1st Drum set

[Roflcopter]

I'm starting to gain interest in drums, and I would like to expand my musical ability. Do any of you bassist/drummers know of any drums that are cheap that are good for starters? I don't need anything fancy, just a basic 5 or 4 peice set.

[T-Bird]

Hi.

As a matter of a fact I bought a cheap POS Millenium e-drum set just yesterday.
In all fairness I have to admit that my first set in the late 80's was a Pearl World double BD set with 10 cymbals though . This is only my second set as I quit drumming alltogether when I sold that dinosaur kit.

As You probably don't have too much experience with drumming, I'd strongly suggest that You look for e-kits. Established drummers find them quite hard at first, some won't (don't want to ?) ever learn to play with them. The feel, touch and about everything about them is different than with acoustic drums. No problem if You're just starting out.

However the benefits are manyfold. Ease of transportation, ease of maintenance, relatively silent, so practising isn't a problem. The last, but not least, the gig volume is "easily" controlled. "Easily", because e-drums have a huge drawback in one regard. E-drums need a hefty amplification to match a hard hitting acoustic kit drummer. When I did pro-sound back in the day, the e-drums were a rarity, but the few acts that had those were quite problematic. The low/low-mid amps starved QUICKLY, and the synth BD was really hard on the cabs. Also the on stage monitors were at their limit. E-drums required totally different EQ ing and compression than an acoustic ones. The sound was fantastic at the end though.

When I was calculating between the e-drums and acoustic kits, I found out that e-drums cost about twice when gig ready.

As for where to buy: CL, e-bay, fellow musicians etc. It seems to me that almost everyone has an old POS kit in their basement (Just like Token had the bass in his...)

Regards
Sam

[Roflcopter]

http://houston.craigslist.org/msg/989295203.html

Is this a good starter set?

[johnnyflats]

I dont play drums but it seems that this kit needs quite a bit of work, why dont you save up and buy a proper kit, you can pick em up for under 200 quid from reidys in blackburn.
Decent shop.
Check it out.
Reidys.co.uk.

[johnnyflats]

I must apologise, i have no idea where your from in the world.Either way you should get a decent drumkit for decent money.
Goodluck

[stickytape706]

I have been playing drums since I was 5. A decent first set up would be a Pearl forum series. You can find them used all over craigslist. Dont get me wrong their are others but from where I am from the pearls had the best resale value...

[Bard2dbone]

I bought my daughter a kit for her birthday/Christmas this year.

I found a PDP FS series kit on Craigslist for $500 with hardware and cymbals. But the cymbals were crap (B8's) and I know how all my drummer friends were back in the day. So I started lurking more and more on Craigslist to find better cymbals. And I ordered the two other pieces available to make it a seven piece, which is all that is possible with this series of drums.

I found a guy selling Zildjian A Custom Mastersound hihats for $125, and a tired looking Zildjian 22" ride that he's had since '78 for $75.Then the hunt was on. I eventually also found an A Custom 18" china, an A Custom crash, an Avedis crash, and an Armand splash.

But even getting killer deals on the cymbals, I ended up spending most of a thousand bucks, with no guarantee that she'll stick with them.

I'm a little scared.

[T-Bird]

Hi.

OP, the link is removed already, but IMHO/IME a good beginners set is always a complete, working package, not something You have to build or repair. Unless You have unlimited funds, which I think isn't the case here.
This applies IME to everything, "construction kits" usually end up being really expensive no matter what the equipment.

Bard, with prices like that on the cymbals, I doubt that You'll be getting a hit if she decides that drums are not her thing. Quality never goes out of style .

Regards
Sam

[Bard2dbone]

I'm pretty sure I could sell it at a profit. But I'd rather grow my own in-house drummer to jam with.

And you're definitely right about them getting expensive when you build them up. I didn't really think about till I was almost done and realized that if I'd paid full new price for the cymbal I was holding, it would have pushed me to a thousand and double the original cost. Of course I got that cymbal for $300 less than new cost, but I wasn't done yet, either.

Scary.