My WHOLE KIT review
Hey all,
I figured I’ll write a huge review on multiple items. I'll try to get pictures up later, but I don’t have a camera on me right now. My kit contains...
-Drums, Power beat:
14x5.5 steel snare drum,
12x9 Tom,
13x10 Tom,
16x16 floor tom,
22x16 bass drum,
6", 8" and 10" Roto toms
And a 4" tama black cowbell.
-Cymbals, all Paiste:
Pst5:
16" medium crash,
10" splash,
20" medium ride,
14" medium hats,
Alpha:
16"china
And stock 'meridian' cymbals.
-Stock heads, and also an Evans clear 22" Gmad With and a 14" coated genera, 12" 13" and 16" Brixton double ply clear heads.
-Hardware: PDP402 double pedal, Powerbeat hardware that came with the kit, A DXP Double braced stand, an unknown clamp and boom arm (that even though I don’t know the model of and therefore this can't help, I’ll throw in anyway), a Mapex B323A boom stand.
The Powerbeat drums are a cheap brand I think made in Finland. The shells are I think 8 ply, though I don’t know what wood exactly is used. They originally came with a disgusting looking blue Wrap which peeled constantly, so I took the wrap off and put varnish over what was then bare wood. The wraps were only glued to the shells in a very small strip.
-The 14x5.5 snare is, so I’ve heard, essentially a sheet of steel bent into a crude circle. The bearing edges are uneven, and where the steel meets to make the circle, there is about 2 millimeters sticking out of the top, from unevenness. It comes with 6 lugs, which rust pretty quickly. The strainer and butt plate were broken within a year. There was an internal dampener, but it broke within a month and I threw it out pretty quickly, so I’m not really sure what it looked like or anything. Every single stock head on the entire kit was a single ply clear head, and every single hoop was a pretty standard triple flanged hoop.
My friend, who is a master at tuning (so the school drum teacher Sais) came over and attempted tuning the snare for over 3 hours. After he’d done all he could, the sound was still absolutely horrible. It sounded like hitting a bucket with loose nails on the top, bouncing off it, with seemingly never ending overtones. I looked around on the internet at tuning tips, and spent a long time trying to learn how to tune. After I’d done all I could, still was pretty horrible. I decided to try a new snare head. I ended out choosing the 14" coated Evans genera. I tuned it as well as I could, and experimented with different sized pieces of blue tacky stuff to try to control the overtones. I thought it sounded great, for about a day, because it was such an improvement on the old sound, but I quickly realized that while it was BETTER, it still wasn’t GOOD. Hands down, the worst snare I’ve ever had the misfortune to see. Though I must say, the stock snare head lasted quite some years.
-The toms are mounted off the bass drum. I’m not sure what it's called, but there are pipes that go into the drum to hold it there. As you may know, this kills a large portion of the resonance and mixed with a low quality shell... not good.
The stock heads that came with the toms were, as said above, single ply clear heads. The owner of the shop had actually been quite nice and tuned the toms before we picked up the kit... he didn’t get much business and apparently 'was bored'. That shop has since closed down.
The heads got quite dented quite quickly, due to my very young sister actually stabbing the with the sticks. I had hem for about... a few months before that happened, I can’t quite remember what they sounded like.
I put up with it for a few years, and then decided to get some new heads. 'Brixton' heads (also a cheap brand from Finland) were the cheapest in the shop, so I got them. I put them on the kit as soon as I got home, and tuned them up before playing them.
To my amazement, they actually sounded SUPERB. A lot of punch, with a good amount of resonance. This was before I heard a pro kit with good tuning, and I came home and was then again quite upset with the kit again.
The tube that goes into the shell... on the other end of this tube, it is connected to the tilter. Both of these tubes simply fell out of the tilter, within a week of each other.
Weirdly, unexplainably, there was a small hole left over. I slid the tube back into the holder at the tilter, and this hole is about the size of a nail, so I put two nails in and they now sit in place again. Though, this coupled with a c***py mounting system now gives me the 'option' to simply move my drums by pushing them. I can move them about 5 inches without loosening any piece of equipment. When playing the bass drum, they often move by themselves.
Though, the bearing edges are reasonable ok, with but a few problems.
I would explain the overall sound to be a very hard smack, with average low end.
-The 16x16 floor tom. The sound isn’t really that bad; it can be tuned quite low and sounds good but doesn’t really respond well with high tuning. The single ply head that came with it was the lucky one to not suffer my sister's brutal stabbing attack, and lasted quite a while. They actually sounded quite good. I did though put a double ply Brixton head on it later, and it sound's awesome. Or sounded awesome... somehow, a small hole was put into the head, near the edge, and the plies have separated. It doesn’t sound so good anymore, but I plan to try to get the air out somehow, maybe with a syringe or something. The floor tom legs are quite sturdy and the rubber feet don’t even have a scratch on them, after all these years. Though, each of the thingy's on the floor tom that holds the legs twist about 10 degrees, which can be quite irritating.
-The 22x16 bass drum. Don’t really know what to say; to be honest... pretty average bass drum.
I have 1 pillow in there, and it does have a pretty good sound. The head broke originally, so I had to take it off and put the resonant head on, which is actually an identical head. It started getting dented pretty quickly, so I cut up some of my old tom heads and taped some strips onto the head. It actually sounded really nice and slappy. I eventually got a new Evans Gmad head with AF patches, and I have to thick foam ring around the edge. It sounds amazing. Heaps of punch, heaps of low end... heaps of the good stuff.
-the roto toms.
I got them quite recently; I haven’t really played around with them much because I haven’t found a really comfortable place on the kit. I also don’t really have enough experience with roto toms to know what they should sound like, or to compare them. But so far, I like them.
The cymbals.
I think we all know about Paiste
-The 16" medium crash sounds quite nice in quieter situations, but when I’m playing loudly it sounds pretty dead and far too quiet. It is an excellent beginner cymbal though, and depended on what and how you play, could last you for quite a while.
-The 10" splash is an absolute beauty. Explosively musical, quick sustain. Absolute cracker.
-The 20" ride. It has a lot of wash, too much wash for my liking, and the bell is really quiet. But it sounds really good to blast on the body. I’m aiming for a 24" rude mega power ride next! :D
-The 14 hats. Because of my cra**y hat clutch, I have to have it tightened up as much as it'll go, which really kills a lot of the sound. Since I use a double pedal as well, I don’t do a lot of hi-hat work. They sound really nice kind of a creamy chick noise. When I do open hi-hat stuff, it sounds really amazing. Great hats.
Overall, the pst5 series are excellent entry level cymbals.
-The 16 Alpha china. I only recently got it played in to a nice level. And I LOVE IT! Really loud and trashy, but a kind of silky trashy sound that’s just awesome.
The meridian cymbals that same with the kit were paper thin brass pieces of... horribleness. The hats constantly flipped out, the crash flipped out, they started to tear everywhere... I know trash can lids are often used to describe bad cymbals, but these really did sound like trash can lids.
HARDWARE.
-My PDP402 double bass pedal was given to me on my birthday, 2009. It has double sided beaters which actually deliver good sounds. Its single chain, which slacks quite often when played at medium speeds. There is no beater angle or footboard height adjustment, you can only change the beater height and spring tension (which comes loose quite often) the beater height stays solid though, it is tightened by two separate bolts. Really bad pedal, overall. I’ve heard from several accounts (and this happened to me) that the beaters hit you in the shins when you are playing, before you get used to the pedal. Pretty heavy pedal. Doesn’t respond very well. I highly recommend against this pedal.
-The DXP boom stand. It has a long boom arm, which I find handy, that can be stored in the upper section of the stand when use is not required. Double braced. Rock solid, except for one thing, the uppermost tube is horrible quality. You can literally push dents into it. Does the job well, hold my crash and splash with no hints of falling over or anything going wrong. Pretty good stand.
-The Powerbeat stock Straight stand. Double braced, really thin. No problems, except for the really weird looking tilter being bent. Hold up my ride fine, small legs that don’t take up space. Ugly looking thing but does the job, no problems.
-The Powerbeat stock pedal... I'm not going to go into detail about this, except to say that it is undoubtedly the worst pedal ever produced. Hands down. My PDP402 may not be great, but it is sure one heck of an upgrade.
-The Mapex stand. BEEFY! Heck of a stand. Heavy duty. I mount my china on this stand. It’s a heavy thing. Not much to say, except, does everything like a stand should. Absolutely no problems.
-The clamp and boom arm... don’t know the brand but. They’re alright. They do their job. Hold up my splash just fine
Sonor - Pearl - Tama - Mapex - Paiste - Sabian - Roc N Soc - Pro Mark - Gibralter - Evans - Dixon - Mapex
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