Poor Mapex

sonormapex

Senior Member
In this sea of drum makers, these guys just cant buy respect. I personally think they make wonderful drums don't you?
 
Well, I think they make excellent drums for a good price. But I kinda agree, they probably will never gain as much respect in the drumming community as their close competitors, Tama, Pearl, Yamaha etc. Might be because they came into the business as late as they did, and seems like many have a problem with their name. They do make excellent drums though, I have a Saturn IV kit myself. They have a sound of their own, and as good as any of the high-end kits on the market, in my opinion. Not to forget the Black Panther series either.
 
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I'd never really heard of them until I saw Billy Cobham was playing an Orion kit, and a few years later a friend of mine bought a Meridian kit that made my Gretsch Catalina maple set sound pretty lame. I started poking around and was lucky to pick up a new Saturn IV 5 pc for less than cost. Really enjoyed everything about them except the 22x20 bass drum was pretty unwieldy and I'm not crazy about triple flange hoops.

About a year ago I saw a deal on a new Black Panther Black Widow kit for crazy less than the going price and bought it. I've got couple other kits and it puts both of them to shame. Beautiful bearing edges and shells. Tom mounts/clamps are top notch. Hoops are sonic clear brushed nickel. Finish is transparent Black Lacquer. Coolest stock bass drum reso head out there! LOL..... and some great looking badges! 2nd only to Odery's custom shop badges in my opinion.

The thing I've noticed most about them is they sound really good with a variety of different heads. Single ply, 2 ply take your pick. Tune 'em up and lets go ! My only beef with the kit is the floor tom legs are a little short, another 2 inches would have been nice. They check ALL the boxes for me soundwise. That's all I can ask out a kit.
 
Mapex.... in a hurry

- Silly name (reminds me of a Linux-Operating System)
- Very "different" hardware design (=for me: not classy, not really pretty to look at)
- missing some classic, subtle finishes (too much *bling bling*)
- fantastic sound
- great value
- okay hardware

my 2 cents
 
Exactly. KHS own several drum brands, including Mapex & Sonor. Additionally, they're involved in the manufacture of a ton of other drum brands in one form or another. They also manufacture multiple other instrument forms, so "poor" doesn't exactly figure in their fortunes right now.

Some of the Mapex branded drums are certainly great products offering excellent value for money, so I'm sure their future is looking good.

At the same time though, no matter how good your product is, if you don't have the "je ne sais quoi" as the French say so eloquently, you're doomed!

Dutch
 
I just wish they would stop putting those silly label's on there product's. Their new Design Lab Snare's are nice, I like the Mahogany Snare in particular but with a name like "The Heartbreaker" IDK it just seems to take the High End out of it. Seems hard to take it serious. They have wonderful Hardware, I own several Falcon products and they are as nice as any other brand I have seen or own. I have never had any regret to my Saturn V purchase, I paid $2200 for a 6 pc kit. That's a lot of money to me and I took that purchase very seriously. I have plenty of sound files to back them up. I think some thing's should just be left alone, they know exactly where they stand in this business. Just being associated with KHS and Sonor says something. I think loosing JOE HIBBS was a big loss for them, they came a long way after he got on board. They still honor him on there FB page and its been like a year since his passing.
 
I own 2 Mapex kits so I'll chime in. They offer a great product for a great price and their sound is really awesome and modern. Their hardware is innovative and they are consistently trying to improve.

While I think their beginner, intermediate and semi pro lines rival any other brand out there, I think one of their missteps was discontinuing the Orion Series. That was a top of the like custom kit that could rival what other brands were doing at the pro level. As good as the Saturn Series is, it just doesn't seem to be on par with other "flagship lines" from other companies. Maybe it is the price point, maybe it is the lack of custom options, but a DW Collectors, a Gretsch USA Custom or a Ludwig Classic Maple ect just seem more appealing to me if I were a pro drummer going with a flagship kit.
 
Poor Mapex??? They seem to be doing fine-growing in popularity. I was recently checking out a used Meridian maple because of their popularity. Funny the average couch probably weighs 4x's that of a nice kit and most cost less. Sadly I spend way more time on my couch (actually I have a leather recliner I call my narcolepsy chamber) than my kit. I didn't realize that both Sonor and Mapex were owned by KHS now.
 
Since joining this board 5 years ago I can safely say Mapex has only grown immensely in popularity. They are going great.
 
Agreed on the name lol
Sounds like some canadian brand that should be producing consumables (fyi i am canadian)

Cant say much about the product. Never played them before. However a lot of canadian merchants carry them in stock (LM, COSMOS, STEVES MUSIC, JUST DRUMS)

especially long and mcquade likes to overstock their shelves with random mapex hardware... and Gibraltar
 
Unfortunately, Sticks4Drums has permanently damaged their reputation. There's no coming back from that type of buffoonery in your name.

Fun fact: "Buffoonery" is in the Chrome spellcheck dictionary!
 
Unfortunately, Sticks4Drums has permanently damaged their reputation. There's no coming back from that type of buffoonery in your name.

Mapped Saturn

Make sure those badges are facing the correct direction!!!

Mapped Saturn
 
Drummers have long memories. Mapex came on strong in the late 80's but the product that was being shipped at that time had terrible quality issues. Many shops were inundated with returns and unfortunately this bad reputation seems to have been retained in some drummer's eyes.

Mapex is making very nice drums these days but just do not seem to have been able to break into that next level.

Canada's version of Guitar Center -Long and McQuade's is the exclusive distributor of Mapex and make every effort to push the brand in Canada to the detriment of other brands. You go into your local L&M and more than 50% of the drum sets on the floor are Mapex.
 
I agree with the early QC missteps having some impact on the brand, but a large part of it is also (in my opinion) the thrust and tone of their marketing and design. The brand has targeted a younger demographic and a certain genre of player with their advertising, their branding, and even things like the MyDentity line. The names of some of their products are a little over the top as well (Armory! Sledge Hammer!) For drummers that fall outside those target demographics, that can cause a little bit of hesitation in embracing the brand. Even the name itself sounds like an '80s cartoon starring an outer-space robot.

For the record: I own a Mapex snare drum, and play a Mapex kit regularly in one of my steady gigs, and have no overall issues with the quality of the drums.
 
I love my Saturn III's. I will likely never sell them. Even if I don't play them that much (I have too many kits), they are so unique that I will ever find a kit like them again.

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Definately do agree that they seem to focus on the younger audience of drummers nowadays, a lot of flashy finishes and model names... I do see that it excludes a lot of potential older, "classic" drummers from their branding. I still get comments today (by other drummers, usually ignorant ones...) of why I chose to buy a Mapex kit for that kind of money (of my big Saturn kit). "Isn't Mapex basically a ripoff of Tama?" I guess a lot of people also think of their cheap kits automatically when hearing the name, at least around here that's what people see the most, the cheap Mapex V kits. And really basic hardware that's usually the cheapest of what the music stores carry, bought by all the first time drummers out there.

I don't know, I try not to get affected myself and I know that the drums sound good. At the same time, I also know that price was a big issue at the time I bought mine, and if I did have more money at the time, I probably would have bought one of the other kits I considered (Sonor Prolite, Yamaha Hybrid Maple, Tama Starclassic Maple, to name a few). At the moment I have enough money to swap out my Saturn for one of those kits instead, but I really can't justify doing it other than for the sake of change itself and maybe a step up reputation wise (however dumb that may sound). So I don't think it's going to happen.
 
We had a Saturn 1 at my church and I just never could seem to dial in a sound I liked out of it. Really kind of soured the brand for me. That and the terrible resale value.
 
I play a Saturn V as my main kit for one simple reason, it sounds amazing. Before I spend the money on a new kit I played everything I could. I really wanted a Tama B/B Starclassic, and almost pulled the trigger on a set, but the Saturns just sounded "better". But I understand why some people would be reluctant. As somebody said earlier, drummers have long memories. I grew up playing on the power tom kits of the 1980's and as such I wont play a Ludwig or Pearl. I am sure they make great kits, but the all Ludwigs I played looked and felt cheap and the Pearl's had that crappy mounting system where the arm went through the shell. I dont feel bad for Mapex, they are doing well enough I think. They just need to market their top end drums as a professional kit and get away from the silly names and "mydentitiy" stuff. I would also say their snares are among some of the most popular on the market, so they are probably doing OK.
 
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