First drum set - Favorite drum set.

[RABid]

What was your first drum set? And what is your favorite drum set that you've ever owned?

 

First drum set - In high school I talked my parents into getting me a drum set. In 1973 they got me a silver sparkle 5 piece set from the Sears Roebuck catalog. Of course it was a crap set, but I saved up enough money mowing yards to replace the heads and could get a decent sound out of them. What was hopeless was the included cymbals. My parents could not understand why I kept asking for better cymbals, and I never got any. Wow, those things were crap. A couple years later I did talk them into buying a used drum set as my combination birthday and Christmas gift. $600 got me a used 5 piece Ludwig Vistalite set with 3 Zildjain cymbals and Zildjain high hats. Wow, what an upgrade in cymbals, though I was never happy with the sound of the drums.

 

Favorite drum set - Before i retired I decided that I wanted to buy a really nice set of natural wood shell drums. Most of what I was finding, that I liked, was $5000+ for a 5 piece kit. I kept waiting and looking and suddenly there it was. A drum store in California was selling a Doc Sweeney Big Myrtle set (myrtle wood with a walnut band around the center) for half price, floor model, mint condition, only a few marks on the drum heads. THERE WE GO! While the $5500 regular price would be hard to swing, half of that was something I could live with. Plus, I figure I could sell it and get my money back any time. Even better, I did not need to buy any other hardware, I just robbed my DW set of pedals and cymbals.

[KuruPrionz]

My first drum set was a Ludwig set identical to the set Ringo played but in blue sparkle. The store was closing and they'd had in in stock, new, for a LONG time. One of the ones where the inside of the shells was painted white, with the old badges.

 

I bought it, goofed around with it for a while and flipped it.

 

My favorite drum set was a garage sale find. Sonor rosewood kit, 24" kick, 18" floor tom, 2 rack toms - the Sonor rack was replaced by a Rogers one that had the ball joints on it and looked like plumbing. Sonor metal snare and a slender, sleek high hat stand that was the smoothest, quietest high hat stand I've ever tried. I got a set of K Zildjian high hat cymbals made in Turkey at a pawn shop and some other Zidjian crash and ride cymbals. It was a fantastic kit. $200. I sold it, doubled my money.

Both of those were back in the 70's. I've never owned a drum set since.

 

I'm OK with that since I ended up being a guitarist. Now I have a Roland Handsonic HPD15 and a Korg Wavedrum Global. I like the Roland and I LOVE the Korg.

[wraub]

My first kit was a PDP EZ Series, totally a starter set. I got some Meinl HCS cymbals at a pawn shop, and later replaced those with a Zildjian ZHT set from the same pawn shop.I later sold it all and made a little money.

 

My favorite set is my current one, an older Yamaha Power V Special set, MIJ. Cymbals are Zildjian Quick Beats hats, and a mix of new and old Zildjian As, with my most recently acquired being a 20" late '59 small stamp b.

[Brian McConnon]

Ha! My first kit was also from Sears Roebuck, red sparkle (photo in profile pic). This was 1976 but it was a hand-me-down so it's probably a few years old!

 

Favorite was probably a DW Custom, but I didn't own it - just got to record with it a few times. Sounded amazing. Owned Rogers, Ludwig, Pearl. Currently own a Gretch.

[Shamanczarek]

I got my first set about seven years ago. It was given to me by a friend whose late ex-husband left it at her house. Mostly Cosmic Percussion and some other pieces including a 1964 Slingerland snare. I practiced on it for a couple of years and then bought a reissue Mod Orange Ludwig Classic Maple Downbeat set. I used the Camber cymbals from the CP set for a while and recently bought a set of Zildjian A Mediums. I mainly wanted a good set to complete a rehearsal space and for recording.