JustJames
Platinum Member
Following on from this thread, I now have a kit that I am happy to be a bit less protective of than my Mapex Saturns. I'd been hoping to find a small(ish) kit, but when a PDP CX (maple) kit came up for a price that I felt was very reasonable I jumped at it. I've had the kit for a week, and had new batter heads for the snare and toms, but only got to put them on the kit and set the kit up today. The kit is 22, 10, 12, 14 with a 14" snare.
I'm pretty pleased with what I have. The chrome on the hoops is almost completely free of corrosion and pitting, and the sound of the kit is pleasing. There were some things that weren't to my taste. The bass drum mounted tom holders were set up goofy, so I re-jigged that, which was easy enough. The bass drum was full to bursting of old plastic bags, which was a novel damping technique, but in amongst the plastic bags was a PDP branded bass drum pillow, with its sticky-back velcro still unused.
The toms tuned up easily enough with new Evans G2 Coated batters. I have a TuneBot but took the lazy away out, and just tuned the toms to what they seemed happy with, and tuned the batter and reso to the same note, tuning by ear. I ended up with pleasant separation between the toms, lovely resonance (or do I mean sustain?) and no nasty overtones.
I put an old but serviceable PS3 batter head on the bass drum, but struggled to get a pleasing tone. It managed to sound thin and boomy all at once. The PDP logo'd reso head, which I assume has been there since the kit left the factory seemed very thin and papery. So, for the first time in my life I muffled a bass drum with some upholstery. Off came the reso head, in went the damping cushion, held in place with its velcro so that it lies across the bass drum, touching the reso head. Now the drum sounds right, with a solid thump. A better reso head may be a more elegant solution, but this works.
The 14" floor tom is suspended, which works better than I feared it might. For now it will continue as a suspended tom.
Things that I didn't like: The toms all have a weird thing where the wrap completes, which makes the drum feel slightly out of round at that point. The bass drum reso hoop is way out of round, and looks like it may have been exposed to water at some point. There is some yellowing of the wrap in places, that is really being nitpicky. Overall they seem to be solid drums, it's a way better kit than I thought I'd get.
Pic or it didn't happen you say?
I'm pretty pleased with what I have. The chrome on the hoops is almost completely free of corrosion and pitting, and the sound of the kit is pleasing. There were some things that weren't to my taste. The bass drum mounted tom holders were set up goofy, so I re-jigged that, which was easy enough. The bass drum was full to bursting of old plastic bags, which was a novel damping technique, but in amongst the plastic bags was a PDP branded bass drum pillow, with its sticky-back velcro still unused.
The toms tuned up easily enough with new Evans G2 Coated batters. I have a TuneBot but took the lazy away out, and just tuned the toms to what they seemed happy with, and tuned the batter and reso to the same note, tuning by ear. I ended up with pleasant separation between the toms, lovely resonance (or do I mean sustain?) and no nasty overtones.
I put an old but serviceable PS3 batter head on the bass drum, but struggled to get a pleasing tone. It managed to sound thin and boomy all at once. The PDP logo'd reso head, which I assume has been there since the kit left the factory seemed very thin and papery. So, for the first time in my life I muffled a bass drum with some upholstery. Off came the reso head, in went the damping cushion, held in place with its velcro so that it lies across the bass drum, touching the reso head. Now the drum sounds right, with a solid thump. A better reso head may be a more elegant solution, but this works.
The 14" floor tom is suspended, which works better than I feared it might. For now it will continue as a suspended tom.
Things that I didn't like: The toms all have a weird thing where the wrap completes, which makes the drum feel slightly out of round at that point. The bass drum reso hoop is way out of round, and looks like it may have been exposed to water at some point. There is some yellowing of the wrap in places, that is really being nitpicky. Overall they seem to be solid drums, it's a way better kit than I thought I'd get.
Pic or it didn't happen you say?