Dw Drums Serial Number Lookup
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I hope you're all having a relaxing weekend so far. If you haven't already seen the previous wiki discussion post, norm and I have decided to start posting weekly discussions which will be turned into info for actual pages on the wiki. In the last thread, we discussed the ideal setup for beginning drummers. The general consensus seemed to be that good used gear from pretty much any is the way to go.
This weekend, we'll be talking about different tiers of drum shell packs. Since there are so many different kinds of drums sets out there, we will be focusing on standard 'rock' drum sets for now, as opposed to jazz sets. By this I mean fusion/rock/standard shell packs with a 20' or 22' bass drum.
The main goal of this project is to continuously organize all shell packs on the market into three or four tiers based on quality, price, etc. I currently have four tier groups in mind:. Beginner: This includes low-end entry-level sets, such as Sound Percussion, PDP Z5, and maybe even the Ludwig Accent CS Combo. You get the idea. These are the only exception to 'shell packs,' as most of these come with hardware and cymbals. Intermediate: This is the affordable 'second kit' section. Examples include the PDP M5, Pearl Vison, and Ludwig Element.
None of these should be over $700 unless they come with more than 5 drums. Advanced: These are higher quality kits that paid gigging musicians may use, such as the Gretsch Catalina, Tama Superstar, and Pearl Session Studio Classic. Most of this shouldn't be going above $1500. Top-Notch: This is where all the most badass drum sets go. This includes DW Collectors/Performance, Tama Starclassic, Gretsch Brooklyn, etc. The guidelines for these categories aren't that strict.
If you feel that something is debatable, don't hesitate to bring it up. Also, I was considering combining beginner and intermediate and getting rid of all of the Sound Percussion/shit tier stuff. Please let me know your thoughts on this. Feel free to contribute as much info as you want. Here're a few. I still need to write an FAQ section about construction. Beginner: Pearl Sound Check, Tama Imperialstar, Gretsch Energy Intermediate: Yamaha Stage Custom, PDP Concept Maple/Birch, Pearl Vision, Tama Silverstar and Mapex Meridian maybe?
Advanced: Tama Superstar, Gretsch Renown, Pearl Session Studio Classic and Masters MCX, Ludwig Epic, Mapex Saturn, DW Design I propose that there be a $1500-3000 range called Professional and above that is Top-Notch. Pro: DW Performance and Eco-X, Pearl Reference, Tama Starclassic, Ludwig Keystone Top-Notch: Guru Origin, DW Collector's, Tama STAR, Pearl Masterworks, Gretsch USA Custom, Yamaha PHX By no means a comprehensive list. I didn't ask about the pricing of the Star kits at NAMM. When I worked at Sam ash we sold the reference kit for $2,700.
How much of a difference in price is the star. And yes, I would consider Guru a step above those other brand but far from a class in their own. Craviotto, Brady, and a lot of other companies make high end solid shell drums. I would consider trick drums to be a step above all those with their superior shell construction to anything anyone has mentioned, but once you get to really high end stuff a lot of it becomes players choice, which is why I stopped at top of the line American construction. Some people prefer a ply shell to a solid shell. For Pearl its: Beginner: Forum, the New EXX Export Intermediate: Vision Advanced: Session Studio Classic, MCX Masters Top-Notch: Reference/Reference Pure, Masterworks. I'm not quite sure about the EXX, i would have put the older exports under intermediate but this new one looks a little cheaper and comes with hardware and stuff so I guess its a beginner kit.
As far as the one's you already listed, I'd put the Catalina under intermediate and put the Gretsch Renown under advanced, and I'd also put DW Performance under advanced instead of top-notch. All my stuff is vintage ludwig:/ I'd say the market treats old ludwig as between Intermediate and Advanced, depending on the antiquity of the drum. Many old Ludwig kits come with Supraphonic snare drums, a quintessential intermediate snare. Supraphonics are so common in pawn shops, they're the quickest way to take an Entry kit and soup it up to intermediate if you're looking for a more impressive sound but you don't have a lot of money. Using a Supraphonic, some tape and some real heads, you can make a very low tier kit sound pretty good.
I also want to mention Fibes drums, which to my ears sound the best, but are not made currently and only available on the after market. Tommy's Drums says they will resume manufacture in a few years. Well lets not lump them all into one, we're both right.
A catalina club mod or or rock is a beginners kit. But yes a Catalina Maple or Ash is a Midrange kit. The performance series uses Mexican shells from the PDP factory.
Don't let the name and hardware fool you. Do some homework. Those are not top of the line drums.
And the quality is far from the collectors series. DW made sure of that.Why? Because in the late 90's DW had an idea to make a more affordable kit. They designed and built the 'workshop series'.
They had a bit simpler but still heavy duty high quality hardware, the same shells as the collectors but with no re-rings or notes stamped on them, and a modified version of the DW lug that was an oval instead of a circle. It was a disaster.
They sold the kits at a very nice affordable price, wayy cheaper than the collectors. Problem was there was nothing low end about these drums, so they cost just about as much to make as the collectors series did. They had to do something, so they shipped all the equipment overseas and started manufacturing PDP drums. But PDP by DW isn't DW, and people know that.
Dw Drums Serial Numbers
So DW wanted another kit that was affordable and that was a DW. Now they could have made them as you think they are, high end and very similar to the collectors series.
Serial Number Lookup For Equipment
But they absolutely were not about to make that mistake again. Believe me, they didn't.