brought in for under 4K USD.
 
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If it sounds "pro" it is. Doesn't matter in the slightest what logo is stamped or painted on the gear or what it's made out of, or how much it costs.
 
If it can survive giging reasonably well without just falling appart. That is my definition at least.
 
I partially agree with Dr_Watso; it's not about the brand... or the sound. A lot of gear sounds good, but not all good sounding gear is professional-grade in my opinion. If you can rely on it as a tool to solve problems without it getting in the way, it's "professional" gear. There was a Gibraltar ad not too long ago that said something like "If you're thinking about your hardware when you play, you've got the wrong hardware." That's what I'm talking about
 
I don't exactly know, but I'd agree with some of the others by saying if you make it sound good, and can travel around with it and it does not fall apart, then it's pro enough.

As an aside..We had 10 kindergarteners over last week for a birthday party, and I suspended the pinata from my PDP 'intermediate' boom stand. They broke it. The pinata stayed intact!
 
alparrott said:
And back then there were no "starter" kits or "budget" kits. Usually each manufacturer made one kit, maybe two or three if they were Ludwig.
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not true

for example

Gretch in the 40s had
their top of the line "Roll Away"
then they had the "swing man" which was slightly cheaper
below that was the "Radio showman "
below that the "swing lane"
then a couple below that they had the "young America" and the "school days" which were both beginner kits

in the 50s they had
the "bop" outfit
the "name band" outfit
the "progressive jazz"
the "one nighter"
the "one nighter plus"
the "semi pro"
the "renown"
the "jazz combo"

the bottom 3 were pretty much mid level to beginner kits

in the 60s they had
the "progressive jazz"
the "name band"
the "rock n roll"
the "one nighter plus"
the "renown"
then the "jazz combo" which was their starter kit

and on and on to present day

so pretty much since the beginning of the trap kit there have been price points and levels of quality
 
Mikecore said:
Pro-grade minimum for me would be a DW Performance Series kit on DW9000 Series hardware with 5000 or 9000 pedals, Attack or Remo heads, Sabian RADIA, Paragon or HH series cymbals and Vic Firth sticks (TB1 or METAL). A 1-up, 2-down kit by these standards could be brought in for under 4K USD.
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I have gigged with lots of different drums,cymbals and hardware.Since the late 70's,my Tama Superstars , Titan hardware with Zildjian A's and K's with some Paiste and Sabians thrown in,have been the do to set up.It all has held up just fine,dispite being set up and broken down hundreds of times.

Superstar drums and Titan hardware were some of the stuff that changed the game for the entire industry in the late 70's.They look,work and sound as good or better than just about anything out there.

Except my Ludwigs.......:)

Steve B
 
Anthony Amodeo said:
not true

for example

Gretch in the 40s had
their top of the line "Roll Away"
then they had the "swing man" which was slightly cheaper
below that was the "Radio showman "
below that the "swing lane"
then a couple below that they had the "young America" and the "school days" which were both beginner kits

in the 50s they had
the "bop" outfit
the "name band" outfit
the "progressive jazz"
the "one nighter"
the "one nighter plus"
the "semi pro"
the "renown"
the "jazz combo"

the bottom 3 were pretty much mid level to beginner kits

in the 60s they had
the "progressive jazz"
the "name band"
the "rock n roll"
the "one nighter plus"
the "renown"
then the "jazz combo" which was their starter kit

and on and on to present day

so pretty much since the beginning of the trap kit there have been price points and levels of quality
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"Levels of quality" back then referred to how many drums came with the kit, the size of the drums, and how much hardware came on the drums. In the 50s and 60s, Gretsch didn't offer Asian Mahogany shells or pot-metal hardware as a cheaper alternative. All of these models you mentioned feature the same shells and hardware made of good-quality metal, even if it's only a bass drum/snare drum configuration, or if the shells feature center-mounted lug casings...
 
caddywumpus said:
"Levels of quality" back then referred to how many drums came with the kit, the size of the drums, and how much hardware came on the drums. In the 50s and 60s, Gretsch didn't offer Asian Mahogany shells or pot-metal hardware as a cheaper alternative. All of these models you mentioned feature the same shells and hardware made of good-quality metal, even if it's only a bass drum/snare drum configuration, or if the shells feature center-mounted lug casings...
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.....and a large price difference to make them affordable for the parents of a beginner
 
The Old Hyde said:
Does all that really add up to being called a pro kit though?
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It could be used as a pro kit for sure, but for me, the user determine if it's pro stuff or not.

There a difference between calling a given model a "pro instrument" and the status of its owner, by default a hobbyist who gig 4 times a year and play solely for pleasure can hardly call himself or his kit as professional, in contrast, the seasoned drummer who's touring and gigging 5 days a week can certainly tag himself and his gear as professional.

The Old Hyde said:
Is it the gear or the money spent?
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In whichever case, it's both, isn't it? :)

The Old Hyde said:
Do you have to spend over 4k to make it professional or do only certain brands get the right to be called professional?
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No, but so much depends how much you need to express yourself, a pro drummer with a basic 4 piece kit and 3 cymbals could probably get away with less than 4k per complete kit, and a hobbyist can spend much more for his 12 piece drumset, even if his kit is not a top of the line drums or cymbals, sizes do matters

The Old Hyde said:
How do you guys classify your gear and what is professional?
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My drums and cymbals are referred as "pro instrument" or "top of the line model", and it can be used and has been used by many pro drummers, but I'm no pro drummer.

Manufacturers provides instruments, at different level of quality, craftsmanship and price tags. It's the buyers which makes the "professional" tag or reputation.

You can have a top of the line kit sounding like crap, because of its owner.

You can have a middle of the line kit sounding like a million dollar's kit, because of its owner.

It's all relative really, a pro drummer wants a kit he/she can tear down and set up night after night, and everything stays in perfect working orders.
 
It's just a pigeon hole to help differentiate models in a manufacturer's lineup. Marketing people like to deliver simple messages & build aspiration into their range. Frankly, most people fall for it too.

To me, professional standard gear is anything that works reliably within the context of executing your profession. That means that someone on a world rock tour may have different priorities to someone who works mainly as a recording artist. The former probably places the bias towards hardware, & the latter towards sound quality. "Pro gear" is something different to everyone.
 
I think any new drum could do a gig and sound plenty pro. The only exclusions would be a First Act, and maybe Groove Percussion, or Sunlite. Anything else would work just fine, as far as drums only goes. It's the cymbals where the word pro really starts to matter. Good sounding 'pro' cymbals, a good sounding snare, which doesn't have to be expensive to sound great, and almost any kick drum is the anchor of the set. Everything else is secondary by comparison, generally speaking. You don't really need to spend a lot on the drums themselves.

Like the Guru set I'm getting...I actually think they will be my last really expensive drums. If it weren't for the construction, and the engineering...meaning if Guru shells were just like everybody else's shells, I wouldn't be buying them. What would be the point? I already have a set of DW's that probably were never worth what I paid for them. Now I know better. Drums sound like drums. You can get great sounding drums for not much money, if you know what to look for and are a capable drum tuner and player. It's the cymbals that get the real scrutiny, you can't change their tone like you can with drums.

I'm getting the Guru's because I had the same outer re-ring design in my head for about 2 years now, but lets face it I never would have gotten around to building them. Andy took it so much further than I ever imagined anyway, so that's why I want them. Plus they really are world class drums in the true sense of the word. And the sound is like nothing else I've heard.
 
Just as a case in point, I have an inexpensive set of drums (a Tamburo ply kit, if anyone's interested) and in terms of how it sounds when it's properly tuned - it absolutely is a 'pro' kit. It sounds great and I've had compliments on it in the past. I wouldn't call it a 'pro' kit (as in, I'd be hesitant to take it on a long tour if I had the option) because the lugs are definitely a weak point in the design. They're light but they're not very strong and wouldn't hold up to too much rough handling - although given that I've had the kit for seven years and played dozens of gigs with it, it's not doing too badly.

I think that's the clinching factor. Can a kit survive heavy road use? I'm not advocating rough treatment, just the rigours of constant setting up, tearing down and hard playing.

Changing the lugs on my kit is definitely something I need to consider when the finances allow - but the shells are superb and the rest of the hardware has already been changed at least once.
 
Easy.
Anything red and sparkly = professional gears.
 
Are most custom-built drum kits considered "pro"?
 
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