PDP Maple X7 Opinions?

Ting_Thing

Junior Member
Hello. For a while I've been looking around for a high-end drum kit with a budget of about $2,000. I'd like to have something a little bigger than a 5-piece so it hasn't been easy with the budget. I then stumbled across the pdp Maple X7 series.

Although I don't recognize it has a high-end kit by label, it surprised me... a lot. 7 Pieces, %100 Maple, Lacquer finish, all priced at only $900 from musician's friend?! I would think drums like those ought to be at least three times the cost!

http://drums-percussion.musiciansfriend.com/product/PDP-X7-Maple-7Piece-Drum-Shell-Pack?sku=581619

I've heard not-so-good reviews from the X7 before, but they kept mentioning that it uses cheap mahoggany or poplar wood. This is Maple! What's the deal here? I heard that they come in really bad heads, but those can be replaced. And I'd probably also replace the snare too with the extra budget money. This deal sounds amazing! Is it too good to be true?

Edit:
Sorry I didn't realize that there was another pdp X7 post not too far below this one. I tried searching before posting but the engine didn't find anything. I would still appreciate responses based on my personal desires and budget.
 
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I am a big fan of PDP, you get a great kit at a great price. Go play one at a store and see what your ears tell you. I have owned an gigged with a CX kit and I loved it. The only thing I did to it was change the batter heads on the toms.
 
That doesn't look bad but in the description at the top and bottom they list the 16 inch floor tom in two different sizes. Make sure you get what you want. One says 16 x 14, the other at the bottom says 16 x 16. FYI
 
That doesn't look bad but in the description at the top and bottom they list the 16 inch floor tom in two different sizes. Make sure you get what you want. One says 16 x 14, the other at the bottom says 16 x 16. FYI

I think that it's just a typo. The correct size is 16"x14".
 
Thank you for your responses thus far. Here's something else I just thought of. It seems that most people agree- these drums sound better than what you would expect with that price tag. Do people only say that because it's a lot of drums? What if the X7 was your typical 5-piece... Would you still say that for around $950 they sound better than their price?

In terms of sound, how do they compare to mid-level kits and high-end kits?
 
How they sound is going to have more to do with head selection and tuning skills.
I would like to see the drum companies just knock off 30 bucks and sell the drums with no heads at all Most of them get trashed anyway.
 
I personally love pdp, I own a CX series, have had it for almost 7 years now n i dont think ill ever sell it.

But i just cant get into any of their models at the moment, except the platinums, which are apparently being discontinued, i looked at getting the x7 at the same time i was getting my cx n was told their really not that great.

Id say keep looking around, better to spend 2000 on a kit youll keep for longer than 900 on a kit thats really not much chop.
 
I played on one of the older X7s with the poplar/basswood/whatever shell and was fairly happy with the sound and feel - in fact, played it for a church kit for over a year and it was a huge improvement over the Pearl Forum they had been using. If the maple is made nearly as well, it's a decent entry-level maple kit (comparable to the Pearl Vision VML or the Yamaha Tour Custom).

If the PDP/DW angle really interests you, Cascio Interstate Music is selling DW Performance 5-pieces for $1800; adding a 7x8 tom to that is $260 - just above your budget, but they run $99 off offers all the time.

However, you might want to cruise around the used gear market to see if your 2,000 smackers can't get you a very high-end kit for a good deal less than new.
 
solid sounding kit the x7 maple, let your ears be the judge...

do you want the 7 pc just have seven pcs or does youre playing warrant the 7 pcs? maybe a higher quality 4 pc kit is all you need...

2000$ would go a long way if you went used...
 
I think those drums (the all Maple X7) can sound really good.

It's heads and tuning again.

If you have the budget for 2K, I'd look into the Performance series myself.
The X7 is nice, but the Performance kits are pretty top notch.
The kit I saw (Black transparent) looked fantastic and it sounded really nice.

If I was looking for a kit in those sizes, it'd be at the top of the list as far as what you get/sound/quality/price.

OR, a used top line kit from a brand you like. You could easily get something great for under 2K.

Good luck!
 
I've had a PDP CX series kit for about 7 years now. I'm happy with mine and it's really held up very well with all the set-ups and tear-downs.

In this price range, there are several great kits to consider but I can give you a pretty decent review of PDPs in general.

The X7 is made in China, whereas the older PDPs were made in Mexico. What does that mean to you? Probably not a whole lot. They're both mass produced factory kits so for $900, I think you get a good product.

You get maple shells and some of the DW features and enough drums to vary your setups plenty. I like the STM mounts. They're pretty low profile and you can get the rack toms nice and close together if you want. You'll want to swap out the batter heads at least.

It's really important that if you do get one of these kits, that you check them out thoroughly. Occasionally, I've heard that you might get a drum with a bad edge of that might have had some QC issue. No matter what brand kit you get, you want to do this, so if there is an issue you can handle it right away rather than later. If you buy this kit online and there is a problem, then you have to go through a return or exhange process that can be a drag. If you can get one the same price from GC at the store, then you can deal with any issue on the spot. With that said, you should be OK, because I've heard that this does not happen very often at all.

My PDP is a wrapped kit and the X7s are lacquer finishes. I don't really like any of the color choices in the X7 series except for the Tobacco Burst. This is a matter of taste though so you really can't go wrong here if they have a finish you like.

The hardware is good and is designed to be identical to the DW hardware in functionality.

Sound wise, they sound like a maple kit should or does. Good attack and warmth and you'll get good results with 1-ply or 2-ply batters depending upon the sound you're after. Like most intermediate kits, the snare is the weak point in terms of sound. Nothing really special here and if you want you can spend some time to make it sound good. If you already have a better sounding snare, you'll probably prefer it over the PDP snare.

I put some wood hoops on mine and I put a Diplomat on the snare side with some Puresound copper snares and a Remo CS Ambassador on top. At medium to medium tight tunings, it sounds pretty good now.

The tom toms all tune up well with the following exceptions based on my experience with my kit. The 8, 10 and 12 tune within a pretty wide range with medium to tight tunings sounding best to me. The 16x14 floor tom is great and will sound good tuned low on up to a medium to medium tight tension before it gets too ringy.

I struggled with the 14x12 more than any other drum in the offered sizes. I've found that it didn't sound so great tuned real low. I've read here on other threads that others haven't struggled with this size floor tom, like I did. I prefer a 14x14 but I don't use the 14x12 as a floor tom. I had mine cut down and re-edged and drilled for the lugs for the shorter size. It's now a 14x9.75 and I like it now more as rack tom.

People that like PDPs are usually willing to overlook all of DWs marketing BS. I don't think I've ever heard from any of the people that dislike PDPs that they didn't like their sound. They either had a bad experience with QC or don't like them because of how DW has positioned these in the marketplace.

I haven't bought a new drum set in so long that I've spent most of my time at getting better at tuning and I've learned how to get a great sound out of these drums. Maple to maple, I'd put mine up against all other intermediate kits and several higher end kits and I'm very confident that their sound is professional grade. Good heads, tuning and how you play will make more of a difference than whether you go PDP, Tama, Gretsch, Yamaha or whatever in an intermediate kit.

With all of that said and with the budget you have, you should also consider buying a used high end kit for around the same amount or maybe just a few hundred $ more and you'll have better resale value and a little better quality in fit and finish. If you want to get a new kit and have more drums, I don't see how you can wrong..

.. unless you buy the green one. Just kidding.

Good luck.
 
Hello. For a while I've been looking around for a high-end drum kit with a budget of about $2,000. I'd like to have something a little bigger than a 5-piece so it hasn't been easy with the budget. I then stumbled across the pdp Maple X7 series.

Although I don't recognize it has a high-end kit by label, it surprised me... a lot. 7 Pieces, %100 Maple, Lacquer finish, all priced at only $900 from musician's friend?! I would think drums like those ought to be at least three times the cost!

http://drums-percussion.musiciansfriend.com/product/PDP-X7-Maple-7Piece-Drum-Shell-Pack?sku=581619

I've heard not-so-good reviews from the X7 before, but they kept mentioning that it uses cheap mahoggany or poplar wood. This is Maple! What's the deal here? I heard that they come in really bad heads, but those can be replaced. And I'd probably also replace the snare too with the extra budget money. This deal sounds amazing! Is it too good to be true?

Edit:
Sorry I didn't realize that there was another pdp X7 post not too far below this one. I tried searching before posting but the engine didn't find anything. I would still appreciate responses based on my personal desires and budget.

Hello.
Personally I believe buying more low quality drums the few high end drums is an exercise in redundantcy. A poor drum is a poor drum. (Apologies for the tautology) $2000 USD can buy some very nice drums. Rupps drums is offering Sonor S Classic 5 piece kits with hardware for $2600!

Buying a rubbish kit because you get more drums than you can take intto a club is something that requires more thought.

Anyway, a good drummer only needs hats kick and snare. Just a thought.

PS I have no respect for the PDP company. I have seen PDP boxxes arrive at a shop with crushed drums inside. I am not kidding. I won't pee on them. Not worth the effort.
 
You can get a lot better drums with $2000 than a PDP kit. Just because it is Maple does not mean it is high quality maple. I am not a fan of PDP. I think the hardware and build are rather cheap. They seem to want to try and sway the younger generation with a lot of bells and whistles and mediocre quality, IMO. I only played on a friends PDP 805 kit and for what they went for($$) I thought it was rubbish.
 
Thank you for your responses thus far. Here's something else I just thought of. It seems that most people agree- these drums sound better than what you would expect with that price tag. Do people only say that because it's a lot of drums? What if the X7 was your typical 5-piece... Would you still say that for around $950 they sound better than their price?

In terms of sound, how do they compare to mid-level kits and high-end kits?

I played the X7 kit I bought at the drum store and it was set up right next to a DW Performance kit.I also played the Performance kit, the X7's sounded just as good if not better then the Performance kit except for the snare. I never liked the sound of 5" deep snares and that's what the X7 kit has.

In my 36 years of playing drums I've owned a lot of different kits. Ludwig, Pearl, Tama , Sonor, Premier. I just picked up a set of X7's for my home studio. For a midrange kit these drums are excellent and as good or better then any of the brands I mentioned. Don't let a couple yahoo's make you think the X7's are " rubbish" just because you don't have to pay $4,000.00 for a 7 piece kit. They are well made, they look and sound fantastic. After 36 years of playing many top of the line high quality kits, I'm proud to be playing a PDP X7 kit.
 
I've had my maple X7s for a little almost 2 years now, and I loved them from the moment I laid my eyes...and sticks on them. I too wanted something bigger than the normal 4 or 5 piece, although I sometimes gig with this set as a 4 piece.

My only complaint might be the snare, I would like something a little deeper than the 14x5", but tuned up tight it still delivers a good crack.

I don't know what more to say, the range of toms is great, I love the FAST sized toms, great hardware, great finish (although mine is discontinued..). The 8" is fun but it only gets used here and there, I LOVE the 14 and 16 though

Here are just a few odd pictures I had posted when I first got them.

http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59411
 
I'm new here, but just a few points...

1st- DW performance series are simply rebadged PDP platinum series. DW was having trouble justifying such a high cost for their low-level brand so they gave them a DW name.. the construction and materials are the same.

2nd- I've played a PDP CX kit now for almost 10 years on the biggest stages in my area and my kit never fails to get raves about how it sounds from soundmen. I've found the 12" tom to be the hardest to tune, but they are well built and tune up nicely. I have always used a different snare drum though. I play out around 85 times a year, and I've never had an issue with the drums holding up. I'm not sure about the x7 kit in particular, but if you can find a good kit that you are comfortable with, don't worry about what it costs. I spent $425 on my 5 piece CX shell kit and I've made that money back 100x over with them.
 
I'm new here, but just a few points...

1st- DW performance series are simply rebadged PDP platinum series. DW was having trouble justifying such a high cost for their low-level brand so they gave them a DW name.. the construction and materials are the same.

Welcome to the madhouse.

I keep seeing this sentiment from people, and it makes me wonder how much attention is really being paid to this stuff. I've looked at the details and the Performance series has a few improvements over the Platinums, not the least of which is the replacement of those ridiculous tube lugs with a more subdued turret lug. They also have a different ply layup than the Plats, though that may mean more to some than to others. I'm also a fan of the 1/2" tom brackets and floor tom legs over the thinner PDP versions, even if it makes them a little heavier to carry. Perhaps that's very "Boris the Blade" of me ("Heavy is good. Heavy is reliable. If it doesn't shoot you can always hit him with it."), but I would be disappointed if DW cheaped out on little things like that.

On the side; the X7s are pretty much identical to the old LX series, minus the option of a 20" bass drum, and with the add-ons the M5s are the same as the X7s. If you like 22" bass drums and even-sized toms, you can make a nice kit out of them. Personally, I'm not happy with the lack of 13" or 18" toms in these lines, but that has been aired plenty of times around here.
 
I know someone at DW... there are slight differences but they are meant to replace the Platinums. Strictly a marketing issue, and a smart one at that, I'd agree. An entry level DW kit is sure to be a hit while keeping PDP as an entry/imid-level brand is a great idea. Now the "DW" name is available at an affordable price while the high priced PDP experiment goes away.
 
I know someone at DW... there are slight differences but they are meant to replace the Platinums. Strictly a marketing issue, and a smart one at that, I'd agree. An entry level DW kit is sure to be a hit while keeping PDP as an entry/imid-level brand is a great idea. Now the "DW" name is available at an affordable price while the high priced PDP experiment goes away.

I would agree with that. When the customer service people told me that PDP was supposed to replace the Workshop series (back when it was LX/MX/CX), I was a bit disappointed, given the limitations that PDP had over the Workshops, which themselves were limited but still offered the odd sizes and 18" floor toms.

Now the Performance series is similarly limited, but I maintain hope that the line might expand to include the missing diameters. I'm not asking for custom graphic finishes or "Golden ratio" tom depths or any of that crap, but 13" and 18" drums are still pretty mainstream and I don't think it would breach the non-custom aspect of the series to include these things. Like Peart says "13s are a magic size." 12s and 14s seem to be just a bit too far in either direction.

15" toms would be nice too, but bringing THOSE up is a good way to start a fight in the drumming world.
 
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