The paradox of expensive drumsets

My opinion is buy whatever you want. If you enjoy owning and playing low to mid-range kits it's ALL good.
When people say there is no difference it's a personal opinion, not a fact. I play a lot of rental kits with good (new) heads and often to me they don't sound as good as my usual kits (my own). I never thought of buying a Pork Pie kit, then I had to rent one for a session and it sounded fantastic. So you can be pleasantly surprised.
I think people expect an 8k kit to sound twice as nice as a 4k kit. But it might just be a bit better. If you have the budget a 'bit better' might be worth having.
 
jda said:
you mean hollow? let's see them..
thin? what year are they
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I bought them in the spring of 1994. Played them for 10 years. I gave them away to a friend of mine, then he gave them back to me several years later. 9 plies of poplar. If I put new heads on them, the new heads would be worth more than the shells, so I don't bother. I have four other kits I enjoy playing immensely.

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yea I didn't "like" that one; the later when they "rounded off" the long lug (97) I owned those and they were good/ Ok
and they were fusion sizes which helped.(mentally)

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PorkPieGuy said:
A great snare drum and cymbals can make any drum set sound amazing.







Except for my early Tama Rockstars. They will always sound terrible.
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I'm hearing you PPG.

They looked absolutely rockin'.....but boy oh boy they were dreadful sounding tubs.

I had the DX in black with the long lugs.

The only decent thing about them was the empty space they provided when I sold them.
 
Benthedrummer said:
Hi Trigger......

I actually think that this is a real good discussion topic.

Look......I do honestly feel that there is some merit with high end kits.

They just have that "something" about them.

Chris Witten made a fantastic comparison in regards to buying used high end for cheap as opposed to buying expensive lower end new.

High end kits are simply worlds apart from name brand lower end kits, but the gap narrows with name brand mid range kits.

I feel that it's just kinda nice to round out a drummer's equipment arsenal with a half decent little bunkie kit for rehearsals that can get scuffed or banged around a bit.

Then have a mid range kits for the shows, gigs, festivals etc.

Then have that real flagship, the one that stays home, under armed guard that is just the special jewel which sounds like James Bond talking to you at a dinner party.

I have my Yamaha Gigmaker (friggin POS) as my everyday carry, my Remo Acousticon as my mid-range and my Mapex Orion as my high-end.

But then you enter the realm of boutique kits which are extremely expensive and personally I'm not totally sold on that high level gear.

My Remo Acousticon is the loudmouth, obnoxious mullet wearing bogan getting drunk and getting ready to brawl.

My Mapex Orion is the intelligent intellectual who is polite but forceful when needed.

I think the value for money is in the attention to detail (quality of bearing edges, wood types, isolation methods, lacquer finishes, hardware quality) as opposed to the quantity of drums in high end kits.

It's almost a given that you get less for more (new) with high end gear.

I can hear the difference between my mid range kit and my high end kit for sure.

Definitely worth it...... Mapex Orion.... second hand.

Oh, BTW, the guy selling it put "Mapex Onion" on the website.
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Oh, BTW, the guy selling it put "Mapex Onion" on the website.
:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
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Yeah I think you're onto something here. The more you muffle a kick the closer it's going to sound to other kicks of the same size. And there are so many muffling variables you can experiment with. While your favorite kick might sound good with just a PS3, other kicks might need an Emperor or Ambassador with just a felt strip to get a similar sound (thinking of drums with round edges in particular). And if you're getting too much attack and not enough low end the answer could be a different beater (i.e. going from a wood to old school round felt).
 
Trigger said:
I had a funny thought the other day, bare with me...

When buying a high end drum kit, you can spend a decent amount of money, let's say, 6-10k. Let's imagine you're getting a 5 or 6 piece kit (which are probably the most common)

Now it's likely if you're spending that much money on a kit, you've probably already got a few nice snare drums, so you're just getting a kick and toms

Now, i think we've all figured out that a kick is a kick is a kick. They all sound broadly the same (obviously there are little differences, but again, humour me)

So in the end, you're pay a lot of money for... toms. The most unused part of a drum kit. Unless you're doing tom fills constantly, or you're Danny Carey, toms don't get played nearly as much as the snare or kick, so you're spending a bunch of money on something that barely gets played, comparatively.

Kinda weird when you think about it. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
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A cheap kit can be made to sound great.

 
PorkPieGuy said:
A great snare drum and cymbals can make any drum set sound amazing.
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This is a much more succinct way of saying was i was getting at - Most kicks, with a pillow in them, will sound like a thump. The snare drum is often not related to the kit, so at the end of it, people are spending a bunch of money on toms as a differentiating factor, and toms are the things people generally hit the least.

Also, I've got no problem with expensive kits, or lots of toms (i plan on getting an expensive kit, with lots of toms) but i just thought it was kind of interesting, how you pay the character of a shellkit, but they're the drums you play the least.
 
"Late Night" drummer/bandleader Fred Armisen expresses himself well on the subject of expensive drums:

"Weirdly, and this happens with people who have extra money, but aren't really playing that much music," he continues, "when it's really expensive equipment. When you see a lot of hardware and brand new drums, that's when it looks like a hobby... I think a lot of the more respected and successful drummers have kind of scaled-down kits because they're so confident in their own playing... a lot of really accomplished drummers keep it simple."

 
That's pretty accurate, above.

That's also true that most unmatching items are snares. People will spend money on a quality snare and choose a diff kit. After playing for about 3 years I wanted a quality kit for life so my main 2 snares match the gig/practice kits. A 7" deep and a 5-1/2" deep bought with the orig order in '93. Three kicks, 2 snares and 4 toms then added 2 toms later. When I got the drums my guitarist said those are beautiful drums, even if you can't play them, lol. I borrowed from a credit union to buy them.

In 2020 and 2022 I added a Supraphonic, Rogers Dyna-sonic and PDP Concept Maple snares. I don't play them much.
 
Bozozoid said:
I'm still in therapy as to why I think midpriced kits sound better. I seem to prefer (filler) woods somewhere in the build. I think drum companies should put the higher priced tags on the midpriced sets so I'm not so confused as to why I like them better.
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You're not alone in feeling that mid priced kits sound better. I've played my Gretsch Catalina Club Rock kit for over 15 years now & love every bit of it.
Last year I got a smoking deal on a Tama 24x18 Superstar kick with a Ludwig 14x10 concert tom thrown in for free. I use that kick only when I need to "reach out & touch somebody" at a gig where no mics are used for me.
Otherwise, that Gretsch is spot on for literally everything I ever do on the kit.

Sure, I could drop serious coin on a new USA Custom or a set of Brooklyn's, but why if what I have pleases me?

Play what you love & the rest will take care of itself.
 
BobC said:
Several weeks ago, we had a gig at a local venue, with a stage, backline gear and PA system supplied. The house drumset was a low end Ludwig. I stopped by a few days before to check it out. One look, and I decided I wasn't going to use it, I'd bring my DWs. The leader called me and practically begged me to use the Ludwig set, saying the soundman was a bit difficult, and would get weirded out if I brought my own drums, that he had the Ludwig set all mic'd up, blah blah. So, I said OK, I'll make the most of the house set. I brought my own snare, cymbals and bass drum pedal. Their pedal was a POS.

The drums sounded acceptably good. The bass drum was especially good sounding, in fact, and I was able to get the toms sounding decent as well. The gig went fine. And the soundman turned out to be a nice guy who knew what he was doing.

You don't need a high end drumset to make music, but it's nice having one, and ultimately, they're going to sound better with good heads and proper tuning. Years ago, I went to the Pocono Blues Festival in PA. All the drummers came out with Tama Rockstar or Pearl Exports. They all sounded OK, but when the drummer for the Fabulous Thunderbirds played his DWs, there was a very noticeable difference, at least to my ears. I'm sure the average concert attendee didn't notice or even care.
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I remember you mentioned you are endorsed by DW, don't you have to play DW only? A pic of you behind a Ludwig kit might be frowned upon right? I dont know the restrictions of the endorsement but I remember a Soultone player switched my 2002's out because he was afraid to be seen with anthing but Soultone cymbals...I laughed.
 
in that case you carry a little whatever brand BD logo in your shirt pocket and tape it to front of bass when necessary
 
What “was” fun about mid-range kits is you could explore different woods, sizes/configurations without going broke. My last was mainly to try a 24x14 kick- the 13/16 toms were a plus lol. I’ve owned played 16,20,22,24 kick and the 18 in is my last I want to try. I get a “kick” out of it. I know there’s those odd number kicks but I just find it odd.
 
Man, there's nothing wrong with a Stage Custom, but those kicks definitely don't sound anything like my Birch Absolutes or my Gretsch.

I also play a lot of toms, so I like em to sound good. No mid-range kit is going to beat my BCANs for clarity of note, and at any rate a new Renown now costs more than I paid for my first (the most expensive) BCAN kit...
 
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Yeah kind of. I wouldn't quite agree that a kick is a kick, if you stuff a pillow in it and a muffled head then yes you would negate some of the benefits of a better constructed drum but I would say the more expensive ones tend to sound better in my collection. Everyone loves my mapex saturn kick, people in bands I play with, sound guys etc, I think there is a clear advantage to that drum.

I have played cheaper kicks that sounded better than more expensive ones though so I can see why people might think that they're all the same.
 
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