Good affordable drums?

[Arlita]

I'm looking for a decent, but...cheap set of drums. Hey, i'm an art student in college, i'm not exactly climbing the money tree. My last kit was a Pulse and I loved it, it had great sound and was super cheap $300-$350...sadly my kit was stolen...so I need to start building up my setup again. I think the Pulse set I had is discontinued now, sadly, so I need to look for something else. Anyone know how Sound Percussion and DDrum sets are? 

[The Ultimatemost High]

If you can find a set of ddrums for $350 go for it.  I'm not sure where you are located but in Canada you can get a decent entery level Ludwig or Gretsch for $700 or $800.

 

Also check Craigslist.  Good stuff comes up there cheap quite a bit.

[Scott LIVS]

yeah what this guy said ^^^^^, craigslist is the way to go.  don't sell your self short,  get a nice kit that will last and become part of you.  as a active drummer my self, i wouldn't go near a Sound Percussion kit, those drums are garbage.

Ddrums are ok, but i can't stand there hard ware and they look a little cheap to me personally.

I see good Ludwig, Gretch, and TAMA kits go for 350-400 all the time on CL. hell even some of those pearl kits are good to...

good luck

[THEE DIRTYBEATS]

For our practice space, we were initially happy with a low-end drum kit we got from Craigslist (about $150-200) after we had tuned up the heads. 

Later on, when we upgraded the cymbals with set of new Zildjians (about $200), the difference was incredible.

This suggests $300-350 is a good range

-A

THEE DIRTYBEATS maximum vintage garage
http://www.theedirtybeats.com

[NUMBSKULL ACTION]

Hello,

A good brand of drums is Tama, generally they are not too exspensive and they sound pretty good. Also Yamaha and Pearl are good too, do you Premier kits your side of the pond? They also sound good and are reasonable in price.

Personally I prefer Sabain cymbals, but with regards to Cymbals you really get what you pay for. You'll probably should consider a small crash and a large ride which rings on for that nice reasonance sound.

Mapex do a good range of budget kick pedals and Gibraltor are a good solid brand too.

Snare drums are a totally differnt game: first decide if want a wooden one or metal one and then work backwards from there. I think most sixties garage records were cut with a standard budget snare drum so that might be a good place to start.

Regardless of what kit you buy you've gotta spend time tuning the kit and getting it just right, regardless of how much you pay, your kit will sound awful if it's not tuned right.

[Johnny Danger / Itchy Scabs]

We got our drums for $75 at a garage sale up the road - then bought good $$ cymbals and kick pedal. Our drummer has never played drums before and none of us know how to tune it properly. The kit is a 70's mass produced cheapy.

That said -- we're really happy with how it sounds and after gigs we get real proper drummers complimenting our drummer on her drum tone. Maybe we got lucky ... maybe setting up the kit trusting our ears was the way to go ... ?? ...