Dw

[Lafirin]

I hear alot about DW kits, and i see quit a few pro's use it, is this just a little company within a big company, for example, there is peral drums, that is one big company but is DW its own seperate company? what do you think of DW is it worth looking into?

[crazymanwithaplunger]

DW ARE the big company, who then also own/make PDP kits.If i was gonna name to three largest drum manufacturers in the world I'd say Pearl, Tama and DW, not necassarily in that order.

If you've got the cash DW kits are a good option - but as i said, IF you've got the cash. The pretty well only make intermediate to pro levle kits, and even the intermediate kits are at the top end of that spectrum. Of course though, like has been said previousy, when you are spending the big bucks on a pro kit, it's more aout personal preference, as a Pearl Masters Custom, or a Tama Starclassic or something would easily be comparable to the DW kits as far as quality - just about what you prefer in finishes, woods, etc.. is what would make the final decision about whihc one you might buy.

[Lafirin]

thats for that crazyman!, and how much $$ would a kit from DW cost (aproximatly)

[crazymanwithaplunger]

US Dollars??? Not sure being an aussie, and most of the kits that retailers stock are the Pacific (PDP) kits, which are the "cheaper" DW kits. Here in Australia though they start at about $4700 - prices are comparable to the Pearl Refernce Kits for example. Oh and BTW - that's a shell pack, no hardware. Even looking on Ebay.com - prices ofr actual DW kits (not the Pacific kits) seems to be no less than about $3000 US, and those are second hand.

[vinnysimmo]

[QUOTE=crazymanwithaplunger;39380]DW ARE the big company, who then also own/make PDP kits.If i was gonna name to three largest drum manufacturers in the world I'd say Pearl, Tama and DW, not necassarily in that order.[QUOTE]

I disagree. I reckon Yamaha are bigger than DW.

[Stevo42w]

I would have thought mapex would be bigger than yami.

[vinnysimmo]

And maybe Ludwig and Premier too.

[Stevo42w]

hmm gretsch and ludwig i would put about the same? Lol lets try and make a list up with whatever we can come up with and rank them. Explain why and try and get a mutual agreeance?

[Stevo42w]

hmm gretsch and ludwig i would put about the same? Lol lets try and make a list up with whatever we can come up with and rank them. Explain why and try and get a mutual agreeance?

[drums-rock]

i would probaly say pearl is the most popular

[Stevo42w]

definatly.... Pearl #1

But then what? I dont think tama is so up there anymore..... so dw? (Trading under also pdp and ddrum?)

01. Pearl
02. DW

[vinnysimmo]

Nah. I reckon
1. Pearl
2. Tama
3. Yamaha
4. DW
5. Ludwig

Or something like that...

[Eons]

I would rank Yamaha second instead of Tama. A lot of session drummers use Yamaha and pretty much anytime you turn on the T.V and see some popular artist playing live their drummer is using a Yamaha kit.

[vinnysimmo]

Ok maybe your right.

[funkymcstain]

rank as in what we think is the biggest (most successful) or ranking by best?
i could never really say as far as top of the line factory kits go that one is really better than the other. exceprt the pearl reference.
dw is pretty much a custom company. and doesnt really do mass produced, factory kits the way tama, pearl, yamaha and the others do. so for that reason i put them in the custom boutique catagory and would rank them seperately.

[Lafirin]

oh Ic dw is custom, and peral tama and all them make kits that they make up. i see how, thanks guys

[crazymanwithaplunger]

I disagree about DW being a custom boutique - I know they do customise their kits, but at the same time I can walk into my local music store and walk out with a DW drum kit without any screwing around. Also, while they may not "mass produce" like pearl/tama/yamaha/etc... that doesn't stop them from being one of the biggest companies around. Almost everyone on here (obviously except laf) knows the DW brand, and if you count PDP, every music store eveyrwhere stocks their kits.

I can't say the same for Yamaha, Gretsch, Sonor, or DDrum or any other manufacturer out there, besides Pearl and Tama. DW isn't simply well known (take for example Ludwig, well known but not very common), but everywhere I look. I disagree too that everytime I turn on the TV I see a Yamaha kit - I don't. I hardly ever see yamaha kits. Yes Yamaha is popular for studio use - because they have a nice clean sound, are versatile and priced well. But for a live performance I usually see either DW, Pearl (the most frequent/common of them all) or Tama, i'd say with Yamaha coming in fourth behind those guys. Then Sonor and Gretsch tieing for fifth.

To settle the idea of how many bands use what - look at the featured artist list on the manufacturers website - Tama's is fairly big, DW's covers 16 seperate pages with almost 50 names each page, and I don't even wanna guess how many were on the Pearl site - massive list divided by musical genres/styles. Yamaha's (while a decent sized list) is nowhere near the size of Pearl or DW's. The Sonor site has almost the same amount (339 Vs 318) with Gretsch having the smallest list of names (109 not counting there "masters" which are basically guys who are dead)

Same thing on all the lists, massive name drummer/bands mixed with independants, local bands and studio drummers that no one really hears about, but you then find out during a clinic they have played drums for like britney spears or something.

Oh, and if your wondering, the DW website, at an estimate, names almost 800 drummers, 326 for Tama (so I guess thay are interchangable with Yamaha and Sonor then) but Pearl was too hard to tell, you'd need to go in and count each individual genre seperately. Ludwig names 106 drummers, or 123 if you counted everyone they named without limiting the list to drummers.

So now tell me how common yamaha etc... is with the popular bands/drummers. When I go out and see bands play live (pub gigs, cover bands etc...) i usually see two brands of kits - Pearl or DW - with either a Tama or Yamaha thrown in every now and again for flavour. And like I said, I can pick up DW kits from any music shop,even little local ma and pa places near me have a PDP kit. I can't hardly find Gretsch anywhere, or Sonor for that matter. Same with Mapex, there is only one place I know for sure carries Mapex Kits. Any other store either doesn't stock them, or doesn't always have them. Same with Yamaha (acoustic, not electronic).

Please also remember that I am in Australia - so considering DW, Pearl and Tama kits are everywhere here, with Yamaha being the next most common in our shops, if the other brands were just as if not more common/popular then wouldn't they be as easily accessible? Just because Gretsch (for example) is a dime a dozen in the US doesn't mean that is reflected everywhere, and considering we are talking about the biggest brands here, how available they are everywhere (wordwide) is a major factor. Which brings me back to my assertion that Pearl, DW then Tama are the biggest.

And I can't afford any of them. :oP

Oh, I also had a look at the Mapex featured Artist list - it looked like it would give Tama/Yamaha/Sonor a run for their money. Hard to tell as it was divided by country though.

[Roaddebris]

My son has a six piece DW kit w/ Pork Pie snare on a PDP rack system. It's an amazing kit. It sounds incredible and is an absolute work of art to look at. The only problem with it is that it's too nice to take to gigs. My son usually uses his Remo Legero 5 piece when he plays out. For young folks and Joe Sixpack types, the DW's are just not practical. I'd rather have a nice mid-prised kit with a primo set of symbols than a custom kit with cheaper symbols anyway.

As far as the popularity thing, there are millions of mini-vans out there and only a few thousand Ferrari's and many more people listen to rap than Zeppelin. 'Nuff said.

[Lafirin]

you got a pick of you sons kit RD? id love to see it

[Roaddebris]

It's on one of the videos on Google. Type in "Heartland Church" and look for the one marked "Easter". It doesn't show up that well on stage.

[Lafirin]

k

[Roaddebris]

Oh, wait a second. There's a better one. At Google Video, type in "Jam'n Jimmy". Sorry about the aweful sound, but at least you can see what it looks like.

[Lafirin]

thanks again RD!

[Stix518]

CMP, you pretty much nailed it. I will say this, when I was producing touring shows here in the Northeast and having to order drum sets, the MOST commonly requested drums on tech riders were DW - and DW hardware as well. A very, very fine drum manufacturer but also very, very expensive to purchase (I used to rent them for the shows from a company in Boston, who used to provide all my backline, sound and lighting). Due to their lofty prices, I think they came out with the PDP line - more a line for us "common folk" which could be purchased at your local Guit Center or Sam Ashe. Sonor and DW were once the custom manufacturers (among a few others) but then Sonor was bought out by Hohner and starting manufacturing their lower lines (Force Series) in the Far East (China I believe), similarly, I think that's where DW manufactures their PDP line although I could be mistaken about that. But for top of the line drums, DW is the set.

Stix

[Lafirin]

very nice kit RD, I love the finish, its defiantly a beauty.