Tama Starclassic Bubinga 5 piece set

$ 2200... what do you guys think?
http://www.musicradar.com/gear/all/drums/acoustic/drum-kits/starclassic-bubinga-drum-kit-245092/review/2

Igor,

Though I don't like the finish of the white, striped kit
I can tell you that Tama makes excellent drums.

I have a Starclassic Birch that sounds awesome so
I can only imagine what the bubinga must sound
like. $2200 is more duckets than I'd care to pay,
but as they say: "You get what you pay for".

Tama makes drums that are up there with the best
of the best.

Don' do you have a DW set ?

I don't, Spanky but I do have that double bass kit
that's by Pacific Drums and Percussion which is DW's
lower line (and lower price) and it sounds sweet.

Over the years I've that you can make just about
any drum sound good. For me the quality factor
has been in the hardware that's on the kit: Bass
drum legs, lug nuts, tom mounts, hoops and so on.
I've had no problem at all with the Pacific.

Now my Meridian Birch Mapex is another story.
I love the shells and the way they sound, but
I've had a few hardware issues with it. But
$700.00 as opposed to $1,800 and up, I can
live with a few minor quality control flaws.

$2200 is more duckets than I'd care to pay

I agree, but these are the prices here in Israel :-( BTW, $2200 is not a full price (full price is around $3000). I've found a guy who sells his 6 piece shell pack Yamaha Maple Custom (almost new) for $2400 and all we know that Yamahas are creme de la creme of the drumming industry, so maybe i'll go for them instead of Tama

Don you had a blue set at one time, I think they were blue what were they ?

Go for whatever works for you, Igor.

I understand your situation price wise.
Things are higher where you are, what
can you do?

As far as "creme de la creme", when
the time comes when you can identify
a drum by brand just by listening and
not seeing then that will be the ticket.

Otherwise, with a bit of tweeking and
a little careful planning, you can't audibly
tell an $800.00 set of drums from an
$8,000.00 set.

spanky wrote:Don you had a blue set at one time, I think they were blue what were they ?

Those are the Premier Signia line, Spanky.
they no longer make them. I just used
them this past weekend and I posted
the clip in drummers bytes.

Those are Maple shells with reinfrocement
hoops. I'm gonna have the hoops removed
because they choke the tone and makes it a
bit of a challenge to tune them.

"Otherwise, with a bit of tweeking and
a little careful planning, you can't audibly
tell an $800.00 set of drums from an
$8,000.00 set." DSlam

True! So true. I am so tired of all the hype in the drum industry. To me, everything is bearing edges, head choices, tuning, and mounting. Otherwise it's a cylinder with membranes on it.

A guitarist I play with was sold "a great set of drums" which are Argent drums, bottom line, student level, beginner's drums. I took them home, redid the bearing edges, got him iso-mounts for the toms, took off the plastic wrap and put mahogany veneer on them and he was shocked to hear (and see) the difference. We recorded them this past weekend. I was even surprised at how good they sounded on playback. Just three mics, too - overhead and bass drum. Different snare drum though. The Argent metal snare was beyond hope for any kind of high-end crack with just 6 lugs.

ANY drum can be made to sound good, though. D is right, the day someone can tell the difference between manufacturers, eyes closed, will be the day I back off my convictions and observations of drums in the last 45 years.

If it has never been done I wish some drum magazine would do an article on just that point. Take ten, 10" or 12" toms, 14 or 16 floors from various companies, same heads, same tuning, stand ten feet away and do a blindfold test. I'd be startled to be told anyone could tell differences in sound worthy of notice, one from another. And that goes to birch, maple, mahogany, whatever. My own set has wood differences and no one can tell. I cannot even tell sitting at the drums. The drums I renovated are basswood. Soft. A coat of tung oil inside brightened them up, and even with the Emperor heads on them they sound resonant. With Ambassador weight heads they would sound even better. Of course, for players who like the more muted sound, these would suffice, for sure. Hype, hype, and more hype. It's ridiculous. Nuances, at best.