My eldest son has expressed more than a passing interest in learning to play the drums, he can get lessons at his school so the advice I am looking for is about buying him a kit to practice with at home. I know diddley squat about drums so what is my best course of action? Not looking to spend a fortune so am I better getting a second hand 'name brand' kit or a brand new 'never heard of them before' kit? Obviously, some of these 'never heard of them before' kits are probably brands that are known within the drumming community, so please give me your valued advice

Cheers

Mark

Much better off getting a second-hand kit – at the moment, British brands such as Premier are going for peanuts on eBay. What was once a staunch mid-range or even top-end kit like the Projector or Resonator struggle to reach £350, and even the 90's flagship kits like the Genista and Signia often fail to clear £500.

Have a look for Premier Club, Royale, Projector kits, which are all 70's kits, as well as Artist Birch and Cabria (modern kits, but if you can find one (and they do come up now and again) a late 90's XPK is probably the performance bargain of the century – for around £250, you can get a fantastically built, great looking and more importantly sounding kit. Beverley are also highly underrated.

If you're buying second-hand, watch out for kits that are incomplete or need work. Often it's simply a case of cleaning the chrome and putting new heads on, but sometimes you can end up needing spares that are no longer in production and so difficult to get hold of.

HTH.

Oh, and steer clear of the 'beginners' pack kits – akin to a supermarket full susser, they're usually (badly) made of crap wood, with cheap heads, lugs and hardware, and are more often than not responsible for putting off beginners as it's so difficult to get a decent sound.

Couple of others worth investigating are a 90's Yamaha Stage Custom – a bargain brand new, but second hand an absolute steal for a decent entry-level kit (just watch out for the plastic-lugged ones – avoid).

Finally, if you're looking at second-hand, remember the sizes may be different to what's in vogue at present, which may put your son off, but more importantly if he's of smaller stature (I don't think you said how old he is) may make positioning the toms more difficult.

I'd seriously consider an electronic kit (in fact I did). the 'feel' of the decent ones isn't far off a normal kit and they can practice at any time without waking the neighbours etc..

I can't disagree with any of that

However, you'll probably also need some cymbals, unless the second hand kit includes them; they're not cheap and at a minimum you'll need a hi-hat pair and 1 crash/ride. Again, try second hand. Good brands are Zildjian, Sabian, Meinl, Paiste and Istanbul. Pearl used to do a budget range but I don't know if they still do

Like with most things, buy cheap = buy twice, but especially cymbals.

Finally, remember that a drum kit is not a quiet – or small – instrument. You can get practice pads to help muffle the sound but if practicing at home you'll need to consider the neighbours. A full size kit can also take up 6ft x 6ft of floor space or more.

If noise is a consideration then it may also be worth trying a s/h electronic kit from Alesis, Roland or Yamaha. Again, not cheap.

Have a look at http://www.drumwright.co.uk to get an idea of prices

I have to say, I don't think you could do much better than this:

http://www.drumclassifieds.co.uk/viewad.asp?id=50012491915100735

£170 with snare, absolute bargain.

Budget cymbal lines are Zildjian ZBT/ZHT/ZXT, Sabian Solar/B8 and Paiste 102/302/402 and Alpha.

Son is 12 and quite tall (5' 4") and all arms and legs 😀

Jakester – was hoping to spend less than that, are the Premier starter kits at £250ish new any good?

Less than £170? Or did those posts cross?

Couple that XPK with this cymbal pack:

http://www.birminghamdrumcentre.co.uk/product.asp?productid=1473

And you're laughing.

That XPK is just a shell pack – good value but a set of stands is going to bump up the price.

Compare with buying frame only vs a full bike

Jakester – posts crossed

btt

this looks like pretty good value to me.

5 piece kit including stands, pedals, cymbals (unspecified so could be awful) and even a stool

My son is 9 and also plays the drums. We now got him a lovely Premier Genista kit from ebay. Before that we had a mapex (both used). I'd say please remember the cymbals. My kit came with a huge case full and some of these would have been around £300 new on their own! Even my son can really hear the difference and is fussy which cymbals he plays. The cheap ones really do sound rubbish. Also a new set of skins can really bring a old kit back to life.

Simone

Seems like a good excuse to post a pic of some drums…

Just hauled them out of storage to start playing again, last played them 12 years ago.

Has anyone tried moongel damper pads?

sorry to hijack but ive got a pearl session series kit that i havent played for about 5 years and the skins on them were a few years old before that, can anyone give me some skin suggestions i hear evans are good? remos at the mo but i fancy a change.

or does anyone have an idea of its value roughly because an electric drum might suit me better at my new house?

I've got an electronic set I could be tempted to part with. As others have said, you then have the option of headphones so you (and your neighbours) don't have to listen to him practising…

Oh-ho, if it's gear pron you're after:

1980s Gretsch USA:

Premier Genista:

Ahhh Drums! Always wanted a set, can't play though. Had a go on a set of electronic drums and was well impressed, thats the way I'd go.

alexxx – Member
sorry to hijack but ive got a pearl session series kit that i havent played for about 5 years and the skins on them were a few years old before that, can anyone give me some skin suggestions i hear evans are good? remos at the mo but i fancy a change.

or does anyone have an idea of its value roughly because an electric drum might suit me better at my new house?

My head preference is single-ply coated batter and resonant – Aquarian being my manufacturer of choice at the moment. They give a very wide open tone, but that's not to everyone's taste.

Evans EC2 heads are good if you're looking for that 'pre-damped' studio tone, but they're not cheap.

If it's a Session Maple, then maybe £300 – 500 depending on sizes and condition perhaps?

Electronic kits aren't as quiet as many people think, particularly if they're rubber pads – the 'thud' tends to go straight into the floor.

Sonor – Member
Has anyone tried moongel damper pads?

Yep, it's fairly effective. I'm not bothered by what most people perceive as 'ring' – it's simply the drum doing what it's designed to do, resonate. As long as it's tuned properly, damping should be minimal. That said, if you do want a more damped tone, a couple of squares of Moongel can be just the ticket. I always have some with me, just in case there's a weird acoustic in the room.

Cheap starter kits are rubbish and the cybals are shocking. If you want a decent sounding kit, go secondhand.

If you want to remain sane and avoid an ASBO, spend out on a Roland/Yamaha electronic kit. Again, the cheap ones aren't great. Go for one that has mesh heads and cymbals that have a degree of resemblance to the real thing. You need to go to a decent drum shop to understand this better, but then look online for a used one.

The other plus of an electronic kit is they don't take up so much room.

@Jakester & Sonor…

Wow!!!!
Great pictures!!!!
Great Kits!!!

SB 🙂

If you want to remain sane and avoid an ASBO, spend out on a Roland/Yamaha electronic kit.

The kit I may be tempted to part with is a Roland one (the model escapes me, I can find out). As Spongebob says, the other advantage is compactness(?) – I had it set up in half a box room, in a space about four-foot square, try that with a full kit…

Anyway, if you're interested, drop me a mail.

Thanks for all the advice, am based in the midlands just south of brum, any shops anyone recommend I can go and have a chat to?

On a technical note – something i WISH i'D DONE AT THE VERY BEGINNING – GET HIM TO LEARN "OPEN-HANDED", RATHER THAN THE MORE USUAL "CROSS-HANDED" STYLE. lEFT HAND ON THE HIHAT, RIGHT HAND ON THE SNARE – IT GIVES SO MANY MORE OPTIONS. tHE ONLY DRUMMER i'VE SEEN DOING THIS (ALTHOUGH i DARESAY THERE'S MORE) IS bILLY cOBHAM. sOME OF HIS RHYTHMS ARE JUST AWESOME AND COULDN'T BE DONE WITHOUT THE OPEN STYLE OF PLAYING…

Sorry about the caps, but i can't be arsed to type it all out again..

votchy – Member
Thanks for all the advice, am based in the midlands just south of brum, any shops anyone recommend I can go and have a chat to?

Votchy, I'm in Kings Heath – would be happy to meet for a coffee and a chat, if you'd like?

Birmingham Drum Centre (Brum Drum) is great – http://www.birminghamdrumcentre.co.uk – a massive warehouse full of stuff.

PMT on Lawley Middleway in Birmingham isn't bad – not as much stuff, but generally pretty helpful.

If you're down around Leamington way, Vic at DR:UM is fantastically helpful, albeit a much smaller shop so he probably can't match the big boys' prices.

Oh, and steer clear of Fair Deal Music in town – rip off merchants of the highest degree.

Bit of a HiJack!
Anyone have any options for someone wanting to get into drumming? I'd have to have electronic drums and not too big! I've narrowed it down to these 3:

Roland HD1
Roland TD3 (2nd Hand)
Yamaha DTXpress III (2nd Hand)

Milkie – Member
Bit of a HiJack!
Anyone have any options for someone wanting to get into drumming? I'd have to have electronic drums and not too big! I've narrowed it down to these 3:

Roland HD1
Roland TD3 (2nd Hand)
Yamaha DTXpress III (2nd Hand)

Avoid the HD1 – it's not really a *serious* instrument in that it doesn't really offer much scope for adjustment or upgrading.

Either the TD3 or DTX woudl be good, though I do think you can't beat (hoho!) proper acoustic drums.

The Yamaha would probably shade it for me, as the module offers more features and 'play along' songs, although the V-Drum backing tracks can all be downloaded from the Roland site.

Jake,

am in Redditch, will drop you my number later in a mail, much appreciated

Mark

Milkie – YGM

I'm quite partial to Remo Pinstripe batter heads on my Mapex M Birch acoustic kit. I'll post some pics later. My new Black Panther snare came with Ambassador coated batter head & I see no reason to change it

My electronic kit is on loan to a friend at the mo as I'm not particularly keen on it. It's an Alesis DM5 Pro. Not as nice to play as proper drums but is quiet. Apart from the thump of the kick pedal through the floorboards…

Jake

YGM

not a great picture & not complete either, but:

and an even worse picture, but at least it's complete:

Most of the Zildjian cymbals in the first pic have now been replaced – ZBT are ok at first but pretty soon you realise they're not that good.

I now have:
Zildjian A Custom 14in hats
Sabian Pro Sonix 10in splash
Sabian AAX 15in Studio crash
Sabian AA 16in Studio crash
Paiste Alpha 16in thin crash
Sabian Pro Sonix 18in China
Zildjian ZBT 20in ride – that's next for the chop… need a nice heavy ride with a good bell sound, can anyone recommend anything?

Milkie
If you are going down the electronic route I have a Roland PM10 drum monitor for sale.
Let me know if you are interested.