Why am I writing this?
Well the time has come to sell the kit. I suffer from what photographers call GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) which makes it hard to part with things, so I decided to turn a negative into a positive, and that writing a review might be helpful to anyone looking to buy kit.
A little history
I bought the kit in 2006 from my local drum shop, Poole Percussion. This is where I combine another blog post really, as this shop has now closed down. In fact, when it closed, I did some research and quickly found that many drum shops in the UK were closing or had shut their doors already. We all know that times are tough, and I really feel for the people losing their jobs and businesses, but why are they?
People have less money and shopping is cheaper online? I think this is the most probable cause, and for good reason. When I order something online, it normally turns up in good shape, as ordered and for less. But ultimately, this is a false economy for me. If you're shopping for a kettle, this works well, it has one function and either it works or it doesn't. Instruments however are not in this category. So the kettle online is cheaper, and you save money on travelling to the kettle shop, as well as the cost of parking if you go by car. The advantages are clear. If you apply this to instruments though, in this case drums, it just doesn't equate. You can still potentially gain a saving on the cost of the product, but you lose so many other aspects that are hugely valuable.
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| Picture taken from Poole Percussion facebook page |
Here's a quick list of what I appreciate about a trip my local drum shop;
- Kid in a candy store - It was a visit to the drum shop when I was 10 years old that first got me hooked, seeing so many kits in one place. The vivid colours and gleaming finishes on the shells, the shiny hardware, the rows of sticks, heads and cymbals. They always say 'like a kid in a candy store', well a candy store was massively boring in comparison! Its a sense of excitement that I still get now, a room stacked out with the tools of your passion, of course its exciting!
- The information and experience - Whether its a staff member or a fellow customer, the wealth of information that you can gain in a drum shop is very valuable. This in itself can save you money, and it seems obvious, but in sharing knowledge, you can progress so much faster too.
- Know only what you need to - Don't get me wrong, you should know your instrument, but I'm no drum gear geek. I wish I was, but I have a terrible memory, others may just want to play without getting too involved in how many lugs they have on their snare. When you start shopping online, for some products or certain applications you really have to do your research! This takes time, so for me to be able to confer with a human, that knows their stuff, it's definitely another pro point for buying from a shop.
- Try stuff out! - This for me is the stand-out point. I know some people do, but I wouldn't buy a car without driving it, the same goes for my drum gear. To be able to go to your local shop and hit, touch, hold, hear and smell the products means everything. Playing an instrument is such a personal and physical thing, that selecting the products you need should be too.
- Negotiation and bartering - Shops want to sell things. I know I'm stating the obvious here, but remember that in most cases a shop would rather sell a product or a group of products for a lesser profit, than not sell anything at all. To be able to negotiate face to face, enables you to get you a deal that's better than the online price. I was looking back at an invoice for one of my old kits and when I priced all the cymbals and additional hardware out individually, the kit was effectively half price.
- Choice - A lot of online stores will list kits, sets and packages with a price. It seems so much easier just to click that button and it will be here tomorrow. But in-shop I've found that you can normally pick'n'mix, or at least they will order in the parts to make up the kit you want. For the kit I mentioned above, they took out the kick pedal and hi hat and let me add hardware in their place, something which I've not been able to do online even when backed up with a phone call.
- Compare your dreams with other products - It was a sunny day in May 2006 when I set off to buy my new Premier drum kit. I already had a Premier kit that I'd had for a few years and because I liked the sound, it made sense to stick with the brand. However, after a morning of hitting and conversation I found myself grinning while loading a TAMA Superstar into my car. I simply didn't think I could afford a TAMA even though its what I really wanted! A lot of the drummers I respected, Stuart Copeland, Taylor Hawkins, Lars Ulrich were playing TAMA and the drum sounds on their work was what I wanted. If I'd ordered online, I might have been playing my second choice.
So to summarize this, I would really urge you to support your local shop. Use it, visit it, recommend it, if somebody opens a new one get down there. In my opinion, the value for money is unbeatable.
The Superstar
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| Picture taken from the TAMA.com catalog archive |
The kit has been everything I'd hoped for, in a drum set in this price bracket, and It still looks great today. Its a 4 piece (14, 12, 16, 22) and the 12" tom has the star-cast mount. When I bought it I also purchased a roadpro combi stand as I like to mount the rack tom low. I specified the 4 piece simply because I was playing in an original music band and would be mainly playing support/shared equipment live shows. The 4 piece setup is what many other drummers were playing at that time, and it may sound odd, but it makes it more natural and comfortable when you use someone elses kit at a live show, that everything is in a similar position. This strategy actually paid off as about 8/10 live shows we played, the headliners kit was a 4 piece, and for the 20% that weren't, all I had to do was remove the second tom or I would have a bonus floor tom. The additional gain was in the structure of our music. Being that a lot of our songs were an odd time signature, a snare and 2 toms for fills and rhythms worked well.
The kit itself was used at some of the gigs, but was also recorded as well as used for rehearsal three times per week. I have to say 7 years on, there's very little in the way of wear, just very light scratches from the zips on the cases, which is a little ironic. Mechanically its still as per the day I bought it and more importantly it still sounds as good. The build quality of these kits really is incredible, and even though It was used so much, I had to tune it much less than the Premier kit.
The sound from this kit (in my opinion) is that of a more expensive kit. It provides great volume when you need it, it has a warm tone with plenty of attack and it's easy to tune. Its versatile too, I found that it has a large dynamic range when it came to tuning. I use Evans heads which I think really compliment the sound and seems to be the best match for what I was playing.
The other part of a kit that doesn't always get appreciation is the hardware. I have TAMA Roadpro double braced stands and an Iron Cobra 2-Leg Hi Hat stand. Obviously my hardware is something that did get gigged and my Hi Hat stand looks well used, but it still works and feels great. In fact all of the hardware does and I've never had to maintain, fix or replace anything (other than cymbal felts!). So that's somewhere in the region of 100 live shows and aprox 630 practices/rehearsals/jams with not a single breakdown. In fact over the 7 years of ownership I spent more on heads than the drums cost when new, which seems a little unfair, but shows that even though It can dent your bank account when you buy a drum kit, if you buy something like the kit I did you're actually get fantastic value for money. Lets not forget either, this kit is still in great condition and will easily provide the same quality of sound for another 7 years and more for its next owner!
Okay, so its not vintage (yet), it wasn't owned by a famous player, its not a limited edition and its not a 'Star Series', but it is a great kit, and its been a big part of my musical life.
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| My trusty Superstar |
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