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Drum Set Buying Guide
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A drum set consists of drums (snare drum, tom toms, bass drum), metal hardware (snare drum and cymbal stands, high hat and bass drum pedals, and seat), cymbals and additional items known as traps (cowbell, woodblock, etc.).

Drums come in various sizes. Though you can buy them individually in just about any combination of sizes, the companies that make them frequently sell them in common groupings. A smaller size grouping is appropriate for light rock, jazz and smaller kids. A larger grouping is good for louder rock and larger kids. Here are some of the popular sizes and their groupings (depth is first measurement, width is second measurement).

The drum companies are Yamaha, Pearl, Taye, Tama, DW, Premier, Sonor, Ludwig, Gretsch and a few others. Most offer several lines of sets. There is usually a premium (top of the) line, a middle line (or lines), and often two or more economy levels – cheap and cheaper.

For starters, we recommend an economy level of drums. They’re relatively inexpensive (the top of the line set can be more than five times the cost of the low end line), and they look and sound very good (the quality of workmanship is surprisingly high). In fact, we’ve found that, with well tuned, good drum heads the sound of some economy drums is almost indistinguishable from higher levels of drums. The quality of the hardware and the finish are often the only indications that it’s a lower line of drums.

Frequently the economy level comes with all hardware (cymbal stands, bass drum pedal, high hat pedal and snare drum stand, but no stool – which we recommend you acquire with the drum purchase) Cymbals are not usually included in new sets, however relatively inexpensive cymbal packs (Sabian, Ziljian, Paiste and others offer these) are available at additional cost. These packs include a pair of high hat cymbals and a crash/ride and cost around $200. The quality of cymbal you get in a pack is okay for beginners, however we’ve observed that within one year many students start hearing the difference in quality between these cymbals and better cymbals, so you may end up upgrading cymbals before upgrading drums. If you do, save the old ones. It’s not worth it to trade them in, and they’ll be a selling point when and if you sell the first set. Excluding cymbals, we’re currently seeing brand new economy sets sell for around $500 (Yamaha and Pearl) to $700 (Yamaha Stage Custom, Pearl Export or similar lines of other brands), depending on brands and qualities. As mentioned earlier, a starter cymbal pack sells for around $200, so figure on $725 to $950 when you put it all together.

Appropriately, an economy drum set comes with fairly cheap heads, which will get you started. Head replacement is inexpensive (about $60 for a set of the batter or striking heads of a 5 piece set). Properly mounted, good quality heads can greatly improve the quality of sound of inexpensive drums.

If you are in the market for higher lines of drums, you probably already know much of this information. Most people buy the lower lines first, then upgrade as they know more and hear the differences (which, like audio equipment, are more subtle as you go up in quality). Of the higher end drums, we recommend Yamaha, DW, Pearl, Gretsch, Premier and other comparable nationally advertised brands which can be found in publications such as Modern Drummer. There is much more information than we we can give you here, so we suggest you buy or subscribe to some of the drum publications. Also the Percussive Arts Society is an excellent organization which has a website (www.PAS.org), monthly magazine, statewide days of percussion and an annual 4 day no-holds-barred national convention where you can meet up with about 6000 other drummers and percussionists.

When purchasing a used drum set, it is worthwhile to spend a bit of time researching so that you have enough information to make an educated decision. If you don’t know brands from head names, if you don’t have a sense of what was good at what point in history, buying used drums can be very tricky. For example, the saying "they just don’t make them like they used to" does not necessarily hold true in the drum world. While older drums can have a different quality of sound from the new ones, it is also true that, technologically speaking, the sound quality of new bottom of the line drums may be close to older top of the line drums. Getting into the drums themselves, the very nature is that there are many parts to them and so there are many factors to consider. Judge used drums by overall condition of the drums and hardware. Head condition is less important.

The rule of thumb for buying used drums is if you are shopping for an inexpensive set, it’s probably better to buy one new. New drum prices on the low end have dropped while quality has improved. In other words, technological advances have resulted in new models of the same line being built and sounding significantly better than the same model that came out 2-5 years ago. On the other hand a recently purchased set being sold by a parent whose child has lost interest could be worth buying. We suggest that you don’t spend more than $100 less for a used set than what it would cost new.

One word of warning: Stay away from cheap used drums that need stands or other parts. While the initial cost of the drums may be $200-300, additional equipment can drive up the end cost close to the purchase price of a new set, with none of the advantages of new set ownership.

Finally, the higher up in quality you go, the more used drums become a worthwhile option. We’ve purchased almost new Yamaha Maple Custom drums for $1500 without hardware. Adding hardware and cymbals brought up the end cost to around $2200, but new they would have been around $3500. That’s a significant saving. Our rule of thumb is if you can get a premium used set in great condition at a price close to a lower level new set, it is probably worth the money.

Good luck in your search. For questions and more advice feel free to email or call 802 345-1714.