shell material, witch is best.

[drummerdavie]

i recently fell in love with acrilic because of this snare
but the only acrilic kit ive seen is a tama black ice witch is nice and loud but doesnt have much life, i have a mapple set, and i havent played much with birch or poplur, and ive never even seen a mahogany, oak or such. what sound like what, pros, cons, ect. please help me hear in at a total loss

[32ndHeartBeat]

I think I'm gonna go with Bubinga as the best shell. For snare's probably acrylic or some kind of metal that I have yet to experiment with. I saw the Tama Warlord set played on a video and the thing sounded like pure genius fresh from the box.

[middleman]

i recently fell in love with acrilic because of this snare
but the only acrilic kit ive seen is a tama black ice witch is nice and loud but doesnt have much life, i have a mapple set, and i havent played much with birch or poplur, and ive never even seen a mahogany, oak or such. what sound like what, pros, cons, ect. please help me hear in at a total loss

Acrylic is for sure making a come back. They're great for live and look awesome but I'm not sure they'd be good to record with. OCP makes some really crazy ones as well.......

[32ndHeartBeat]

What is that? A duel-leveled snare? That's crazy looking!
I wonder what that benefits with the sound.

[drummerdavie]

i realy want to see thouse in action

[pastor_bob]

I'm still a beginner enough to know that I will stay out of the voting. I will say that, as of now, I really prefer the maple, and probably the mahogany shells. I like the low end coming out of the drums, but I also like enough of the bright tones to want single ply heads on my shells. I guess what I'm saying is that my mind isn't totally made up yet!

[drummerdavie]

i played with a full on acriclic kit for about ten minites today and i realy wish i could have afforded it. it was loud, bright, dinamic, and deep all at the same time. it had a life to it that was wonderfull, and the snare sounded perfict, just as dry as i wanted yet just as snarey i think my mind might be made up but does any one know the downsides to acrilic?

[32ndHeartBeat]

It breaks easy?

[drummerdavie]

i dont think so. or at least the reserch that ive done says it doesnt but theat may be bias.

[funkymcstain]

of birch, maple, mahogany and acrylic i cant say one is "better" as all are used in high end drums. they each have thier quality and individual sound. for my needs i need the all around goodness of maple.

[32ndHeartBeat]

Well put, Funky.
This is kinda off, but does anybody have any mp3's or videos of a poplar set being played? I'm still completely in the dark to what this material sounds like.

[Stix518]

Well, I said this before and I'll say it again. I just can't wrap my head around an acrylic set after all the problems that Luddy (think they were called Vistalites), the original Fibes and Sonor had with their acrylic sets back in the 70's. Spider cracks, stress fractures, fading, clouding, temperature affecting the tonal quality, split seams. These sets are way too new for me to jump on the bandwagon just yet. Yeah they look great, but see me in a year or two after you've spent 12 mos. (summer and winter) transporting those babies in and out of clubs - from your freezing car to the warm club or the humid outside to the A/C . Not sure if they'll hold up like wood does under the stress of real life - the old ones referred to above didn't, that's why they were discontinued. Now there's a resurgence, maybe cuz the manufacturing process and/or materials are different. Just wouldn't be dropping a ton of dough on an unproven product. Just my two cents. BTW, Sonor now makes an acrylic set. I believe they're called X-Ray Acrylic and they fall within the SQ2 ($$$$$$$) line.

Stix

[crazymanwithaplunger]

Well put, Funky.
This is kinda off, but does anybody have any mp3's or videos of a poplar set being played? I'm still completely in the dark to what this material sounds like.

You don't want to know. Poplar is the basic entry level kits that cost next to nothing and just sound horrible. Thos toy drumkits you get from departmnet sotres are made out of the same sort of stuff. If you want a toy - fine, go poplar, but if you want to actually play the drums, don't bother. At least start with Ash or Birch. That's my opinion anwyay.

Acrylic sets have been being made by Tama for years now, it's only recently though that others seem to have caught on. As far as the more modern kits go, i've never heard anything bad about them, but I am ware of the problems Stix was talking about, but like he said, that was 1970's technology. Things have changed.

As to which is a better material, the best material depends on the person, the music style he/she is playing, the heads your gonna use, the finish you want and your budget. If I was gonna say in an overall sense, my choice would be maple, BUT that being said, I agree wiht 32 - that Tama Warlord Bubinga kit sounds freakin sweeeeeeet. I've heard a couple of other bubinga kits (albeit online) since and they were also freakin sweeeeeeet, so methinks bubinga is a great option IF you've got the dough. Either way. i'm not voting because I actually have very little preference. If I could, I would buy a the Tama Warlord Exotix kit (bubinga), but at the same time I would happily buy any maple, mahogany or even birch shell kit. My prefernce for the Tama has little to do with the bubinga (although that is part of it)

that's my two cents.

[drummerdavie]

thanks guys what ive decided to do is go with the full on acricrlic and get a years extended warrenty on it when i get my next set. that way i get to see just whats right and wrong with it and if it breaks im only out some time.

[pastor_bob]

that's my two cents.

Are you sure that wasn't at least a full quarter's worth?

I tend to agree with the idea that a single preference is not where we want to go. I love the sound of my maple shells, and yet, I understand that if I was going to do studio recording, I would probably want birch shells. In my current state, I can choose a single kit to love, but for those whose goal is a professional career in drumming, I think it's important to keep our minds open to finding out which kits give which type of sound. That way we will begin to recognize what wood (or even acrylic) is the right one for different situations.

I think a better idea would be to try to identify what tones are inherent in the different woods/acrylic. For instance, the maple shells are known for providing good mid tones, and slightly better lower tones, while the higher tones are just average in the maple shells.

What about it folks? Research your shells, and let us know what you find out. I think it would be good knowledge for us all.

[Lafirin]

looks like maple is the favorite out of all these woods, why do you think that it?