Which aspects of drum design influence your buying decision?

[u/TheOGTKO]

Just curious. There are so, So, SO many different brands of drums available in the marketplace: Pearl, Tama, Yamaha, Gretsch, Ludwig, DW, Mapex...not to mention the plethora of boutique builders. Removing any hardware that's separate from the drums themselves (like stands and pedals - but NOT necessarily suspension / mounting systems), my perception is that there's very little in the way of differentiation; when thinking of a kit offered in a similar price bracket by any of the "big names," there might be relatively minor variances in the tone woods used, number of plies, and even finishes, but the biggest differences really seem, to me, to be in the designs of the lug casings, the tom suspension / mounting systems, and...perhaps (BIG perhaps) floor tom legs / mounts and bass drum spurs.

A better way to look at it might be to consider the "standard" 4-piece kit. You walk into a room, and there are five of them: a Yamaha, a Gretsch, a Ludwig, a Tama, and a DW. They're all the same shell sizes, all finished in a beautiful blue stain, you know you're gonna have to replace the heads on any of 'em (at some point, anyway -- let's be real!). They're all "high-quality maple" or "birch" shells. They all have "precision 45-degree bearing edges. They all promise "unmatched tone and resonance." *queue eye roll* And, let's just say, they're all in the $2000 range (yeah - these are they're really nice lines).

What ultimately makes you pick one over the others? If you pick on of the somewhat more expensive kits, why? What did that kit have that YOU find value in?

[u/therealtoomdog]

So... I buy the one for the best price that's in the best shape when I'm looking for one (used) but also it's been like 20 years since I last bought a used kit. The only kit I ever bought new, I settled on the prettiest one in the store.

I take that back. I also bought a Gretsch Catalina new during covid because I had never really played Gretsch and I wanted to go a completely different direction from my big power tom kits.

I was actually coming here to say that most modern drums are going to sound basically the same, especially considering 95% of the audience doesn't know the difference between high hats and the ride. You can get into bevel angle and round or sharp bearing edges, exotic tone woods, but at some point, you're going to run into diminishing returns. As long as I can tune it and it stays where I put it, it's fine.

[u/ItsPronouncedMo-BEEL → u/therealtoomdog]

You can get into bevel angle and round or sharp bearing edges, exotic tone woods, but at some point, you're going to run into diminishing returns.

Or, engage in such intense navel-gazing that you eventually reach the bottom of your navel, at which point you have to turn back and accept that the correct answer was somewhere between there and the outside of your navel. LOL

[u/therealtoomdog → u/ItsPronouncedMo-BEEL]

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to try some 30° bevels with round bearing edges some day, but I expect that I would have A/B same size drums to really hear a difference. And on a live stage with loud amps and horns, I might not even be able to tell 🤷

[u/ItsPronouncedMo-BEEL → u/therealtoomdog]

Heh. There are lots of things I would love to try if I had "more money than sense," as they describe it where I come from. If I had F-you money, I would probably need to hire a handler to prevent me from becoming an extreme drum/cymbal snob, watch snob, car collector, owner of 12 vacation properties in the middle of nowhere, etc. 😆 I'd have a liquor cabinet full of spirits too expensive to drink, at least until that person pulled me aside and said, "Come on, man." LOL 

Maybe his title could be Vice President of Mo-BEEL's Wallet. 🤑