NouveauCliche
Senior Member
Wow, I'm overwhelmed by the response! Thank you all very much for chiming in. Based on the comments, I realize I didn't do the best job of explaining what his current setup looks like and, more importantly, how an ignorant Dad (hi) ended up spending WAY too freaking much for a 9 year-old kid's drum setup (again, he's now 11). I'll try to keep this as brief as possible and then I'm going to try to quote everyone in a follow-up post and respond because, hey, if you took the time to reply to me, an acknowledgement should at least come back to you, right? (Which, with apologies, means this will be a long post). I'll also attach some photographs of the two kits I mention in the story below.
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Disclaimer: Please do not feel the need to read all this, it might get windy.
TL;DR - Not rich and not too bright in the past by not doing the proper research and ending up with a ridicuously expensive setup for a (at the time) 9 year-old. Kid is now 11 and playing well, so looking to build on an accidentally already pretty solid gear base.
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Quick history to fill in the gaps above: We live in a suburb of Indianapolis. As you all I'm sure are aware, Sweetwater is in Ft. Wayne, roughly 2 hours away from us. I was on the design team for their new headquarters and subsequent additions (this was all before my son started playing). So, I was exposed to, what I now know, was basically the best of the best equipment. So, my lens was a bit skewed thinking this was just all normal percussion stuff. So, when we told my son and daughter they'd be required to play an instrument but they could pick whatever they wanted, and my son chose percussion, I immediately hit up Sweetwater.
When he started playing at 6 years old, we went with the Ludwig kids kit. He had destroyed the heads (from playing, not jacking around) within 3 months. So, I started learning a bit about heads at that time. The cymbals that came with the kit were junk and immediately bent so at that time I bought him a pack of Zildjian "S" cymbals all in smaller sizes to match the smaller kids kit cymbals. That kit treated him very well and he even played in his 2nd grade talent show (and won) with it. For fun, since he was so young, we added lights and a custom bass drum head to make it "cooler" for when he played in front of his classmates. (Note: The "Rockstar Rhythm" you see on the drum head is the nickname he gave himself at 7 years old, lol.)
Fast forward 3 years to when he's 9 and ready to move away from the kids kit. Once again, I hit up the only thing I know, Sweetwater. I saw the Gretsch Renown kit on sale, had heard good things about Gretsch, and just pulled the trigger. He was serious enough, in that I knew he wasn't going to quit, that I decided to forego the beginner kits and go with what I've been told is a decent intermediate kit with the smaller 20" bass. At this point we had a nice "adult" kit with tiny kids cymbals. Well, thinking "normal size" cymbals were all basically the same price (and moronically not researching), I saved up for a number of months and bought him:
I later found out that I had basically just set my 9 year-old up with one of the best (and priciest) cymbal setups I could buy. Doh! ?
- 15" Zildjian "K" Light Hi-Hats
- 18" Zildjian "K" Custom Dark Crash
- 9" Zildjian "K" Custom Hybrid Splash
- 22" Zildjian "K" Custom High Definition Ride
So, he's played on this kit (only thing changed has been batter heads once) for the past two years, which brings us to the present day. You can see the reason he's asking for the other crash is to replace the 14" Zildjian "S". Of course he wants to match the rest of the cymbals with a 16" Zildjian "K" Custom Dark crash... but now Dad knows he doesn't have to go poor to buy cymbals, lol, so we told him he'd either have to save up and buy it himself or ask for Christmas or something. That's why he's asking for that cymbal.
The reason I'm here asking about snare drums is simply because, as a reward for making jazz band early, I thought it may be something that he could swap out when playing school jazz gigs; in other words, use the school's Ludwig kit but swap the snare for something more personal. So, it's not that I'm trying to ignore what he has asked for, it's simply trying to surprise him with something he can use in the activity for which he's being rewarded. I know, probably weird logic.
Now you're caught up. If you made it this far, you're better than me, I almost didn't make it this far!
Again, sincerest thanks to you all for chiming in.
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Attachments: Shot from the end of his talent show set (2017 on the kids kit), two shots of the current setup (ignore his messy room).
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I didn't have a right that nice when I was on tour with Kevin Eubanks lmao.
As @C.M. Jones will likely magically appear to note - the S series is a professional series. So if he's replacing it for tonal purposes - then I would go for it and replace the crash as the S series realllly would stick out tonally amognst that amazing set up. If he's replacing it because it's an S and there's some perception of it being lesser quality, than I wouldn't...BUT: It very likely sticks out like a sore thumb tonally with the rest of the set up.
Then for Christmas you can maybe get something like a Yamaha EAD10 that he can use to practice and record himself since he already has a killer drum set and cymbal set up. Something Santa would think of that he might not necessarily even think of himself.