Have had this kit for a month now and have played 4 gigs with her and am really impressed with the sound of all 3 drums. I was looking for a nice birch kit under $1k, in a sparkle finish with a bass drum other than 22x18, and a FT other than 16x16, that I could gig with and BINGO!!! Here she is!
Specs:
100% North American Birch
22 x 16 BD Virgin
12 x 8 Rack Tom
16 x 14 Floor tom w/legs
Toms: 6-ply shells and double 45º bearing edges w/ slightly rounded outer edge
Bass drums: 6-ply shells with a double 45º bearing edge on the batter side and a fully rounded bearing edge on the resonant side.
Color is Blue Sparkle with a Natural stripe and lacquered over. Very nice, especially in person
Total price OTD with S&H for 3pc kit $850. Which is about $250 cheaper than advertised everywhere. They cannot post it so if your interested in buying one pm me and I will give you the contact info.
Heads seem to be Remo coated ambassadors with a crush logo.
All toms have 2.0mm Hoops.
Lugs have a very nice look to them, although I had to tighten the screws inside the shells about a full turn or 2 on 80% of them.
The BD claw lugs are all rubber lined and have protruding rubber with the crush name in them so when changing heads and such you don’t scratch the lugs. Very nice feature
THE CONS::::
Everything seems well built except the floor tom legs are thin, short and cheesy. Kind of remind me of the legs on my friends ludwig beginner kit. I swapped the floor toms legs with the ones from my Mapex 14” floor tom to get the crush tom as high as my snare.
Although having memory locks on the ft legs and BD is great the ones on the BD make it impossible to fold the legs towards the BD when packing it, which means you have to remove the legs and pack separately. Normally not a big deal but with lots of gigging it is only a matter of time before one is misplaced.
I don’t like that Crush does not sell a mount you can buy that would allow for attaching the rack tom to the BD.
Also there is no way to contact crush customer service at all. This is a big pet peeve of mine and I am kind of surprised that got by me before purchasing. Normally that is one of the 1st things I check when buying a new kit but for some reason I just assumed they were good. To me this is just a piss poor, lazy way to run a business.
Not sure but I am pretty certain the resale value is kind of low on crush drums but not a big deal under $1k IMO.
Now for the Sound,
These sound very very good for birch. Even the stock heads were good but I ended up putting remo pinstripes on it for live gigs just to keep it somewhat subdued a little as we play a lot of small rooms. I don’t know if the bearing edges being slightly rounded has something to do with it or if North American birch is better than Asian birch like Maple but these sound much fuller and present than my Sonor essential force did. No drum stands out more from another they are all equally fantastic.
If you can get by the piss poor customer service I highly recommend this kit to anyone shopping around for a sub $1k really great sounding birch kit.
Here are some pics, I am looking to possibly add a sublime Maple snare to the mix as it comes in an almost matching beautiful sparkle blue and a nice 13 x 7 size.
20190615_172258.jpg
20190617_085951.jpg
20190604_171627.jpg
floor tom legs, 2" shorter than my Saturns
20190605_193658.jpg
Last edited by MDK; 07-09-2019 at 05:06 AM.
Ludwig Classic Maple 22x16,10x8,12x9,16x16
7" Moon Gel Practice Pad
Sabian HHX Legacy
Decide whether this is love for the craft or simply an ego thing
http://www.redskymary.com/ NOT MY BAND, JUST A GREAT LOCAL BAND WHO SHOULD BE SOOO MUCH BIGGER IMO
Ludwig Classic Maple 22x16,10x8,12x9,16x16
7" Moon Gel Practice Pad
Sabian HHX Legacy
Decide whether this is love for the craft or simply an ego thing
http://www.redskymary.com/ NOT MY BAND, JUST A GREAT LOCAL BAND WHO SHOULD BE SOOO MUCH BIGGER IMO
Thanks for the review. Nice looking kit MDK congrats. Let's see how long this one stays put in your stable.
Ludwig Classic Maple 22x16,10x8,12x9,16x16
7" Moon Gel Practice Pad
Sabian HHX Legacy
Decide whether this is love for the craft or simply an ego thing
http://www.redskymary.com/ NOT MY BAND, JUST A GREAT LOCAL BAND WHO SHOULD BE SOOO MUCH BIGGER IMO
We had a sublime kit once at our store... white with a green stripe and I really wanted it
I say again: TODAY is the pinnacle in the drum price/quality equation. That Crush kit is gorgeous and righteously built with quality components throughout. I love the color, too.
Ludwig Classic Maple 22x16,10x8,12x9,16x16
7" Moon Gel Practice Pad
Sabian HHX Legacy
Decide whether this is love for the craft or simply an ego thing
http://www.redskymary.com/ NOT MY BAND, JUST A GREAT LOCAL BAND WHO SHOULD BE SOOO MUCH BIGGER IMO
Yeah but if the customer service sucks, I'm not doing it. It's like rewarding a company for bad service. Luckily we have options.
Yeah I agree, it sucks when you have an issue and the only person you can talk to is a vendor. That being I said I think I just did it again? ...LOL...I just ordered a Ludwig classic Maple kit and was perusing their website today and could not find any way to contact Ludwig directly .
Ludwig Classic Maple 22x16,10x8,12x9,16x16
7" Moon Gel Practice Pad
Sabian HHX Legacy
Decide whether this is love for the craft or simply an ego thing
http://www.redskymary.com/ NOT MY BAND, JUST A GREAT LOCAL BAND WHO SHOULD BE SOOO MUCH BIGGER IMO
I added the Ludwig Atlas rail consolette and put the crush suspension mount on my rack tom.. so far so good. Currently Gigging out the Ludwig CM's now but will give this a go again once I play it a few times at home and see how the set up tear down goes. Looks to be pretty simple.
20191015_062548.jpg
20191015_062917 (2).jpg
Ludwig Classic Maple 22x16,10x8,12x9,16x16
7" Moon Gel Practice Pad
Sabian HHX Legacy
Decide whether this is love for the craft or simply an ego thing
http://www.redskymary.com/ NOT MY BAND, JUST A GREAT LOCAL BAND WHO SHOULD BE SOOO MUCH BIGGER IMO
one more
20191015_062524.jpg
Ludwig Classic Maple 22x16,10x8,12x9,16x16
7" Moon Gel Practice Pad
Sabian HHX Legacy
Decide whether this is love for the craft or simply an ego thing
http://www.redskymary.com/ NOT MY BAND, JUST A GREAT LOCAL BAND WHO SHOULD BE SOOO MUCH BIGGER IMO
That is a great idea. Makes for a great travel small gig kit.
Veddy intellesting.
Signature here
I also have one but the Sublime E3 Maple.
9Y0A6932 by Kevin Frost, on Flickr
9Y0A6931 by Kevin Frost, on Flickr
The Varukers.
NIce Kev, how do you like that Yamaha light hardware? I gig mine I just wish there was a way to add a boom arm to one of them but I make it work. Much lighter and has held up really well for 20+ gigs so far.
Ludwig Classic Maple 22x16,10x8,12x9,16x16
7" Moon Gel Practice Pad
Sabian HHX Legacy
Decide whether this is love for the craft or simply an ego thing
http://www.redskymary.com/ NOT MY BAND, JUST A GREAT LOCAL BAND WHO SHOULD BE SOOO MUCH BIGGER IMO
that white with green is the exact one I wish I would have bought when we had it in our store....
Several owners of the new Yamaha Crosstown hardware have posted on other forums that the Crosstown stands can be converted to boom stands using existing 600/700 series boom components. The only drawback is that the booms are made of steel, not aluminum, but that would be a very small increase in heft.
GeeDeeEmm
Here ya go..
20191027_110823.jpg
20191027_110823.jpg
Ludwig Classic Maple 22x16,10x8,12x9,16x16
7" Moon Gel Practice Pad
Sabian HHX Legacy
Decide whether this is love for the craft or simply an ego thing
http://www.redskymary.com/ NOT MY BAND, JUST A GREAT LOCAL BAND WHO SHOULD BE SOOO MUCH BIGGER IMO
Ludwig Classic Maple 22x16,10x8,12x9,16x16
7" Moon Gel Practice Pad
Sabian HHX Legacy
Decide whether this is love for the craft or simply an ego thing
http://www.redskymary.com/ NOT MY BAND, JUST A GREAT LOCAL BAND WHO SHOULD BE SOOO MUCH BIGGER IMO
Just got a great deal on a Crush Sublime Maple kit with 12x8, 16x14 and 24x17bin copper sparkle fade finish. Loving them so far! Warm resonance from the toms, the kick is a booming cannon and the snare has a wide tuning range. Crush is very underrated and they definitely can perform with the well known brands.
-Tama Granstar II (12x11, 16x16, 22x16)
-Yamaha 7000 Series (12x8, 13x9, 16x16 22x18)
-Crush Sublime E3 (12x8, 16x14, 24x17)
-Pearl Mixed Series kit (8x7, 10x8, 15x13, 20x14)
-Brady Jarrah Ply 8x14
-HHG Purpleheart/Cherry Stave 7x14
-HHG Red Birch Stave 7x14
-Pearl Masters MCX 5.5x14
-Pearl Steel (Pre-Sensitone) 6.5x14
-Pearl Vintage Professional Series 6.5x14
-Tama Imperialstar Seamless Steel 6.5x14
-Tama Soundworks Maple 6.5x14
-Premier (African Mahogany with Beech Re-rings) 8x14
-Remo Bravo II 5.5x14
-OCDP Maple 6x14
-Crush Aluminum 5.5x14
-Crush 10 ply Maple 6x14
-Trixon Birch 5.5x14
-Wuhan Traditional Cymbals
-Paiste 2002, 602,
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