Fantastic find! Custom Classic Kit Review

Definitely get the Hybrid 6, you'll get the most bang for your buck. Slightly nicer overall features than the Maple, in my opinion. The Natural finish is dopetastic. I found some info on sanding and sealing the insides of the shells with teak oil to improve the sound, which I think I might do at some point, just to fully maximize their potential. That and some Fiberskyns... And Scoreking, thank you. I promise I'm real, I'll get photos and a low-res vid (no decent video recording equipment is currently available to me) next Wednesday.
 
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$499 wow!

I guess we haven't hit bottom on this economy yet. Even if you estimate the hardware at $200 bucks, that's a pretty inexpensive drum kit.

Must not be too great to be a Chinese factory worker. It makes you wonder what the manufacturing and then wholesale cost is on this.

Looks like a good value for $499. I thought they sounded decent in the demo video.
 
Go onto eBay and type in Custom Classic drum. Up will come all these kits, and video.
 
these kits do look nice, but all the ones I've seen on Ebay have the though shell Pearl style mounts, even the ones with the nice lacquer finishes. It makes no sense to me to have all these nice finishes and features, and then go and put those butt ugly through shell mounts on the toms, especially when the basic L-rod and outside bracket shell mounts aren't any more expensive. I guess that's their way of making the things look like they cost.
 
Hey, OP, welcome. I was seriously considering the CCP brand when looking for a new kit. I ended up buying something better used, but it was definitely in contention. I would have had to go to Sigler and check 'em out, though... couldn't trust the specs for the price, you know what I mean? Especially since the Gretch Catalina was only a little more at the time and you KNOW the quality that you get there.

So you feel like the hardware is strong enough to hold up? That was my primary concern- didn't want the tom mounts failing on me. My other concern (and ultimately one of the reasons I went elsewhere) was the number of lugs. 6 lugs on a 16" tom or on a 22" bass? Without a really high quality hoop, that's going to cause tuning issues.

Anyway, glad to know you dig the kit. You might throw another review up in a couple of months once you get past the honeymoon phase. If it holds up, I might suggest my church pick one up in natural finish.

EDIT: Here's some other stock pics to help the new guy:
ccpbh-ch_front_lg.jpg

ccpbh_all_colors.jpg
 
Hey guys, and thanks dkerwood! There is the 7-piece birch kit as well as the 5-piece, which are the same shells but with the thru-shell mounts, which suck indeed. Avoid these. The Pro Birch Hybrid, Jazz, and Maple all have iso mounts tho, very nice ones at that. The hardware is VERY heavy duty - the tom mounting system is identical to the ones on OCDP Venice, Avalon, and Newport kits. And it's definitely not a 6-lug kick or floor, in fact every shell bigger than 12" on this kit has 8. Check the photo, and count carefully. The Catalina stuff is gorgeous, and this set is 100% on par with them, if not a little nicer. Which Cat/what finish did you get? The Maples in Deep Amber were my second choice, but I decided to take the leap on the CCs (and I'm glad I did, but the Cats still rock, i'd love to get one someday... club jazz in walnut glaze, maybe?) I'm going tomorrow to do photos and a low-res cell phone video if I can. Bear with me here...

drumhammerer: link to Ebay post for the Natural finish... CCs on Ebay
 
The kits that are on eBay with the through shell mounts must be older stock.
Was this company making drums for a well known drum company at one time?
I get that impression.
 
bobdadruma said:
Was this company making drums for a well known drum company at one time?
I get that impression.
Click to expand...
I get the impression that these are Chinese manufacture, and badged Custom Classic. No doubt, the Chinese are very capable at making hi-end drums. Look at the pro level Peace kits. But for every pro level kit sold, you can figure a thousand or more entry/intermediate level kits are sold. And China carries the ball, making entry/intermediate level kits for almost everyone. LudwigGretschDdrumMapexSonorTamaPearlYamaha, etc. They all farm out their lower tier kits to China. So yeah, they should be pretty good at it, being they're currently manufacturing 80% (rough estimate) of all acoustic drums sold. Practice makes perfect.
 
That makes sense harry. They are now marketing direct and retailing at a profit margin that is higher than what they were wholesaling for when they were producing for the major manufacturers.
 
Hey guys,
The CC kits are definitely Chinese-made, manufactured by a company called Du Acoustic Drum Manufacturing Company in Shanghai (I think that's what it's called, I haven't been able to track down a confirmation on that one). These guys also make all of the Gretsch Catalina and Renown (yes, Renowns are Chinese made with imported NA rock maple, says "Made In China" on the box) stuff, as well as DDrum Dominions, AMXs, and Dios kits, so they defintiely know how to make great sounding drums. I once played a buddy's DDrum Dominion Maple Player kit with clear EC2s that sounded simply ridiculous. Sister factories of unknown name/location make all of the other stuff for Pearl, Yamaha, etc. Everyone does it. The reason it's cheaper here is a much lower overhead for the Custom Classic name - no offices, no adds, no endorsements, no marketing. It makes the kits that much cheaper for the consumer. Harry, you're absolutely right - and what I realized is that there are various tiers of "niceness" of the Chinese-made kits. (entry level like Orbitone, Leigon, etc; "prosumer" kits like Cat Maples, Stage Customs, and relatively high-end kits like OCDP Newports, which are $1600 for a 5-piece shell pack, and Renown Maples, on up to top-of-the-line Peace stuff). The CC kits are in that top bracket. My whole point of this review is to spread the word that a)this is a kit of exceptional quality, especially by Chinese standards and b)it's $500 when it should be $1300. It really goes to show you how much marketing and all that jazz costs. I just put some Vintage Emperors on mine and some Gibraltar 42-strand wires on the snare and got them well-tuned, and wow - even more amazing. I got some cell phone pics (alas, the good Canon went skiing today) and will upload them tomorrow evening. Next phase - finish the insides to complete the dopeness of this set. I'll let you all know how that goes, I can't wait to see what it does to the tone.

Tracer, no, I was not able to try it out in person - I ordered my kit online, it shipped in 4 days from Arkansas to Colorado. However, I want a Jazz kit ASAP - they're the same shells as my kit, which sound gorgeous. My only qualm is the lack of a somewhat natural finish on them. I'd eventually like to try to get a Maple 6 too, based on the quality of mine.
 
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They don't appear to be 'bad" for the price but why not just go with Ddrum Dominions and get the nice black chrome hardware and die cast hoops? Ddrum also has more sizes and configurations available and offers an ash shell too.

Hopefully these inexpensive Chinese model drums will force the big names to start lowering their rediculously high prices.
 
About a year and a half ago ago I discovered CC and Sigler when I was researching for a kit. Then they only had the 6 pc CC Maple kit. Living in southern Louisiana we had to evacuate for a hurricane, so I decided to go to Arkansas and visit Sigler and see these kits in person. They had one set up next to a Gretsch Catalina maple. I tried them out side by side, closely examined the Cat and the CC, I'm no expert but they looked exactly the same. The only difference was the tom mounting for the Gretsch was embossed with the company name and the CC was plane. The only reason I didn't buy them was the sparkle finish, I didn't like it and it was all they had. I see they now have expanded the line into Birch and have some nicer finishes. To me IMHO they are a competitive kit. Trouble is they will need to advertise or they will not be taken seriously.

Merry Christmas!
 
I have the Pro Maple 6 kit I bought last October. Their made out of Chinese Maple, 7 ply. The toms are suspension mounts. With a 22" x 18" kick, 10 & 12 mounted toms, 14 & 16 floor tom, an 8 lug maple snare, all with mini lugs, their Custom Classic hardware which is very nice, (they are including their OCC hardware now instead, not as nice but still adequate). It came with a single pedal, which I surprisingly (reading this thread) replaced with a Vex double kick. Which I've used until this X-Mas when Santa brought me a DW8002B double kick. I can say that with the Vex I was satisfied with them for their hardiness and were actually pretty quick. But they in no way compare to the DW's. The Custom Classics on the other hand will stack up against any kit excluding the high end kits like the Renowns and high end DW's. If and when these kits get popular, they will be more readily accepted by the drumming community, and with recognition will come higher costs to the consumer also, just like everything else. Just because they don't say Pearl, or Mapex, or DW doesn't mean that they are junk. Todays technologies allow for better manufacturing and easier quality control which allows for a better product in the end. I think that Cris Ward has hit a home run in his vision to create a quality drum line priced to get people excited enough to give them a chance. Which I did and am glad for. Givin the price for this kit, it is very worth it.
 

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i've read this whole thread especially since people say they match up against hi end dw and renown's and since i'm still in the market for a new kit it got me real curious...

i'm by no means an expert and can't really judge until i see them in person but even my novice eyes are telling me these aren't that good... maybe good for their price.... renown good? high end dw good? for 1/10 the price?

something smells awfully fishy here
 
I haven't seen the drums but my only objection, and one that I wrote to Sigler about, is that they are neither Classic or Custom. They are mass produced and only time will tell if the hardware and the wraps or finish last. I get suspect when I can't get specific info on the materials such as exactly what maple and what filler woods etc. I will wait to see. Dealership exclusivity is another red flag for me for any product.
 
gruntersdad... i went and looked at the ebay link you posted where the toms were mounted through the shells and they had a sound clip there.

Didnt sound that great to these ears... Ive heard Sigler music selling the same Mapex M Birch kit I have.. and in their own video, it sounds markedly better than the cheaper CC kit.

I'll suspend my doubts for now... but im not sure thats its the all singing dancing solution some would hope it to be.
 
azrae1l said:
i've read this whole thread especially since people say they match up against hi end dw and renown's and since i'm still in the market for a new kit it got me real curious...

i'm by no means an expert and can't really judge until i see them in person but even my novice eyes are telling me these aren't that good... maybe good for their price.... renown good? high end dw good? for 1/10 the price?

something smells awfully fishy here
Click to expand...

No, I didn't say high end DW's or Renowns azrae1l, this is what I said, "The Custom Classics on the other hand will stack up against any kit EXCLUDING the high end kits like the Renowns and high end DW's". But they do stand up to the Gretch Cats, Mapex maples, DW X7 maples. The CC birch set that recently came available, shrink, looks to be an entry level kit at best, not to be confused with the first line of birches that came out just after the CC maple 6's, came out, they look and sound pretty good. I already stated that the wood is a Chinese Maple in my first post GRUNTERSDAD, the same shells that are in the Cat's, which are produced on the same assembly line as the CC's. I have been bashing them for over a year now with no problems. They still look and sound as well as they did when they were new. You guys have to actually read the posts before formulating a bias. I understand and respect everyones opinion, but don't prejudice just because they aren't a household name. Go on YouTube for some testimonials from other people that have taken a chance. You can't beat this deal for maple shells, lacquer finish, tight hardware on the shells as well as the stands that are also offered for $600.00 bucks shipped to your door. Peace out.
 
To be honest, from everything I have seen, it's definitely a shoe-in for the intermediate category. And average intermediate at that. That's only for the 6 piece Maple kit, too. That'd put it squarely against the Gretsch Catalina (yeah yeah, argue with me if you want) and the PDP X7, both of which are $700 to $750 ($900 if you choose the fancy lacquer for the X7). So in essence, you're saving $100 to $150 dollars.

Now, can they sound the same as a more high end kit to the audience, yes, most definitely. There are very few drumsets that a skilled drummer cannot swap heads out and tune them to sound great. Add in a knowledgeable audiotech and you're solid.

To us drummers with more discerning ears and can be picky? Probably not.

Now, is it a great alternative for drummers with cruddy CB and other no-name beginner kits to upgrade to? I'd think so. As I've said before, it's not a bad kit, just a more intermediate one. And for most hobbyists and semi-pro drummers, that's good enough. Hell, one of my favorite bands, Cromwell, is signed to a label and has a drummer that uses a PDP X7 kit. And he has amazing chops.
 
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