Used intermediate birch kit - Pacific vs. Premier vs. Mapex vs. ?

nickap

Junior Member
Hi there - just joined the forum, having found good advice here for ages - now I have a specific question that I would love to get some advice / opinions on.

I have an old Pacific birch kit, F-Series, probably about 13 years old now. It's always sounded really nice - I've used it for recording many times (most of the time it sits in my project studio) and also gigged with it; got some incredulous compliments about the quality of the sound from such a low-end kit, from a sound engineer at a BIG club who knew his stuff. So in short, a cheap but really decent kit.

It's starting to show its age though; I have some stripped tension rods, missing screws and/or bolts from the suspension tom mounts, rubber grommets perished or wearing out on the mounts, that kind of thing. All minor stuff, plus the shells are just all scuffed up from years of (mis-)use. Definitely fixable - but I was thinking it might be a good time to get a new kit - or rather, a nice quality used replacement kit - something that would be a bit of an upgrade. I was thinking that for $500 or so I could get an intermediate to semi-pro birch kit like a Premier XPK set, or possibly Mapex M series, or something else - but a drummer friend who is more knowledgeable than me, and who has played my kit many times, has advised me just to fix up the Pacific kit that I have - he says it's a great kit and that I am very unlikely to find anything that sounds better without spending a lot more.

So that's my question - is my Pacific kit likely to be pretty much as good as it gets in that price range, or are there really any stand-out sounding birch kits that I should be considering?
 
Those all sound like lateral moves to me. I'd either spend a little to fix the things like stripped tension rods etc. or save up a bit more to get a used pro level kit as an actual upgrade.
 
Thanks Winston, that sounds like good advice. What would you recommend as a pro level birch kit?
 
Hmmm.....Nothing like a good set of shells. The wood, bearing edges .....clearly your kit gets lots of compliments, so why change.

I'd say fix up your existing kit, and all those items. Costs less than $500 too.
For $500 you would have the rush of getting newer drums, but not improve too much, unless you found a super deal.
 
You could also get a Stage Custom birch set, maybe lower in the food chain but then spend more on cymbals.
 
Thanks! Actually I'm in good shape for cymbals; I recently bought two used Sabian AAX crashes (16" Xplosion and 18" Studio) and a sweet Sabian ride cymbal (21" raw bell dry ride) - I'm very happy with the way all of those sound. So it really is a question about the shells, and I guess quality of drum hardware, more than anything else.
 
I have a set of Premier XPK that I played for the last 20 years or so before getting a DW maple kit. The hardware is still like new. I've always been happy with those drums. Now my son plays it.
 
Thanks Eric, that’s definitely good to know …

Things on my end actually have gone off on a bit of a tangent though; I had basically decided to stick with my old Pacific kit, and just fix it up a little. But I recently also got a Peace Paragon snare drum (maple with maple rims), which sounds fantastic - so I couldn’t resist doing a search for other Peace drums on the Guitar Center site. Long story short, I couldn’t resist buying a used 5-piece Peace DNA maple kit in good shape that was on sale for $299 (the store was clearing out back inventory so had just dropped the price). From what I’ve read on the forums, the general opinion on Peace is that their low-end kits are pretty junky - but that their upper end kits are really sweet. The DNA line is near the top of their product range, and I generally have read very positive reviews. Once it arrives we’ll see if they’re right …

So basically I’ve gone from being pretty sure I wanted to get a new birch kit, to actually ending up with a new maple kit. I’m actually pretty excited about having two very different kits - I’m thinking perhaps I will keep the Pacific for recording, and use the Peace for gigging. In any case, if the DNA kit is half as good as I’ve read, it was a steal at $299 (if you can find them for sale new, they seem to be priced around $1100-$1600). Again, we’ll see once it arrives … :)
 
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