New Babies

The new babies. $450 all maple Sonor Force 3005. Added Road Runner bags for $50.

I took my pinstripe batter heads and ambassador resonant heads off of my black Pulse kit and put them on the Sonor. They are old, but have only been played at shows...maybe been played 10 times total...so they still have some life. Stuck some older emperor batters on the black kit and used the stock Sonor Remo UT heads for the resonant heads for the black kit.

I haven't tweaked the tuning much yet, just tried to get it in the ballpark. They sound good already. The bass drum is intense. I left the solid Sonor front head on there and forgot to muffle before putting the heads on...so it booms but in a good way (no annoying overtones, buzz, or wah). I'll need to muffle for sure (because the sound is out of proportion with the rest of the kit) and might actually put a ported head on before the first show.

I have to say that my two old shit Pulse kits weren't so bad for sound. Aside from the crazy bass drum...the sound isn't slap you across the face different. What is pretty different is the hardware, which is just outstanding. Very adjustable and sturdy and easy to use. Even with the deeper than normal toms I'm well able to get things into the position that I want.

The bags that I bought for $50 are very basic...but that's really all I wanted...and online the same ones were selling for $120-$300. So it was worth it. They have some tears in the lining, but nothing major. They really will only protect against scratches (not major dents) but that's ok. I'm pretty careful.

I think I did really well. It wasn't an expense I'd planned until next spring...but the deal couldn't be beat. I was expecting to pay more in the $750-$1,700 range for decent drums (plus the cost of bags). What I got is totally acceptable quality-wise (pretty much exactly the level that I wanted) and under $500.