Switching from beginner drum set to much better drum kit

[brandondrury]

Hello,

I was just reading the thread on beginner drum sets. I was wondering differences you guys have noticed when switching from beginner junk to a "real drum set". I know getting out of the junk guitar world made an enormous difference in my playing back in the day and I was curious if the situation was similar to growing drummers.

Brandon

[lumpy]

Most aspiring drummers that start out on the low end drum sets; examples: Sunlite, CB-700, Pulse; have to move up to a better drum set by default. Most inexperienced drummers beat the shit outta their equipment and the lower priced stuff just doesn't hold up as well, but modern beginner drum sets hold up longer than the crap they used to make, ie Apollo, Thor.

If I just had to have a budget priced drum set, I would at least buy it from a music store so I could talk to someone who has some knowledge. And read plenty of reviews on the products I'm looking at. Most name brand drum companies have a line of beginner drum sets, although most are made at the same factory, and for basically the same price as those cheezoid drums at the Wal-Mart check out lane I could have some cheezoid Ludwig, or Gretsch, or Pearl, or.....

Back when I started drumming in the mid-80's there wasn't any quality beginner drum sets. And with only two music stores in the area my choices were as limited as my budget. I had to buy a very used set of Rogers in be-bop sizes. The hardware was wore out; anyone who's ever owned an old set of Rogers with the Swiv-o-Matic hardware can recall the "sliding tom effect" that plagued Rogers drums after years of playing. There was no vintage market back then either; everyone coveted a hot pink set of Pearls like Ricky Rockett, but suffered on old stuff that is worth thousands now. The crapped out hardware really forced me to learn how to repair drums on the fly though.

So to answer the question; play em till they're wore out.
Lump

[DrummingFireman]

I been playing my Pearl Forums "el cheapos" since I started playing regularly about 7 years ago. It took alot of experimentation with heads, muffels, and tuning to get them sounding good. My biggest problem, at first was the muffling.....I got em to where they sounded good to me, behind the kit, and it was not till my first show with my old band where I heard someone else beating around on my kit that I realized how crappy they sounded. So after removing pretty much all the muffling (still have foam strips on the toms) and learning how to properly tune the drums....I got them sounding pretty good. Brandon thought so when we recorded with him, so that made me feel good.

The biggest thing that kills my sound....is "entry level" cymbals. It pisses me off when I hear them on our recording....and it pisses me off that I dont have the 1500 bucks to get the ones that I want...lol. So, in conclusion.....good heads, and proper tuning goes a loooong way in your sound, save your pennies and get good cymbals.

[brandondrury]

One the other side of the spectrum, a buddy of mine has a mega nice DW. The drums sound great, but he spent on his cash on the DW drums and kept his old cymbals. It was NOT happening! After saving a little cash, he got new cymbals and the whole kit sort of came together. So I guess I second the notion that cymbals are often overlooked.

Brandon

[In10city]

I used to think that the more you spent on the drums, the better they would sound but that may not be the case. Today's drum heads are made so well that they can surprise you. My uncle gave my my first drum set when I was 9 years old. It had really old heads on it when I boght it and I eventaully replaced them with cheap replacement heads over the years but the drums always sounded bad to me, and recorded like cardboard boxes.

When I finally bought a new Tama set, I was amazed at how well the toms sounded. They seemed to resonate with a pure tone that I though was attributed to the drums. I was recording 1 song for a fundraising project and decided to try it on the "old" set just for fun. I put some brand new Evan's heads on the batter side and new Evan's resonant heads on the bottom and was blown away. The 16" floor tom had a deeper and nicer tone than the newer Tama floor tom. It was then I discovered the importance of good drum heads, they can make almost any drum sound better.

I also agree with DrummingFireman and Brandon, cheap cymbals are much harder to improve upon so spare no expense on them.

[DASJESTYR]

I personally dont believe in "beginner" sets. You can have good drums or bad drums. As long as the kit can be tuned well and consistently, youre good. Everything after that is just preference. Every major breed of drumset has a distinctive sound. Choosing them specifically will come when youre more advanced.

For learning, or "beginning" i firmly believe that the kit should be a decent kit. And when I say that, Im saying that drums can be arranged where you can play comfortably and each drum can be tuned properly to aid in ear training. The snare drum should be responsive so the student can learn that not every time they touch the snare it has to be in the center and loud. You can find a kit that meets these criteria from every echelon you can think of, $1 - $6000

Buying a shitty kit because youre just a beginner is only going to poorly train your ears and possibly your technique. Both of these things are exremely difficult to correct in the future. Save yourself the time and pain and buy a good kit the first time.

PDP has a good array of kits. Even their "crappy" kits sound decent.

As far as "switching from a beginner drum set to much better drum set" just ask yourself a couple questions:

- Do you know the difference between the sound of birch and maple?
- Do you the difference between your standard shell sizes and fusion sizes?
- Can you come with a reason to switch from Ludwig to DW other than you heard something like "all the pros use dw"?

If you have a decent kit but cant answer questions like these, then you're probably not ready to "upgrade" because these are major reasons why more advanced players "upgrade". Dont buy for brand names, buy for the sound that you WANT.

Oh and another thing. Maybe you sat in a guitar center and played this sweet ass DW kit and you loved the way it sounded. Dont sell yourself on just that. Think about the other things like heads! If a store has a sweet kit on display, chances are they put nice heads on them and tuned them properly. I cant count how many times i sat down behind a yamaha stage custom or a sonor and thought to myself... man... these sound like ass. Im not gonna buy those. One day in my inexperienced youth, it dawned on me that wait... those suckers werent even tuned. I listened to Thomas Lang... he plays on Sonor drums that previously sounded like crap... but he has good heads and tunes them properly and his sounded great. Duh. I thought that Yamaha stage custom sounded kind dry and boxy... but Carter Beauford of Dave Matthews band... his drums sound great... hmm. Oh wait... tuning and mic'ing... better sound...

Another thing to consider that people forget about in seeking their desired sound is Mic'ing. Even a "beginner" kit sounds about 1000 times better when its mic'd properly. Perhaps you should invest in mics and monitoring system first before blowing $6k on that DW kit. I think its better for your development to learn in a close mic'd environment anyway. It really does make a difference in the way you play. It even helps you see certain things like fills and techniques that you would never have thought of playing unmic'd.

- 7 piece Nady mic package = $160
- mixer and PA package = $700+
- Overall better initial investment

Moral of the story,
- Dont buy a shitty kit, even in the beginning
- Research the bigger picture, what you think might make you sound better maybe a misconception.

[lumpy]

If they are round, they will sound.

My next kit will be electric. BTW, where is our resident electric drummer?

Lump

[thesilentdrummer]

A few things I was Brought up on for buying a set:

It doesn't matter what its made out off (unless its made out of like plywood...). whats more important is if there are dents/dings/damage to the shell.

A main difference between a "beginner set" and an "advanced set" is the type of hardware. When I bough my stage custom, what was it, 6 years ago, the mounting system used by the stage custom (YESS mounting?? whatever its called, it uses a smaller hole to connect the drum (or a rim mounting hold, like on my SC advantage)) and has a ball and socket Joint for a basically any arrangement opportunity. Also, it is sturdily built and won't allow the drum to move on you when you hit it.

Additionally, head/tuning have more to do with the sound than the shell (unless there is damage... but we took care of that already). I am embarrassed to say that I played with improperly tuned stock heads (except kick and snare... I replaced the snare head, and on the way out to my car when I first bought the set, the guitar center people put a giant dent in my kick head, so they gave me a new one) until a couple weeks ago. The difference was amazing. I should have recorded the sound before the switch then after just to remember and demonstrate.

Finally, to quote a wise person, "I record musicians, not instruments." If you know how to play the instrument right so that you get the sound you want out of the drums, how to properly tune them, and how to play them to the best advantage of the song, you are much better off.