Not sure what kit to get for daughter?

[johnmw1]

Hi Guys and Gals,

My 13yr old daughter has been having drumming lessons at school and absolutely loves it which I'm so glad she does as I'm the one who pushed her towards the drums as I myself am a frustrated drummer from 50yrs ago when I was at school (but never continued with them) HaHa.

Anyway I have been pushing her towards a decent electronic set mainly so we don't have to listen to the incessant noise here at home plus I was of the opinion that you could do so much more with electronic like recording and different beats and playing along with music etc etc.

She on the other hand has insisted that she only wants acoustic which I have kept trying to ignore, but have to admit to maybe agreeing with her after taking her into a drum shop the other day and letting her belt it out on an electronic kit. It just did not feel good for her and the size of all the drums didn't seem natural for her style, bottom line was all she wanted to play in the store was the acoustic set.

I then by chance happened to stumble across the Pearl E live Pro and thought WOW fantastic the best of both worlds. I did more research on them but could not find any real positives or decent reviews on them and have discounted the idea of going that direction.

Which now leads me to my current dilemma of looking for a decent acoustic kit for her to start with. I have probably confused myself with a lot of the technical jargon with what I read up on each kit and to be honest I don't know if it's just sales pitch or what is good or bad that I should be looking for.

Living here in Adelaide Australia we don't have the best bricks and mortar type stores that hold any huge amounts of stock (understandable) and likewise I have not found any online stores so far Australia wide that have the huge choices that seem to be available in the USA. But if anyone could point me in the right direction that would be greatly appreciated.

From what I have also found so far here in Oz is that we don't seem to be able to get the same sort of discounts that there seem to be in the U.S. or other countries?

There are so many brands to choose from and again I have no idea as to which is better to look at first. Looking at some kits for example that normally maybe $2499 and are discounted down to 12 or 1300 seem to be a good deal but who knows for sure certainly not me.

Bottom line is I'm probably prepared to spend say 14 or 1500 give or take which also will need to include cymbals etc, so to put a frustrated old rocker out of his misery do you have any suggestions for specific kits?

I thank you all if you managed to make it to the end of this long post.

Cheers,
John

[pastor_bob]

Hi John, welcome to Drum Chat.

I don't really know what brands might be available where you are, so I'm just going to throw out a few suggestions. First, have you considered looking at your used drum market? Usually you can get more for your money, so a better quality kit is possible. When you listed the figure for the drums, were you figuring in the hardware that you would need, as well?

Ok, here's a few intermediate kit suggestions that you can consider:

Gretsch Catalina - maple or birch
Mapex Meridian - maple or birch
Tama Superstar, or Silverstar kits
Pearl Export
Pearl Vision (these would be used)

Just some thoughts.

[soren-k]

Consider a Gretsch Catalina Club Jazz kit. It's a small kit (4 piece), which is a good place for a beginning drummer to start. Plus it sounds great, isn't very expensive (list is under $700), and if your daughter ends up not sticking with it, you should be able to resell it without too much of a loss. Depending on the heads you put on it, it can work for rock too.

[Kazaamski]

Look for used gear. You can often get drums, hardware, and cymbals in one go. As to brick and mortar stores, which want to sell you just drums, then a hardware pack, and then a cymbal pack. Pearl, Tama, Gretsch, Pacific, Sonor, all make good quality kits at various price points. You can't directly link ads on here, but if you find some stuff in your price point, in the used market, you can kinda get by with asking, "Hey I found this kit. Is it any good?"

[zzzdanz]

I love seeing the kids get into it..Been working with my Daughter (turned 7 a week ago) and she's gonna smoke a lot of dudes out there...She's getting 1 of my kits, but I'd take the advice given, and go used..

[zzzdanz]

also...for inspiration...show her jonha rocks on youtube....amazing!

[johnmw1]

Hi John, welcome to Drum Chat.

I don't really know what brands might be available where you are, so I'm just going to throw out a few suggestions. First, have you considered looking at your used drum market? Usually you can get more for your money, so a better quality kit is possible. When you listed the figure for the drums, were you figuring in the hardware that you would need, as well?

Ok, here's a few intermediate kit suggestions that you can consider:

Gretsch Catalina - maple or birch
Mapex Meridian - maple or birch
Tama Superstar, or Silverstar kits
Pearl Export
Pearl Vision (these would be used)

Just some thoughts.

Hi Pastor Bob,

Thanks for the welcome to Drum Chat.

Well yes I have considered buying second hand but I'm always scared that maybe your just buying someone else's problem or misuse or whatever. Sure there are those good deals out there but you have to find them first, and for me distance from the item could be the biggest problem, as in not being able to view it first?

I also gather from your list and checking prices that maple is better than birch? Does maple give a more natural sound or something?

As a price comparison between Oz prices and U.S prices I chose the first on your suggestion list the Gretsch Catalina Maple 6pce Drum Kit. Oz price $Au1799 but includes the Gibraltar 5000 (good or bad?) series hardware and doing a separate price search for that was in round numbers about $US300. And the US price based on prices from Musicians Friend (and please suggest if there are better places to look) for the same Gretsch Catalina Maple 6pce Drum Kit was $US899 minus the hardware.

Of course I would have to also add shipping to the overall cost of things.

I will slowly work through the remainder of your suggestions and see if I can sort the wheat from the chaff so to speak.

Cheers,
John

[johnmw1]

Consider a Gretsch Catalina Club Jazz kit. It's a small kit (4 piece), which is a good place for a beginning drummer to start. Plus it sounds great, isn't very expensive (list is under $700), and if your daughter ends up not sticking with it, you should be able to resell it without too much of a loss. Depending on the heads you put on it, it can work for rock too.

Hi Soren-K,

Will add that to my list of kits to check out, thanks for your suggestion.

Cheers,
John

[johnmw1]

Look for used gear. You can often get drums, hardware, and cymbals in one go. As to brick and mortar stores, which want to sell you just drums, then a hardware pack, and then a cymbal pack. Pearl, Tama, Gretsch, Pacific, Sonor, all make good quality kits at various price points. You can't directly link ads on here, but if you find some stuff in your price point, in the used market, you can kinda get by with asking, "Hey I found this kit. Is it any good?"

Hi Kazaamski,

At the moment I'm not real sure of where to be looking for used gear apart from EBay or Gumtree, and I'm just not confident in knowing good from bad just yet. As you suggest I could ask lots of "I found this" type questions.

Unrelated can someone answer as to why some posts appear immediately and others have to go via the moderators, Im guessing maybe the length of a reply?

Cheers,
John

[johnmw1]

I love seeing the kids get into it..Been working with my Daughter (turned 7 a week ago) and she's gonna smoke a lot of dudes out there...She's getting 1 of my kits, but I'd take the advice given, and go used..

also...for inspiration...show her jonha rocks on youtube....amazing!

Hi Zzzdanz,

Hey sounds like you have got her at the right time the younger the better I reckon, good luck with her I hope she takes the drumming world by storm in a few years.

Yes I will certainly check out Johna and thanks for the suggestion.

Cheers,
John

[zzzdanz]

I hope so... my 2 older girls cost me a fortune and didnt stick with it (or piano) ...Welcome aboard by the way John, nice to have ya.

[johnmw1]

I hope so... my 2 older girls cost me a fortune and didnt stick with it (or piano) ...Welcome aboard by the way John, nice to have ya.

Thanks mate much appreciated.

Cheers,
John

[pastor_bob]

Well yes I have considered buying second hand but I'm always scared that maybe your just buying someone else's problem or misuse or whatever. Sure there are those good deals out there but you have to find them first, and for me distance from the item could be the biggest problem, as in not being able to view it first?

I totally understand the issue of distance making a used purchase harder. If new is the better option for you, you'll have some good kit to consider.

I also gather from your list and checking prices that maple is better than birch? Does maple give a more natural sound or something?

Maple is not necessarily "better." On this site, there's about an even split between those preferring maple vs. those preferring birch. There are also those that say that the right heads make more difference than anything else.

As a price comparison between Oz prices and U.S prices I chose the first on your suggestion list the Gretsch Catalina Maple 6pce Drum Kit. Oz price $Au1799 but includes the Gibraltar 5000 (good or bad?) series hardware and doing a separate price search for that was in round numbers about $US300. And the US price based on prices from Musicians Friend (and please suggest if there are better places to look) for the same Gretsch Catalina Maple 6pce Drum Kit was $US899 minus the hardware.

Sounds like the Catalina Maple kit deserves serious consideration on price alone. As to the hardware package that comes with it, it's a medium duty hardware, so it would be fine for your daughter to start on. Once she is playing out, you'll probably want to upgrade.

[johnmw1]

I totally understand the issue of distance making a used purchase harder. If new is the better option for you, you'll have some good kit to consider.

Yes unless I luck out and find one very close to home distance is the biggest deterrent for me buying used, but I will take on board what people have said re the used market and give it a closer look.

There are also those that say that the right heads make more difference than anything else.

I have been getting the impression that the right heads can make or break the sound of a kit and that just helps to add to the confusion HaHa.

Sounds like the Catalina Maple kit deserves serious consideration on price alone. As to the hardware package that comes with it, it's a medium duty hardware, so it would be fine for your daughter to start on. Once she is playing out, you'll probably want to upgrade.

I will also be looking at your other suggestions as well, the Catalina just happened to be the first one I did a price compare with.

Cheers,
John

[johnmw1]

also...for inspiration...show her jonha rocks on youtube....amazing!

I checked it out, wow for an eight year old unbelievable!

Cheers,
John

[zzzdanz]

crazy ha!...makes this kid (42) wanna practice harder....Those Cats PB speaks of (by the way, PB is good people,with an honest opinion). are a great place to start. Just be prepaired to have her give up in a yr, or less...dont go nuts yet...KISS rule...my 2 oldest screwed up..my youngest can at least sell hers for 5 or 6K..hahahaha

[groovearteest]

Wow I'm surprised at some of the kits that have been suggested. Normally for begginers we'll suggest kits even cheaper than the gretsch cats. Like pearl exports, or something around that level that's made of poplar or basswood. Not that there's anything wrong with starting at an intermediate level.

[Russ]

Crazy thought.. Get her an inexpensive snare to start with, see how she does and get a feel for her passion/interest level. If she practices a lot, get her a whole kit. You may also want to pick up some sound percussion drum mutes to cut down on noise during the hours you need quiet. I use them on my acoustic for the purpose of making an e-kit, and they really work great. The beauty of this plan is it's a cheap investment to start, when you know you need more you can get more. At that point pick her up a midlevel kit, because it's going to be a better sounding higher quality that even professionals can use - so a definite keeper kit. Lowend kits are tough to sell when you want to upgrade, and eventually she will. Why buy something you don't plan to keep? It's just more expenses you could have avoided early on.

[johnmw1]

crazy ha!...makes this kid (42) wanna practice harder....Those Cats PB speaks of (by the way, PB is good people,with an honest opinion). are a great place to start. Just be prepaired to have her give up in a yr, or less...dont go nuts yet...KISS rule...my 2 oldest screwed up..my youngest can at least sell hers for 5 or 6K..hahahaha

Yes he is an inspiration that's for sure.

Using the KISS rule is my motto but somehow I always screw it up and over complicate things. I have been the same all my life and tend to get caught up with needing to know the ins and out of a ducks @ss.

Probably one reason why I'm wanting to go better rather than cheaper is then I can have a bash as well while no one is around, although I think possibly I'm a bit too long in the tooth now to be even contemplating it HaHa.

PB did make a good starting list and so far from my research the Cats seem to be the best of the bunch. All I will have to do now is find out how much for shipping to Oz.

Cheers,
John

[johnmw1]

Wow I'm surprised at some of the kits that have been suggested. Normally for begginers we'll suggest kits even cheaper than the gretsch cats. Like pearl exports, or something around that level that's made of poplar or basswood. Not that there's anything wrong with starting at an intermediate level.

Yeah I looked at the exports but to me they seem to be at the lower end of the scale and I'm looking for something that could have better resale value if suddenly the interest disappears.

Cheers,
John

[johnmw1]

Crazy thought.. Get her an inexpensive snare to start with, see how she does and get a feel for her passion/interest level. If she practices a lot, get her a whole kit.

Hi Russ,

Yeah I thought about the snare idea and then I thought back to that's what my parents did for me and I remember I found myself so bored with only one drum to play so I would rather just start her with a full kit.

You may also want to pick up some sound percussion drum mutes to cut down on noise during the hours you need quiet. I use them on my acoustic for the purpose of making an e-kit, and they really work great.

That seems like a good idea, again something more for me to consider. Are all drum mutes the same or some types or brands better than others, and what cost are they?

The beauty of this plan is it's a cheap investment to start, when you know you need more you can get more. At that point pick her up a mid level kit, because it's going to be a better sounding higher quality that even professionals can use - so a definite keeper kit.

She is driving us mad at the moment as her sticks go with her everywhere and she is forever beating out a beat on anything and everything. We tried to get her to learn piano a few years ago and her interest in that right from the get go was I'm bored, I hate the piano.

Low end kits are tough to sell when you want to upgrade, and eventually she will. Why buy something you don't plan to keep? It's just more expenses you could have avoided early on.

Yes that has been my thinking also.

Cheers,
John