I am always puzzled by the amount of DW naysayers there are , especially in the United States . DW literally resurrected a sickly US Drum industry . Gretsch was almost non- existent , Slingerland and Rogers a memory and Ludwig a shadow of itself with quality issues . DW proved that an American Company could compete with the Japanese giants . You would think more Americans would be grateful for DW for this .
I have owned two DW kits , I own none now . Both the DW kits I owned were fine kits ( Collectors Maple and Jazz Series ) very well made and each had beautiful bearing edges and unique hardware features . My former DW Jazz series kit was far superior in sound and build quality to any of the 7 Gretsch kits I have owned over the years . I had a few reasons for selling my DW kits - it had nothing to do with build quality of sound .
DW deserves more respect for their efforts IMHO. They make very nice drums , especially their maple/ Mahogany and Cherry/Mahogany series .
I bought one of their Low Pro kits to use for rehearsals and jam sessions and I am very pleased with it . The design is great and the drums are very portable and lightweight and sound far better than I expected .
I'm an older guy, 61, and have been a gigging drummer since I was 16. My first good kit was a set of super clean 1965 Slingerlands that I bought when I was 18 years old and out on my own. I sold them in the early eighties when I was a struggling newlywed, and went through a few lesser kits in that decade.
In early 1991 I was run over by a truck on my motorcycle. It was questionable whether I would walk, much less drum again. After thirteen surgeries on my left leg, a couple of surgeries on my left arm, and eighteen months of physical therapy, I was able to walk and think about drumming again. The bills for my hospital stay, surgeries, and physical therapy cost $643,000. I joke that I am the .6 million dollar man. Insurance covered most of this, but I ended up selling everything that I owned to live.
This is all background, I'll get to where DW plays into this...
In 1992 I walked into a drum shop (on a cane) for the first time in what seemed like forever. They had plenty of kits from Pearl, Tama, and Yamaha, the three companies that were dominant at the time. They had one American Ludwig kit in an odd finish, every other new kit in the store was imported... Except for a set of DWs. I was familiar with DW pedals, I owned a 5000 pedal before my accident. Their pedals were well respected, but they were an underdog when it came to drums. I know that younger guys will find this hard to imagine, but at that time few people had actually seen an actual DW kit, much less gotten to play one. They were stunning to look at, better finished than anything else in the shop. It wasn't even close. As for the sound, they sounded great. I loved what heard, I loved what I saw, but I wondered out loud whether they would be able to compete with the dominant imported brands. I don't remember what they cost, but they were outside of my price range. I ended up buying a used set of Slingerlands that day, but that set of DWs left an impression.
I got back into playing and gigged the hell out of those Slingerlands through the 1990s and 2000s. I was saving up to finally buy a new kit, and a set of DWs or Slingerlands were on my short list. Gibson owned Slingerland by this time, the kits made in Nashville impressed me, they moved their drum manufacturing operation to Conway, Arkansas and seemed to loose a step. Ludwig and Gretsch were both players in the market again, but I was drawn to DW.
I had a major stroke in January of 2008. Now I would get to learn to play the drums for the third time in my life. First I needed to get walking and talking back up to speed. I used drumming as part of my rehab. I decided that I would finally buy my dream set. In July of 2008 I purchased a six piece DW Collector's Series kit in the broken glass finish. It was everything that I had hoped for. I loved the sound, they looked amazing under the lights, I could not be happier with them. I played a lot of gigs with them between 2008 and 2019. I carried them in Humes and Berg Enduro cases, they still look brand new.
In January of 2019 I decided to buy another new kit. I love my DWs, but I wanted to try something else. Over the years I've also owned a bunch of vintage kits, particularly Slingerland and Gretsch. I ordered a six piece Gretsch USA Custom kit in silver glass finish. (Very similar to the broken glass finish on my DWs.) I packed up my DWs in their H & B cases and I'd been playing the Gretsch kit until Covid-19 closed all of the bars. In the meantime I've expanded my Gretsch kit into a shell bank. I still love my DWs, my Gretsch kit is just a different flavor that I'm enjoying for now.
In the 80's we almost got to the point of losing all of our American drum manufacturers, as RickP pointed out. DW made a good product, made many innovations over the years, and has become the big, bad, manufacturing giant that people like to hate. Myself, I admire what they have accomplished. This past January my wife and visited the Gretsch factory in South Carolina which is under the DW umbrella, it was operating at capacity with a waiting list for their products. It was great to see. Now Slingerland is owned by DW. I'm very excited to see what they do with this brand. And yes, there is a very good chance that I will order a set.
DW? I'm a fan, and proud to say so.