Sonor Safari Discontinued???

vyacheslav

Senior Member
Hello,

I am not for sure on this but I always see at least 5 or 6 sellers on ebay for Sonor Safari kits, and in the last 2 weeks there are currently no Safari kits to be found on ebay, and I have checked every day. Also, there are usually multiple sellers on Amazon, and currently there are none available and the classic "We do not know if there will be any more of these in stock" message appears on that page of the website.

There are places that still have them in stock online, but it just seems weird that ebay and Amazon have dried up when they always had multiple listings. Maybe it's just the after Christmas time when they are re-ordering?

Also, Sonor makes no mention of these kits on their website (they never have), so it's hard to tell what the official word is on them. I hope I am wrong, but something seems amiss to me. Were they meant to be a limited time run or "Special Edition"?

Anyone have any inside info?

Thanks.
 
Hmm. They had both the Safari and the Bop on display at NAMM and were handing out flyers on them. Both of those kits are only available in the U.S., which may explain why they're not on their website, which is international.

I say give it a little more time. Sellers may be re-stocking.
 
They are still selling them.
Stock must just be low from Christmas sales.
They will restock
 
I can't imagine that they would discontinue that kit. When they first came out with the "Jungle" kit (some 10 years ago) .... they pretty much re-invented/introduced the bop-kit to modern drummers. And every other manufacture scrambled to catch up, and produce a kit to compete with it. Now we are awash with 16 and 18 inch kick based kits.​
 
Hmm. They had both the Safari and the Bop on display at NAMM and were handing out flyers on them....


Good to hear. Every time I see them referred to, I think about picking one up. No one stocks them locally, so I've never actually even seen one outside of web sites though.
 
.....crikey! Better get mine NOW!
Tax returns in two weeks.. finally gonna go for it..
Hopefully all my hemmin and hawin won't leave me on the outside lookin in!
 
.....crikey! Better get mine NOW!
Tax returns in two weeks.. finally gonna go for it..
Hopefully all my hemmin and hawin won't leave me on the outside lookin in!

Do it. I was kind of leary about a kick that small but I love 'em and so does everyone I have played with. Very cool and very reasonably priced.
 

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This Sunday I am playing with my jazz band at a local senior citizen center dance for Valentines Day.
It is a quick two hour gig because of the age of the guests.
I am sitting here debating weather or not to bring my Safari Jungle kit or my new Mapex Saturn Manhattan kit.
My Saturn kit will probably go to the gig because it is new and I haven't gigged with it yet.
I like my Safari so much I am shocked that I am actually having this mental debate with myself.
I think that that says something about the Sonor Safari.
 
Hey guys, just wanted to chime in - Sonor DID discontinue the Safari kits in Canada late last year. Hard to believe because they were very popular here too. I just purchased a new old stock kit for a buddy but we had to search all of Long and McQuade's stores across the country to find them - 1 kit in 53 stores.

Here in Canada, Sonor replaced the Safari kit with the "Pocket kit" - available in black with chrome or white with black shell hardware - 16 x 16 kick, 14 x 12 floor, 10" tom AND they add a 12" tom as well. Oh yeah and the snare is a 13 x 5. Same shell construction I believe as the Safari but the lugs are the newer kind that touch the shell at two points.

They also have the Bop kit with an 18 kick and a couple sparkle finishes. It's all interesting stuff but not quite the perfection of the Safari kit.

I have a second generation Jungle kit (with Steve Smith's signature on the inside of the shells too !) and while they sound great, at double the cost, they certainly don't sound twice as good as the Safaris!

So everybody - if you're on the fence about them - find a kit and buy them now!!
 
Thanks elvilg99
The Chicago Music Exchange still shows the Black Galaxy and the Natural in stock in the Safari modle.
They also have the Bop in silver.
http://www.chicagomusicexchange.com...sonor-safari-shell-pack-black-galaxy-sparkle/

Greenbrier Music has one too.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sonor-Safar...ltDomain_0&hash=item3f1378bed7#ht_1950wt_1183

On the Sam Ash site it says that they are out of stock but they are coming soon so order now!
http://www.samash.com/p/Sonor_Safari 4pc Drum Set_-49946595

Just drums has them.
http://www.justdrumsonline.com/c-886-safari-bop.aspx

zZounds has em in stock
http://www.zzounds.com/item--SOOSSE10SAFARI
 
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Thanks wildbill,
So now the price has jumped from the $350/$400 range of the Safari/Bop series to the $500 range of the Pocket kit.
The snare has shrunk by an inch.
This seems to be a Canadian kit because I haven't seen it on the USA sites.
Interesting!
 
I'd prefer to see Sonor sell the Pocket Kit and the Safari kit side by side with each other, as alternatives, rather than have them drop a popular kit, and replace it with something not quite the same.

Progress isn't pretty.
 
All that they had to do was to start offering add-ons for the Safari/Bop series.
I think that they made a mistake by going this route but what do I know?
 
Cowgard, nice looking kit. What heads are you using?

Thanks Mike. I'm using the stock resos and kick batter and clear Attack 1 plies that I bought on sale a couple of years ago on the tom batters. The snare is a brass OCDP 13"x7" (or is that 7"x13") with a coated Emperor. Dave
 
Thanks Mike. I'm using the stock resos and kick batter and clear Attack 1 plies that I bought on sale a couple of years ago on the tom batters. The snare is a brass OCDP 13"x7" (or is that 7"x13") with a coated Emperor. Dave

Huh, never heard of Attack heads, maybe I should try them. Did you find single ply heads better for your tom batters than double ply?
 
Huh, never heard of Attack heads, maybe I should try them. Did you find single ply heads better for your tom batters than double ply?

I use 2ply heads on my bigger drums but the 1 plies seem to sound fuller on small toms to me. Attack heads have been around for a while. Musician's used to sell prepacks of them for almost nothing a few of years ago.
 
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