Bo Eder
Platinum Member
I'm wondering if anyone else has thought about this: in our new world economy, no one is spending money, business owners are afraid to hire new workers because they don't know what they'll have to pay for in taxes, or in health care. You look at ads on tv and lower prices for cars and such is what attracts people to buy them (if they can). In fact, everything people want and need, they're happy to get it for less. They'll even get another brand if it's cheaper and does the same job, so they can save a few bucks!
Then I come over here to read the threads about drums and drumsets, and I get the feeling that any particular drumset can't be worth anything if you didn't spend more than $3500 for it! I mean, really, there are those here who espouse getting things cheaper and that's great, but in order to be the man (or the woman), your drums have to be expensive or custom and come from wood from a 1,000 year-old tree or a log that was sunk for 200 years in the Potomac.
Believe me, I think it's really cool that there are so many choices out there in drum gear to buy. But is it just me or does this image not relate to reality?
I'm guilty of it too, having owned several pro kits throughout my 'career' (if you can call it that). But what I've noticed over my 35 years of playing is that every new drum kit I get, sounds an awful lot like the last one. Or I'm asked to tune it a certain by the client so that it sounds completely different from how I would want it to sound. They certainly don't care who made my drums or what it's made out of - they want what they want and that's all there is to it. To add further insult to injury, I probably got this particular gig because I came in with a lower price to begin with! Meaning that even with my pro level drums that were financed by mortgaging the house is now earning less money for me in order to get it paid off!
So, I've taken a new direction in my music 'career': get cheaper mid-level drums and make them sound great, and make a profit for once. And although I'm new at this new attitude, it's working. I posted some of my playing on YouTube for some of you to see and no one said my cheaper mid-level kit sounds bad, in fact, quite the contrary. Clients who call and ask me to play drums seem to like them, I like to think they like my playing first anyway. And because I didn't have to mortgage the house for them, every dollar earned goes into my bank accounts, where I can actually afford to put new heads on if I have to, or buy new sticks, or own that second 10" pop snare for a different backbeat.
But everyone has their favorites and will explain in great detail why their favorite top-of-the-line drumset absolutely kills all others. And I get this vibe that if I don't get a top-flight kit, then I can't possibly doing professional work - the construction won't hold up...the plies are all wrong....the wood is of unknown maple variety...that snare is made out of steel? Not brass? What are you? Crazy? China? That's just crazy talk!
If it wasn't made in Oxnard CA by hand, or in Indiana, or in Germany, there must be something wrong with it! If there wasn't anything wrong with it, then why was it only $600? That can't be right....
I don't mean to rant, but am I wrong here? I hope so. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this issue. (Maybe I should've put this in 'Off-topic'? But I figure I'm talking about drumming and economy in general.....)
Then I come over here to read the threads about drums and drumsets, and I get the feeling that any particular drumset can't be worth anything if you didn't spend more than $3500 for it! I mean, really, there are those here who espouse getting things cheaper and that's great, but in order to be the man (or the woman), your drums have to be expensive or custom and come from wood from a 1,000 year-old tree or a log that was sunk for 200 years in the Potomac.
Believe me, I think it's really cool that there are so many choices out there in drum gear to buy. But is it just me or does this image not relate to reality?
I'm guilty of it too, having owned several pro kits throughout my 'career' (if you can call it that). But what I've noticed over my 35 years of playing is that every new drum kit I get, sounds an awful lot like the last one. Or I'm asked to tune it a certain by the client so that it sounds completely different from how I would want it to sound. They certainly don't care who made my drums or what it's made out of - they want what they want and that's all there is to it. To add further insult to injury, I probably got this particular gig because I came in with a lower price to begin with! Meaning that even with my pro level drums that were financed by mortgaging the house is now earning less money for me in order to get it paid off!
So, I've taken a new direction in my music 'career': get cheaper mid-level drums and make them sound great, and make a profit for once. And although I'm new at this new attitude, it's working. I posted some of my playing on YouTube for some of you to see and no one said my cheaper mid-level kit sounds bad, in fact, quite the contrary. Clients who call and ask me to play drums seem to like them, I like to think they like my playing first anyway. And because I didn't have to mortgage the house for them, every dollar earned goes into my bank accounts, where I can actually afford to put new heads on if I have to, or buy new sticks, or own that second 10" pop snare for a different backbeat.
But everyone has their favorites and will explain in great detail why their favorite top-of-the-line drumset absolutely kills all others. And I get this vibe that if I don't get a top-flight kit, then I can't possibly doing professional work - the construction won't hold up...the plies are all wrong....the wood is of unknown maple variety...that snare is made out of steel? Not brass? What are you? Crazy? China? That's just crazy talk!
If it wasn't made in Oxnard CA by hand, or in Indiana, or in Germany, there must be something wrong with it! If there wasn't anything wrong with it, then why was it only $600? That can't be right....
I don't mean to rant, but am I wrong here? I hope so. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this issue. (Maybe I should've put this in 'Off-topic'? But I figure I'm talking about drumming and economy in general.....)