High-End Drum Kits

Some while ago I was at a major drum manufacturer’s annual dealer day. The star endorsees line up and too it in turns to blast us with the new products. Endorsee eA’ played the budget kit and endorsee eB’ played the expensive one. A dealer sitting next to me leaned over and said, iThey’ve shot themselves in the foot thereOe” Why’s that, I asked? iWell, the cheaper kit sounds better than the expensive one.” Oh dear.
This is a peculiar thing about drums, and a puzzle for many drummers. The sound of a kit relies on many variables, not least the expertise and touch of the player. I’ve always felt that, whit it’s possible to recognize a clear difference between, say, the sound of a Fender Stratocaster guitar and a Gibson Les Paul, it’s impossible to listen to a record and say that’s a Gretsch drum kit, or that’s a Mapex drum kit. But it is possible to say, with some certainty, that’s Max Roach, Ginger Baker, Stewart Copeland or Tony Williams.
A player’s sound is his or her trademark and is as distinctive as a singer’s voice. This is true of all good instrumentalists. So if a cheap kit can sound as good as an expensive kit, is there any point in shelling out all that extra money? Quite definitely, yes. There is a difference in sound between a good budget kit and a massively expensive kit, although it’s actually quite small. (It’s not just drums: how many classical music buffs can really tell the difference between a Stradivarius and a modern good quality violin?) Great musicians have their own sound; irrespective of what brand instrument they play.
But buying the best possible instrument enables that performer to realize his or her own sound to its fullest. Like driving a car, it’s when you get behind the wheel that you really appreciate the difference. I would humbly suggest that today’s professional drums are characterized more by the similarities in their sound than the differences. This is meant as a compliment. What I’m really saying is that they’ve all got their acts together and there are no real duds.
They all make accurately rounded shells with decent bearing edges and they all use birch or maple. You can argue that one make is a little better than the next, but frankly no one is going to know except, possible, you the player, and only when you’ve been on intimate terms with the drums for a while. Certainly if you go to a concert it won’t make the slightest difference whether the drummer’s playing Sonor, Pearl, Brady or Brady or Orange County. What will make a difference is whether the drummer’s any good. (And whether you can hear him through the wall of PA gear.) So what are you spending your money on?
How do you make a choice? And crucially, how does each manufacturer go about persuading you their product is, after all, the best? Well, lest I appear too cynical, I certainly do think sound comes into the equation when we’re making our decision. The problem is that until you’ve taken the drums out on half a dozen gigs in different rooms it’s very difficult to make a valid assessment, to know whether you’re going to be happy with them in the long term. Which is not to say that you can’t infer from the design and build quality, which make has the best chance of sounding good, of being easy to tune, of being reliable and of offering maximum resonance with a convivial timbre.