hey all.

heres my question: do you guys think $250 is a good price for a six-piece drumset, used but in great condition? i found one for sale in a pawn shop, and ive always wanted to take up the drums but ive never purchased an instrument before. the price includes delivery and setup.

if you have any pointers on buying used drumsets, please respond- i need all the help i can get!

thanks for looking
-nikki

for a start, what make is it? it's not a westbury, right? don't buy it if it is. Westbury sucks, I got burned. my sabian cymbals bent so easily due to the cheaply made stands, and the snare has no bounce. nothing really sounds good, it's just a clanky piece of shit. and I bought mine new!
for a start, what drums dose it have? bass, snare, 2 toms, floor tom, hi-hat... right?

yeesh. go out and get yourself a crash and ride cymbal. you'll thank me later. and when you get drum sticks, don't you dare get plastic tips! they break off too easily.

make sure the snare and toms have good bounce, so that you can pull off a roll easily. and make sure the toms aren't really tightened.especially the floor tom. you'll want to get yourself a special "drumkey" that lets you turn the little knobs stationed around the top of the drums. make sure they aren't out of tune from each other. it sounds gay when you try and do the simplist of fills.

sabian and zildian make the best cymbals, and a projection crash and a jazz ride work wonders.

make sure that the pedals don't fuck you up, too. the pedals slipping out on a hard surface is what kills a performance, and it'll annoy you when you're trying to learn even the basic stuff.


and lastly, start by learning a simple rock pattern. don't try the hard stuff right away, you just mess up and look like a fool. work your way up.


and, that's that! I hope this helps with your little dilemma, there.

later

I suggest shopping around a bit, any maybe playing different types of sets in music stores. $250 may be a good price, but you've told us practicly nothing about the set.

Township: I've never broken drumsticks with plastic heads. Alot of people hold the sticks wrong, gripping it with their complete hand. Not only will you break sticks that way, you'll also put divets in your heads. If you hold the sticks loosely with your bottom fingers you can play just as loud without the damage.

I can't really give any advice on buying the drumset because you didn't give any information, but there are a few general guidelines I can suggest.

1st, NO CLIP LUGS. Make sure they're drums with the little square-headed screws that Township talked about, not little hooks that clip onto the edge of the head. They're impossible to tune. With regards to what Township said about bounce in the heads, that's not really something you should worry about as you can always buy new heads.

Make sure the snare drum's got a good snare adjustment knob. This will come in handy later on. I assume the setup includes all the hardware (i.e. stands and shit), because you shouldn't buy anything if it doesn't have full hardware.

If you've got money to burn, buy yourself some good cymbals (my vote for the best cymbals made is Sabian, particularly the AA and HH series), but you can easily learn on what you're buying. I learned to play on two used sets, both real pieces of crap, one 3-piece and one 5-piece, but I firmly believe that's the best way to learn. Teach yourself to pull good noise out of something like that and then see what wonders you can work on a good quality, brand new set.

Get a piece of carpet and slide it under your set when you put it together, so the bass doesn't walk and the pedals don't slip. And while we're on setup, if you can knock any off the $250 for escewing the setup fee, do it, because it's a no-brainer to set it up yourself even if you've never seen a drumset before.

In terms of learning, I would suggest you first get a good smattering of music theory, particularly the rhythmic side of things. Learn about time signatures, the importance of 4-bar phrases, etc. This will come in handy when you start to improvise and do fills. In the meantime, like Township says, learn a simple rock beat and build on that. Have fun learning drums!
Sticks: I've gone back and forth. Bongman, I've broken plenty of nylon-tipped sticks, but then again I play with a great degree of fortitude, and used break a stick about every fourth time I sat down to play. So now, by way of a solution I've begun using marching sticks to play drumset, which are almost impossible to break outside of a Marching Band setting. I've taken a liking to the feel of them on set, but I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner. As far as sound goes, I think nylon tips sound vastly better, particularly for ride cymbal patterns, than wood tips. But I think wood tips look a lot classier. Where do the other drummers on the boards weigh in on this issue? Nylon or wood?

thanks, guys. youve been a big help, and i cut and pasted everything youve said.

here the thing: the drum are on display in the pawn shop window, and i walked in just as they were closing so i didnt get a good look at them. i plan on going back on monday (7/29), and ill post the specifics then.

but for now: there appear to be two cymbals, a snare, a roto-tom, and a bass. im not sure if there was another drum nestled in there or if the 6-piece includes the footstool. and yes, it does come with all the stands and hardware.

i know my post has been very vague and idiotic-sounding, but i barely had time to check things out...ill post again on monday with all the details.

you guys have been great, thanks so much.
-nikki
ps. the price includes a set of plastic-tipped drumsticks, but that can be easily fixed.

in regards to the plastic tips, I used them back when I was starting out back in grade 8. and of course, I broke them. so now I don't bother, and stick with the normal ones. they sound better, anyways.