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NSMD Drumset Buyer's Guide: Introduction
This buying guide was originally written in 1999 by Rich Ballas, and posted on the percussion usenet group rec.music.makers.percussion, which is still in existence. George Lawrence revamped and expanded the guide in 2000 and updated it every year up until 2009. In 2011 Matt Middleton came on board and began with the task of maintaining the guide.
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Getting Started
What brand should I buy for a beginner
drum set, and how much should I spend for a good quality, durable
set?
If your drummer is committed to learning and practicing the
instrument, my short answer is to spend around a thousand dollars on
a Student/Entry level standard five piece drum set with a set of B8
bronze cymbals and a throne. Street price for the drum set will be
around $600 to $1000, the cymbals $220, and the throne about $40. An
instrument in this price category will be good enough to last your
kid through high school and on into college if he remains a hobbyist.
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Where do I buy? Who should I trust?
Let me start off by saying where you should not buy. I recommend avoiding small music stores that do very little if any drum business, huge composite stores like Wal-Mart and Costco that deal with instruments as a side line only at Christmas, and the big box stores like Best Buy, Guitar Center and other 'big box' music stores.
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Discounts
List prices on drum sets and cymbals are like sticker prices on cars; No one pays list price. Discounts on the internet are anywhere from 25 to 40 per cent off of the manufacturer’s suggested list price for brand names. List prices for the cheap stencil sets are always inflated. The good major brands will require dealers to advertise at their Minimum Advertised Price limit (MAP) which is around 35% to 40% off the list price. This keeps dealers from getting into advertising price wars and helps protect dealers from internet low-ballers. Dealers can sell at whatever price they wish in their stores but they usually sell at MAP.
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"Star Power"- Hype or Not?
Yes, advertisements featuring paid/compensated endorsers can be the big influence on a young drummer's buying decision. Disregard the ads because drummer x is playing the pro custom stuff, not the student level drums. It's just an ad. Again, they are all similar at the lower price points until you get to the pro stuff. If the right color and the kid's favorite famous drummer's brand motivates him to practice and improve, great! But he will do just as well with any name brand. The most important thing is getting him started with a good private instructor. He’ll get over the brand difference in about 24 hours once his friends drool over his shiny new set.
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What are the brand names? They all look alike!
Looking at drum sets in stores can be very confusing for the first time buyer because the inexpensive sets and the expensive ones look very similar. Whether you are buying a cheap set or putting a bit of money into a set, a good idea to cut through some of the confusion is to stick with brand names. They are no more expensive than the off brands and will have higher resale and trade in value.
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The standard "five piece" drum set or drum "kit" (a British term).
The standard five piece drum set of any quality level consists of five drums of different sizes, and the associated metal stands and pedals. The number "five" refers to the drums only. The stands, pedals, cymbals etc. are not counted as "pieces".
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What is a drum made of?
A drum is a deceptively simple instrument. Generally, it consists of a wooden cylinder called the "shell" usually made of about six plies of hardwood about a quarter to half inch thick that is formed in a mold with glue, moisture, heat and pressure. This cylinder will either be painted or stained and sealed with a clear lacquer or, less expensively, covered with a plastic (PVC) colored wrap that is glued to the shell.
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DRUMSET ROUNDUP
There are five basic grades and price ranges of drum sets.
- 1. Inexpensive Stencil Drum Sets
- 2. Student/Entry Level
- 3. Performance Level
- 4. Pro Stock
- 5. Pro Custom
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Drumset Alternatives
I’m not going to go into great detail about these alternatives since the goal of this article is to explain drum sets for the first time buyer and these types of sets do not normally fall into that category, but there are some who need one of these type sets because of noise, space or transportation issues.
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What about cymbals?
This is the short answer: There are three levels of cymbals; Brass, B8 Bronze, and B20 Bronze. The brass is the cheap stuff. The sound is dull and will suffice only as practice cymbals for uncommitted beginners.
Cymbals should be made of bronze. The B8 (8% tin, 92% copper)alloy bronze cymbals are the good beginner and intermediate quality cymbals and are also called “sheet” cymbals because the cymbals are stamped from sheet metal, a less expensive manufacturing process. Some pro level cymbals are also made from this alloy.
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Warranty
Warranties range from one to three years on shells, parts and defects, none on replaceable parts like heads. Cymbals are usually warrantied for a year. Most of the companies are very good about replacement. Most drum shops are more likely prepared to make immediate warranty replacements and repairs from their stock while full line music stores are less likely to have these parts in stock.
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NSMD Drumset Buyer's Guide: Introduction
-
Getting Started
-
Where do I buy? Who should I trust?
-
Discounts
-
"Star Power"- Hype or Not?
-
What are the brand names? They all look alike!
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The standard "five piece" drum set or drum "kit" (a British term).
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What is a drum made of?
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DRUMSET ROUNDUP
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Drumset Alternatives
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What about cymbals?
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Warranty
