a good pearl kit?

[Kenny Powers]

i have a friend who's looking to get into drums more, he's a good drummer but has a horrible drumset he got at a garage sale a few years back. he's looking to get a pearl kid, what can you throw down here? price doesn't matter a ton but cheaper is always better..

[Thrill Kill Will]

ok pearl goes like this for their new stuff:

forum - whatever kinda wood, wrap finishes. probably a decent kit if its your first. but nothing fun.

export - not bad, they are all poplar shells, and decent finishes. poplar is known to be more of a "filler" wood than for its sound properties but... idunno, i'd probably skip this line too.

session - this gets good. the session series come in all maple or all birch. i used an older pearl session series when they were made with luan/birch and those drums always sounded decent when tuned well. i'd say a session series kit would be a solid choice.

masters - masters custom (maple) or masters studio (birch). these are really great drums, i have a masters custom maple and it is a really nice drum. the craftsmanship is just high quality, well built, sounds great. these drums would be a great choice but kinda pricey.

thats kinda the take for the newer lines from pearl. but if i was going to grab a pearl kit, i'd try to find some masters custom drums used. they pop up on ebay pretty dang cheap. a used kit in nice shape thats only a 2-5 years old could be really affordable.. and if you want to get cheap, you could peice it together drum by drum. (would be hard to find matching finishes..not impossible..but time consuming). but that would make a super affordable, top notch kit.

(tama star classic is another line of drums that seems to be really affordable. its tama's high end stuff, but you can find kits that are in great shape, just a few years old, for really cheap).

if you need all the hardware and such, new might be the way to go... or you could find a used kit with all the hardware and extras...

one thing, i wouldn't limit myself to pearl. i just played a yamaha absolute birch custom bop kit (12/14 toms + 18" kick...so much fun) and it was really nice, great finish solid hardware, diecast hoops and it sounded great... i was impressed. so yea, i'd look at a lot of different companies. and find the best kit i could for the lowest price.

goooood luck with it,
-will

[Kenny Powers]

thanks man, ill pass that along to him, i dont know why but he's really wanting the pearl

[andyfromiowa]

I was thinking about buying one of those pearl exports because i need a new set really bad. I don’t have much money right now and need a decent set soon, but I guess I will look around a little more, wish me luck.