@fartpoobox ohyeah "Dont know how to tune"... Dude the hardware on those kits are ass. Sure, it could sound "fine" when tuned properly and with good heads, but when it goes out of tune right after tuning the damn thing, I dont think its the drummer. Take your "superior drummer" attitude the fuck outta here. lmao
This proves the biggest thing I personally learned when I started drumming. The difference in a $400 kit and a 4k kit is noticable. But the difference between cheap cymbals and Good ones is incredible.
@Ikon: Please change your YT profile picture as it appears to be a mockery of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Mocking God places souls on the wide path to eternal damnation in the fires of Hell if they don’t repent/receive forgiveness for their sins prior to death. Peace!
Cant do proper tuning if the bearing is not done well. Especially in the floor tom, you cant get low tuning if the head/bearing is horrible. But pretty much you can make any cheap drum sound good.
Any drum set can sound amazing, it all depends on how well you tune it. I was once given the opportunity to tune a $200 drum set, and when done the owner could not believe it was the same kit.
Exactly! Tuning is such an important aspect that too many drummers--seemingly--overlook. They either overuse/over utilize muffling(usually in pursuit of that "studio" sound), or tune everything loose and dead. You can only compensate for warped or low quality shells/skins so much, but if you can't tune for shit, a kit will almost always sound like crap, no matter how expensive or high quality it is.
@@cbingham.mp4 honestly, I went through like half of covid feeling like I was getting WORSE😂 But, I’m thankful for that as through it I picked up guitar, and after I stopped playing drums for maybe 2 months ish, I started playing and seriously progressed on the drums and guitar. I’ve been a drummer for 7 yrs, and I’ve never progressed at anything more than I have at guitar and drums during covid
exactly....get earthworks microphones, professional pre-amps, professional mixing, and yes, a cheap kit will sound better than the average gigging kit.
FYI per Amazon seller. “ Question: Why does the image say the drums are made of 8 layer horizontal birch and the descriptions says they are poplar? Answer: Dear Customer, the product material is poplar, please refer to the product description. We are sorry for the wrong information displayed in the product picture. We have reported this problem to relevant departments for improvement. By Moukey SELLER on April 3, 2021”
Marketing at its best, wording is so important to get you excited of quality of product at an unheard of price! Then slowly but surely slip in the true type of wood which is indeed poplar. Poplar is just a percentage mixture of different wood as In mahogany, birch, mixed in with less expensive plywood sheets = Poplar which as we all heard sounds great for price tag!?!
1. I've gigged with way worse than that. 2. Killer tuning, recording etc 3. Sick grooves, sick tune, major Stanton Moore vibes. I kinda forgot this was a review video and focused on that music. Good job!
In my country we got a saying: "The indian is more important than the arrow". Instrument quality is important but more important is to have good musicians making good music
I definitely agree with you there, but the reverse can also be true, a very experienced, gifted Indian with a shit bow, may not do so well. Yes he can probably do fine with a sub par bow, probably better than an ungifted Indian with a high end bow, but after something’s quality gets too low it can become detrimental on skill level
Because US companies weren't exploiting the hell out of Chinese ones working for them until they get absolutely fed-up and decided to offer better value since they don't need to invest in any branding or distribution because of Amazon... Simple economic equation really :) The same way that at first Japanese instruments had a bad reputation in the 60's, a few Chinese compagnies will overrun the American ones they were working for oversea. Just like Yamaha, Sony, Pearl, Tama did...
Way better than my first kit. I started off with a CB700 in high school It was made with that wood composite material, like particle board. My parents bought it for me as a graduation present. So of course, I appreciated it and played the heck out of it for years. :)
Boy does this video bring back memories. Your $400.00 drum kit sounds absolutely fantastic. And, it has truly amazing hardware for it’s price point. My first drum kit was a four piece “Starlight” I received for Christmas in 1965. I was 12 years old. I didn’t realize how bad it sounded until I saw “Cream” live in 1967. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t tune the Starlight kit to sound like Ginger Baker’s Ludwig double bass kit. It was that failed drum tuning experience that awakened the love of drumming in me. I literally learned to play the drums by endlessly listening to “Fresh Cream”, “Disraeli Gears”, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” and “The Who Sell Out” slowed down to 16 RPMs on my parent’s stereo console. Thanks!
I am 15 I started drumming 4 months ago and I had to get a cheap electric drum kit because of neighbors when I get older I'll get myself an acoustic drum kit
It won’t sound like this,, unless he’s got good mics a mixing desk with eq compression and noise gates,,, but if he has? Then he will have a decent kit as well.
@@kitkat-zr6lg Hang in there young man, you are gaining valuable experience using electronics so when you get an acoustic kit you could have a hybrid kit and know how to get the best out of both. BTW, wear hearing protection, tinnitus sucks, trust me. I'm on a budget, but Alpine MusicSafe earplugs are a lifesaver. Played without plugs for over 30 years, have never played without them the past ten or so. Enjoy the ride and as OB IV above said, have fun!!!!!!!!!
You can get a great sound out of (almost) any kit with the right heads and tuning, but to get a sound as good as this with stock beginner heads is pretty good! Cymbals are another story - cheap cymbals will always sound cheap, but at least you can start practicing from the get go. I'm impressed!
Huge upgrade in quality from what "beginner" sets used to be. There are so many quality used sets available cheap right now though, seems silly to buy something like this new.
Well they reached out to him and asked for his opinion of them. A lot of people know nothing about drums at all and go and buy without taking the time to become knowledgeable. They distrust used gear because they don't know what they are receiving whether it's good or bad. So for those people this is a good deal and a great review.
the Ludwig Breakbeat kit is the best drumset in this price point and it’s not even close. that or a used old set, like the 90s set I bought for 135 dollars lol.
@@Zipgun66 That goes for any product. Unless I can see/feel/hear a used item in person, I always tend to buy new. I don’t have time to pay for someone else’s carelessness because more often than not it doesn’t matter what it is, it turns out to be used crap. Of course, that really depends on the item and the price. Goes for most things for me though.
My first drum set was a Slingerland 5-piece red sparkle that had been sitting for who knows how long in the back of a nearly forgotten storage room. Yeah, something like this might have been nice, back then. It was Christmas, 1986, I think; I would have been a freshman in HS, and all I wanted was a drum set (I'd been learning through school band for a few years)! My parents had gone to the only real musical instrument store in the area, and couldn't afford anything they had on display, or that they could order; not that any orders would arrive in time. Due to their work schedules and other issues, my parents hadn't been able to make this specific shopping foray until less than a week before the 25th. As my mom would tell it years later: (yes, this is pretty much how she described it) she was visibly heartbroken that they couldn't get me what I wanted. The salesman was sympathetic, but couldn't do much. After a few moments of my mother just staring at the sets on display, things she really knew nothing about, trying not to break down, and my dad just standing quietly, looking at the floor, with his hand on my mom's shoulder, feeling that nagging sensation of failure that a man might feel at a time like that, the store owner stepped out from his office, walked over to them, and softy said, "Come with me," and led them down to the back, back, back of the basement storage, where he opened a door to a room that clearly hadn't been opened in quite some time, with cob webs everywhere. He and my dad went in and started looking around. Among the odds and ends and other relics, they found the Slingerland shells, stacked together, no heads, and missing some hardware; it did have the "Set-o-matic" T-style double tom mounting hardware. Even though it was now past closing time, the owner took everything to the workshop where he cleaned things up, and started piecing together lugs and rims and felts and whatever else it needed. In fact, he actually did not have a wooden hoop for the bass, and ended up putting a standard metal rim on it! He then had to jerry-rig a way to connect the pedal, which was actually kinda ingenious, as I recall! He threw everything together with some well-traveled used cymbal and hi-hat stands, along with a 4-pc box set of Zildjian Scimitars (new, still cheaper than even the used stuff he had, I guess), and gave it all to them for a price that I doubt did much to move his books into the black. Oh yeah, and he included a well-cared-for used Ludwig stainless steel snare that I wish I still had! So, Christmas morning comes, and all the gifts had been opened, and there was no sign of the one thing I had really asked for! My mom asked me what was wrong, and I tried to put up a brave face. She told me how she and dad knew what I had had my heart set on, but, that they just couldn't afford any of the sets that the salesman had shown them (not a lie), and how horrible they felt. I tried valiantly to be mature about it, saying I understood, and that I really appreciated what they HAD gotten me, etc., etc. Thankfully, they didn't torture me for too long, as very soon, I began to hear the sound of drums coming from the other room! My older, then-college-aged brother, who was a bit of a multi-instrumentalist back then, was playing them, at least, until I ran in and kicked him off of the throne! That set served me all through high school and beyond, including with a couple of short-lived bands that actually did a few performances, and when I played in the pit for a few community theater musical productions (GREASE and WORKING are two of the ones I remember)!! So... no, I don't wish I had had anything OTHER that what I did as my first drum set!!
The drumming is excellent, of course, but that kit does sound great. It articulates really well in all the registers, even with the ghost notes on the perimeter of the snare. Sounds excellent. Don't think anyone could ask for more than that sound as a budget set.
For a low-end kit, that kit sounds like a beast! The toms sound great for an inexpensive kit. That is a value for a beginning drummer or an intermediate drummer as a practice kit.
When I was a kid in the 80's you ether had mega expensive pro kits, super expensive mid level kits or... affordable junk with laughable mounting systems and hardware. The drums sounded like Tupperware. $400 bucks will give you an amazing amount of quality now a days.
I concur. Oh do you remember the sad old CB700’s? Actually mine sounded ok if tuned well and played well, but the hardware was terrible. This kit above is impressive for the price. I’m also biased towards birch kits.
My first set was Ludwig, black lacquer with the gold strip around the middle. I bought it from an old man who was retiring from drums. I was 13 at the time and now at 69, I'm contemplating retiring mine.
I grew up starting with a CB700 kit in the early 80’s. It was more expensive and didn’t come close to this. I believe one important part of this kit you’ve demoed is the birch shells. This kit sounds great. Thanks for sharing.
It doesn't matter who made the drums or how good they look. It's all in how you tune them and MAKE them sound! My set is made of of a bunch of mix & match pieces picked up over several years/decades. It's now a 14-piece set (15, if I include the piccolo snare) whereas, it used only be a 12 or 13-piece set. At least twice, I've walked into a venue for a gig with this crazy looking set (some are silver, red, blue, woodgrain, white pearl (badly ripped up) and even 2 of them have contact paper on them with strawberries printed all over it) and the sound guy or someone else would start laughing and making fun of them. My right bass drum is a strawberry 20", my left is a woodgrain 22" but, I tune the 20" to the 22". In every case where this happened, the same guy would come to me after the show and tell me how amazed he was and how great they sounded!! Maybe, some day, I'll find a way to include the Simmons (5-piece) and V-Drums (13-piece). At one point, I even had a tympani, a 4-pad Synare and a set of 6" 8" and 10" Roto-Toms. I don't care WHAT they look like, as long as they do their job and sound good! I'm NOT there to look pretty, I'm there to play drums!!
Damn man these drums sound so good. I blew my mind open when you played this kit. And surprisingly, this kit is just $400 for one whole kit. Satisfying.
Lot of people don't realize that what's really important is the heads, the cymbals, and the person playing the drums. I'd take this kit out on a bigger gig and have everybody asking what kind of custom kit I'm playing lol. Great Vid!
My first kit was a Rogers 508 (Black, natch'; 5-pc, 1 crash, 1 ride, 1HH), with Sabian cymbals. Didn't come with a throne...but my dad found an old beat up piano chair (?) that was probably made in the 30's, at the dump. Put some padding on it wrapped with denim from some old jeans, and presto! Free throne (and yes, it had a 'screw' base post where you could simply turn the seat and raise/lower the height of it...pretty sweet! :) ). .. In fact, I got that set back in, iirc, 1983...and I *just* sold it last year to a young girl just getting into drums (I'm 51, btw). It's nice to know that that old Rogers drum kit is *still* being used for a person to enjoy learning and playing the drums! :) I think I sold it for something like $350 (canadian), it was originally about $1200 back in '83...so "expensive" for the time! My parents love me, what can I say? ;) .. Now? Just got back into drumming a couple years ago afer about a 25 year hiatus. Living in an apartment, I bought some e-drums... Alesis Strike Pro 11-pc, that, even with severe fibromyalgia, I manage to play for 10 to 20 minutes every couple of days. TOTALY worth it! Smile on my face every time! What can I say? I'm obviously a masochist... ;)
Yeah, this is miles and miles away from my first drum shit...uh, I mean KIT. Amaaaaaazing quality in this no name drum set. As usual, your playing is above and beyond. Thanks for another great video!
I am getting my first drums set today. It's a 5 piece full size adult Ashthrope set from Amazon at 400$. Watching all these drummers talking about cheap drums is very discouraging. Now I'm worried that they are going to sound like garbage. I'm broke, I cant afford to buy 1000$ drums. Sounds like tyhis is a very expensive hobby.
Got my first set in the mid-50's, when you had your choice between Ludwig, Gretch or Rodgers. I got the Rodgers for the "ball and socket" hardware. All top quality brands, a number of years before the lower priced/quality sets came out. Only downside was that I had to save for a helluva long time before I had enough money to buy!
Great video! Been noticing you’re uploading a lot more in the past year and a half and I just wanted to thank you for taking the time and effort to share with us!
This video proves something I have stated for several years now. The construct of drums today is very close, as far as the construct of the plies, shells and their machining operations for manufacturer are concerned. As long as the wood material is of an acceptable Janis hardness and bears proper plies, then the shells should be comparable to other drums. Where lessor expensive kits cut corners, is relative to their hardware. For instance the metal drum rims could be only 1.8mm thickness opposed to the more expensive 3.5mm thickness or the use of cast rims. From the thicker rims come better control of tension stresses. The same applies to lessor expensive stand tubing, as lessor expensive hardware is usually not treated on the interior, giving rise to future rust inside the hardware tubes. All of these concerns about hardware can be elevated, but that in turn drives the cost up. The other hardware issue is generally related to using small lugs, with nylon threaded nuts. The smaller lugs and the nylon nuts inside, are less capable at withholding tension stresses, than there larger metal counterparts. These things said, they are nothing which cannot be overcome given time and budget. So, one could start with the Estar kit and upgrade its components over time, and wind up with a decent kit in the long run.
@@NeighborGatsy He can just get old school single flange hoops from DFD. The type with the little lug hooks. Then he’d just have to buy the extra hooks and lugs. He could do any amount he wanted to. An even amount… odd amount… in small clusters… even totally random placement. (I wouldn’t advise the last one)
1992, an eleven year old kid in Brazil… no need to say our options sucked that time! If i compare this kit with my first kit i would say this one is PRO! Greetings and thanks for the vídeos!
Would love to hear them with better heads. I'm shocked that a company finally did what one could've done all along. Make a decent drum set for under 500 bucks.
My first drum set is what I’m currently playing They’re electric ⚡️ Alesis nitro mesh They get the job done for solo playing along to drum less tracks I like learning from watching One thing I learned from you is to use the floor Tom with almost a semi ghost note with the left snare hand I am gonna try to incorporate this for sure! Thanks!
My first kit was a Ddrum Dominion limited edition. I got it for 450 with some yamaha solid drive double kick petals. I was working at Burger King at the time and had to separate the payments on it I think 3 times? I bought it off of someone who was moving and had way to many drums that he didn't want to take with him. I still have this kit and honestly don't know if I'll ever play another.
There's so many great kits out there now for around this price range. It'd be nice to hear this out of the mix and without an EQ, just raw. Especially when advertising it's really a must.
WHY don’t you get as good and teach your students to mimic you? Where has excellence gone? I haven’t taught in years but is that all drum lessons are now?? RU-vid videos???? Gross.
When I started drumming, I bought to of the same kits from Guitar Center so that I can have extra toms and two real kick drums. I put ebony two ply heads on and learned to tune drums properly. Two of each same size tom and I was able to make them sound like different sizes. Other people couldn’t believe I spent less than $600 for so many drums and they sounded that good. Knowledge is power and the power I had was learned how to do things right. Cymbals were a “try and see” experiment process. GC had a really good return return policy for being able to try things and swap back out for something else. (Don’t know if they still do that since I moved away from any GC.) 13 cymbals, 9 drums, and the kit sounded amazing. Learning to tune your drums is probably the most important aspect to making any kit sound great.
My first drum kit cost me $50. I was 12, bought it myself. It was a Kingston blue sparkle consisting of a snare, a 20"" bass drum, and a rack tom. The cymbal was very cheesy and sounded about as good as a fry pan lid. My mom bought me a hi-hat from Sears for Christmas, and I was set. When I first started taking drum lessons from my school music teacher, he played that kit, and if a person didn't know any better, or wasn't within view, you would swear that he was playing a $5000 drum kit. Talent is important.
My first kit was a Mapex voyager kit that I got new for $400 off Ebay. 18X20 inch Kick (yes 18 kick) 12 inch snare. 8inch, 10 inch rack toms and a 12 inch floor tom. Used it without the 8 inch rack and added a second floor tom (16 inch). Replaced the stock heads with Aquarian Studio X heads and it sounded amazing. I got lots of complements at shows from sound guys and other drummers we played with. Best two comments were one from a sound guy who said it was the best sounding kick he'd ever heard and required almost no EQing or dynamics at all. Second was a comment from a drummer in a band we were opening for. He played it for a bit and said it felt like driving a sports car compared to his giant sponsored DW.
My first and only kit is a CB drum kit. Used. I got it for $100. Because I'm a painter, I stripped the wraps and made my own custom stain, got new heads cymbals and kick pedal. I Kept the stock hardware . I'm always getting compliments on how good it sounds. I pretty much want a new kit because of the brand name behind it. Pearl , DW... But I haven't bought one because I can't afford it and also my kit sounds pretty good. Cheap kits CAN sound very nice! Thanks for the vids man! ✌️
I think it's pretty cool how kits are so much cheaper now. Gretsch Catalina kits really were great. My first kit...never mind, my second kit was a great Rogers kit, BUT,, it cost about $800 and this was in '68!!! So kids today really don't know how great they have it. BUT, there's the fact that...who knows where the music biz is going to end up.
Got a Yamaha stage birch and now I feel silly cause just the shells are 700 ....that sounded great for 400 ,can't beat that deal with a stick lol never mind you can haha
Great video. My first kit was a low end Pearl from about 1979. I actually made it sound decent and used it into my college days in the late 80's. I even used it while playing in the jazz band in college because it sounded better than the late 1960's ROYCE kit they had. Oh yes and my own cymbals.These Amazon drums sound way better out of the box than what I had back then. I am from Louisiana and have gig'd all over the south and gave lessons for years and I always told my students that I could make a cheap set sound good if I wanted to but this set sound great for the price,,,,,,less the cymbals.
I just got this for xmas last month - my first drum set and I love it. The better I get at drumming the more it is like meditation, once I get into a groove - just feels soooooo good. Real drums are a world of difference; feeling compared to electronic kit, which was more about sound.
I have a mapex Bass wood kit. I took the wrapping of the shells stained cherry oak, with 7 layers of clear. It looks awesome and sound great. No one in my local scene has ever even questioned it's sound.
We're in the golden age of gear, wow. I wish there would have been cheap but good gear when I was a teen back in the 70s, damn. This drumkit even looks good; sharp glitter-blue finish going on. Looks very "Ringo-ey".
Hey, when my family moved to Seattle, Wa., from Minnesota, back in 66,' I had about 50--bucks saved up from mowing lawns, and washing my Dad's cars on his lot. One of the first things I wanted to do was go down to, "Myers Music Store," in Seattle to buy my first Set. Well, when it was all tallied up---it came to about $110.00. Dad was a bit on the 'Cheap' side. But he proceeded to tell me, I would "Owe" him some "Extra work." What am I gonna' say...NO?? We bought the Set, and over time I bought quality Cymbals, and got me some better "Skins" for all the drums. OH, and a better bass pedal. After tuning it to my precise preference---They sounded darn GOOD!
Can you try out the Sawtooth brand drums next? They cost a bit more than the eastar but they look good for being at the same price range as the eastars.
Cheaper than my first kit I bought in 87. Sounds better too. I'm glad you left the stock heads on. I've seen similar videos where the person buys a cheap kit but then replaces them all with really good Evans heads. That doesn't really tell you much.
I have an older Pacific kit (not with DW second hand shells) that I wouldn’t trade for just about anything. Once you’ve played long enough and learned a few tricks here and there, you can play on a budget. I took the resonate heads off all the toms, removed the bottom lug casings, put some Pinstripes on the batter heads, tuned them and haven’t looked back. I think one of the bigger differences between expensive kits versus cheaper ones is durability.
My first kit was a Percussion Plus $200 2nd hand eBay kit. It came with symbals that sounded like smacking a skip bin and hats that were genuinely worse to play than my kitchen table, by god it was fun though. The first symbal I ever bought was an old 22” Sabian Medium Ride and 10 years later it is still my favourite sounding ride that I have ever played and I once performed jazz with John Morrison. The hats I got to replace the stock ones were Sabian B8s and they are still my go to hats when I just want to jam today. Currently on a 90’s, dark red, seven piece Pearl Export. And to think it all started with a $200 eBay buy.
Wow have they come aways? Bought my first kit in 79 for $100. Little 4-Piece Polaris. Floor tom didn't match rack Tom and kick. Swapped out the snare for metal Ludwig marching band snare that used to be my sisters. 1 crash ride cymbal that ended up breaking. And a pair of cheap hi-hats. Why weren't kids like this one around when I was a kid? Sound really sweet for only $400 and also while using the factory heads. Kids are so spoiled these days LOL
This is on par with a $500 PDP set, which was arguably the best kit to start out with when I was first looking to get a kit. Good to see that the sound is so much more accessible. Amazon of all places!
I got a kit off Facebook market place for $80. I had my own cymbals so, replaced every head, tuned up and threw mics on it and it sounds amazing. Don't let name brand bullshit blind you. You don't need the top tier name brands, you're just buying a name.
Bought my first kit of my own at Sams Club for around 300$. What happens when trying to start a metal band, playin guitar, but can only find guitarists. U gotta learn the drums yourself. Bought that kit and 120$ double pedal and I played it till it fell apart! It had been painted and signed by tons of people from shows we played. Wasnt the best sounding or looking kit but it got me thru years of shows and learned alot of stuff on it. Nice playin!
Man I got this cheap 300 dollar drum kit for Christmas, a complete surprise to get me back into drumming. So I slapped Evans heads all around and it sounds magnificent! Back into drumming ….
Hell yea, meet the new standard for cheap house kits! Shame about the 6 lug floor tom, and no one should be surprised at the pie plate “cymbals” or death trap throne but this is still the best beginner set up you’ll find for $400! Also worth noting I’ve seen high end Gretsch kits with 5 lug 8” and 10” toms
Quiz time!... My first drum kit was made out of wood in 1985...covered on the outside with plastic and painted black on the inside. From what I could tell, it didn't have cut bearing edges. It came with 'doughnut' batter heads. The chrome plating on the (out of date) hardware was excellent, though. ANSWERS BELOW, PLEASE.
Sounds great to me. Def a great price and I think it would keep a beginner interested. It's like a great priced but decent beginner guitar that stays in tune with good action...it will keep a player wanting more and less concerned with bad sound, feel, quality, etc.
My first kit was a Pearl International that I bought for $500 in 1987, using money saved up from a paper route. Stock heads were crap. Kick pedal broke in the first year. No cymbals. Hardware was all single braced. If a kit like this existed then, I would have been in heaven.
