5 Ways To Upgrade Your First Drum Kit 

How would you improve your first drum kit? Let me know below in the comments!

Drum throne is practically number 1. Most underrated piece of a drum kit.

Two main things I've done so far was fixing the sympathetic snare buzz by placing a flat tissue in between the snare wires and the resonating head....and replacing the throne with a taller bar stool which improved my ergonomics of extending my foot to use the bass drum pedal. I may eventually find better ways to mount my cowbells ...and maybe attach a drum stick holder.

You're absolutely on point with the upgrades that will make the biggest improvement in sound and playability. The methodical order you laid out for them was right on point too resulting in significant levels of improvement each time.

Something that I think a lot of people either forget to or don't get for their kits is memory locks for floor tom legs and stands to keep them at the desired height. They won't have any impact on the sound of the kit BUT they will make set up and tear down much easier for gigs. It's a little thing but it can make a huge difference.

Thanks for the tips. Some people prefer to buy a brand new economy kit. I have read repeatedly from other drummers that it is best to buy a 3-piece used mid-range kit instead of buying a brand new all-piece economy kit. Use the saved money to buy a better snare drum and cymbals. With prices going up each year, this type of purchase will last for a long time, for both practice as well as live gigs. As always your mileage may vary.

When upgrading cymbals try to find deals on used gear. My current set up is a Sabian AXX plosion crash, and XSR 20 ride and zildjian 15inch big beats, and all together this cost less than £350 so it’s worth checking ebay

I took drumming lessons as a kid, but then stopped at age 13 or so. Now I've returned, and set up my drum kit again. I hadn't replaced anything when I was little, but now that I'm older and understand what things should sound like, I've started replacing stuff. The first thing I replaced is the throne. I would say a good throne is the first thing to upgrade. I got a roc-n-soc throne, and honestly, a good throne doesn't just add comfort. It encourages better posture, and allows for more free movement of your legs. Both things that will definitely affect sound a lot. I'm currently trying to convince my School to replace their wobbly broken throne, because it causes pain after an hour and a half of sitting in it, and forces me to slouch. After the throne, new snare and bass drum heads. Toms can wait. the snare and bass drum are the most used. Then, I'd upgrade the ride cymbal if you are doing a lot of jazz/stuff with the ride cymbal. I just upgraded mine from a Zildjian ZBT Crash Ride, to a used Sabian HHX Evolution Ride that I got from guitar center. I'm probably next going to upgrade my tom heads, because my toms do sound pretty dead, and then get a boom cymbal stand, because my drum set only has straight stands, and because one of my toms is connected to a cymbal stand, I can't get my ride into a place that is comfortable to hit, and doesn't interfere with the tom. I guess after that, I'll upgrade pedals and the rest of my cymbals. I would like to note, upgrade the cymbals first if they are those ones that are made by the drum company and sound like tin cans.

Excellent video, very useful for beginners!

You hit all my suggestions! Great video!

I’d go 1. Bass pedal or throne (depends on throne quality) 2. Remaining upgrade from #1 3. Cymbals 4. Heads 5. Hi-hat stand

informative and well made video

i think i’d swap 3 & 4 but other than that, great vid 😎 i may be biased though because i’ve never found my throne uncomfortable, but i’ve also never felt a higher end one 😅

nice job

The cymbals are a huge piece of making a great kit. I also think great drum heads / tuning will help any shells sound nice. Great video

I agree on cymbals and heads. The throne in my opinion shouldnt be bought if it is not comfortable. Many (brand) beginner sets do not even come with them so you should already have looked into a throne beforehand. I strongly disagree on the pedal before the snare though. Both are not that important as the rest, but you can absolutely tune a cheap pedal to almost feel like a premium pedal (if it has not some other major mechanical flaw), and you can do that way before you developed the skill to really need a new pedal. Also it basically does not really influence the sound. Snaredrumsound though is a cornerstone of your playing and you should pay attention to that from the first time you hold a stick. You can make a cheap snare sound awesome with good heads, decent wires and some experience in tuning, but good quality snare drums hold that tuning longer, tune up nicer and have a wider range of tunings that sound good on the same drum, where as cheap drums typically have their sweetspot somewhere in the high tuning range. The only exception I can think of right now is going double pedal early on.

I have that same cheap yamaha pedal that you showed and my next purchase is probably a DW 5000 lol. Great advice Mike!

well, for tip 2, , keep the old crappy cymbals to make nice effect stack ;;-) .

Great video. Do you have a specific throne to recommend for a larger size person?

Before all else, learn to get the best out of what you have. Learn to tune and set up your kit and get it sounding and playing as good as it possibly can before you spend any money. It makes it much easier to narrow down what the problem areas (actually) are.

In a nutshell, you should buy a middle-priced kit and/or second hand kit, on the long run it makes you save a lot of money.

I have been struggling with my kick drum pedal recently going faster speeds, I’m using the Yamaha hardware set that came with my kit. What kick drum pedal would you recommend that is the best option for me or do you think the Yamaha is good and just needs to be adjusted? Great video too I agree with all your points

I actually play a rouge drum set like that and I have to say the throne and pedals are very mid the pedal is a hollow base plate makes a bunch of noise and can’t be adjusted like at all the throne is uncomfortable after sitting on it for more that 5 minutes and mine had a deformed screw on the throne making it hard to sit still for long periods of time but aside from that it’s a really good beginners kit

0:30 THIS IS MY EXACT DRUMKIT!!!!! ;P;P;P Please help, my bigger tom keeps sagging due to use and those rubber ball clamps they have, I never seem to have my toms in the right postion either due to stand that attaches them ontop the kicker. am I doing sumthing wrong???? should i replace the tom stand with anything better??? anything you suggest?????

I would recommend upgrading the hi hat clutch. The worst thing is when that damned nut on the bottom unscrews on you during a rehearsal or gig.

For some reason I don't like the sound of the replaced cymbals. Surely it just a beginner set but an improvement means at least get it to intermediate level that could last a couple of years with proper hand technique. The first and cheapest improvement is by far changing the drumheads to Pinstripes or Hydraulics

What were the cymbals you used in this video

cool video... i'm not a drummer,,, but my brother are

Nice job. The harsh truth is while entry level drums have improved greatly past few decades you’re getting sold a false sense of pricing as the heads and hardware are crap. Owning and maintaining a drum kit can be expensive but with care the improvements last a long long time. As far as cymbals go…quality cymbals are expensive and are instruments in their own right.

love the vid and reasoning behind your choices , but here is my take: 1 & 2: great advice 3 Because not everbody is as fat as an American and snare sound is very important, I would change that to your nr. 5 advice (snare upgrade) 4 Yes! I would definitely do the same 5 If you are from the USA, buy the biggest and sturdiest throne you can afford. (Maybe use concrete) Anyone from the rest of the world: upgrade to a comforbable one with a spindle