What Is So Bad About PDP?

joshthedrumkid97

Senior Member
Ive seen a lot of threads with comments saying that PDP has a bad reputation among drummers and a lot of people saying they hate PDP. Why?
 
I have little experience with PDP, but they offer cheap, good looking drums.
I was recently in the market for a snare with wood hoops and checked out all the snares on youtube. The PDP snare had the nicest sound and I ordered one. It also happened to be one of the cheapest.
 
Haven't seen any PDP hate on here. I know their hardware had a bit of a bad reputation a few years back, but I haven't heard much of that lately so they might have fixed those issues.
 
The problem is nowhere near what it once was but there were reports (including from me) of very badly made shells a few years ago. This includes basic manufacturing faults like ply separation, poor bearing edges and badly applied wraps. The hardware is/was also an issue.
 
The first 5 years or so were pretty tough for them and they had a lot of bugs to iron out. They were little more than cheapo Asian generics with DW Workshop lugs on them when they first hit the streets.

By 2006 or 2007 they had improved by leaps and bounds, and now they are better than they've ever been as far as quality goes. One big drawback is that they are limited to fewer sizes than most other drums in that price range; they don't make 13" or 18" toms, and you only get a 22" bass drum these days.
 
No hate, but after trying a few, it seems you can get twice the drums for half the price from many other companies.
 
Research any entry level drum kit on this forum and you find lovers and haters.In the early days of the line there were some Build/QC issues,I remember hearing about de laminating plies.PDP also offered different shell shell lay ups,I think some were luan/another wood,and all birch and all maple,and I have played/heard a few maple kits tuned well and I thought they sounded really good.I don't know how well the hardware works and moving parts hold up,but sound wise I think they hold thier own against similarly priced entry level kits.
 
I owned one of the earlier Mexican made Pacific kits and overall it was well built. It had some bearing edge issues and some bumps under the wrap finish but at the time no one was offering all maple shells in the intermediate price range.

The biggest draw of those original Mexican PDP kits was having DW-made shells. Now that their entire line is made overseas any connection to DW is strictly name only. I'm sure other than the expected intermediate-level carelessness in build quality what they're offering now are still decent drums, but in the last ten years the entire entry and intermediate-level has seen a pretty big improvement in all brands of kits and a lot of the pro-style features Pacific offered have been matched and improved even further by other brands.
 
No hate, but after trying a few, it seems you can get twice the drums for half the price from many other companies.

Hyperbole alert.

In what part of the world does it seem that way? I got my nephew a very good sounding, all-maple 5 piece M5 kit for $475.00 last year (and that was from a mom n' pop store). It came with some of the same hardware, heads and suspension mounts that are on my high end DW kit. I don't know who sells a kit which is twice that one for half as much. I do see examples where you get more stuff, such as hardware or cheap cymbals thrown in for that price, but not an actual improvement in number or quality of the kit. Perhaps PDP pricing is different in other parts of the world?

It's hard to pin down "best" at any level, but it seems to me that PDP is one of the better entry level choices one can make at this point. That said, I don't think they are meant to service the ultra low end market which is a plug n' play experience for under $500.00.
 
I have friends who play PDP kits and by and large, they are built well and sound great. I think for a majority of people at least living in Southern California, PDP is looked upon as the poor man's Drum Workshop, since I think that was the original plan anyway. After having owned a couple of Drum Workshop kits (and consequently turned off of the brand), PDP is not even on my radar when people ask me about solid mid-level priced kits. I have to change that attitude. PDP stuff is pretty good.

I think what gets me about the PDP-DW thing is we saw some pretty big names really going out of their way to promote PDP, and using PDP stuff featured in ads and such. But of course, you'd see them a bit later with their high-end Drum Workshop kit and I'm thinking, "well last year you said PDP was the ultimate for you". Until this trend stops, PDP will always be considered DW's seconds.
 
..After having owned a couple of Drum Workshop kits (and consequently turned off of the brand), PDP is not even on my radar...

Sorry to hijack the thread, but; Bo, what turned you off DW?
 
As im concerned the PDP is the entry,mid /intermediate brand of DW. So instead of creating some entry level DW kits, they create something pretty similar with a different name - as they don't want their reputation or name wasted if it didn't work out. - That's just my thought - MIGHT be worng though!

I've never heard a PDP kit, they look pretty good though, just as good as any other kit - maybe even better. I've seen alot of them looking pretty good.

I won't hate PDP until i get dissappointed by on of those kits.
 
My PDP X7 kit has served me well since I bought it 2 years ago, and I get a lot of compliments on it. The snare is the only piece that I don't love the sound, but I've gotten it to sound decent.
 
Here is my question, Did DW just take the Platinum line, change the lugs, double the price, and call it the Performance series?

I'm not making accusations, but that seems like what they did. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
 
I got a PDP double drive 8 pc double bass set and for the money or even a little more I don't think I could beat it. $699 for a double bass set with 18 x 22" bass drums with wood hoops, Rim mounted toms and Remo UK heads is pretty good. The only complaint I have is I wist it was a 9 pc with 16 and 18" floor toms instead of 14 and 16. yes the snare is just OK but it gave me an excuse to go buy 6 more lol. The poplar shells sound great even with the stock heads. bass drums sound awesome as well. the hard wear on the drums is heavy duty and keeps them in place and I play pretty hard. That being said I have two toms with blemishes on the bearing edges but I saw them when I got them and it didn't affect the sound as far as I could tell. I did look at a comparable Tama and Pearl and did notice a few blemishes on bearing edges as well. One day I know I will upgrade to something better but for now this is just fine and excellent value for the money.
 
Here is my question, Did DW just take the Platinum line, change the lugs, double the price, and call it the Performance series?

I'm not making accusations, but that seems like what they did. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I should read more closely. I almost gave a completely irrelevant answer!

The answer is no. Though they started in Mexico, that shop has been shut down and now they are coming out of Oxnard. The whole intent of the Performance series was to make a DW-branded line to fill the semi-pro/mid-price range without mistaking them for a top-shelf DW kit. The lugs bear a much more direct visual relationship to the DW look than the Platinums, which were getting a little far away from it, and most of the small details like tom brackets and such are identical to the high-end stuff. Putting a DW logo on the front head seems to be helping as well (this matters to some, so I won't knock it). The QC is apparently on par with Collector's series drums as well, something that PDP has struggled with in the past.

Think of them as DW equivalent to Pearl MCX or something like that, where the Platinums were more like Export Maples.
 
Last edited:
I think PDP would always struggle to break through the stigma of being 'the cheaper DW'. What I'm trying to say is that a lot of people will never see them as being anything more than mid-level kits, no matter how good they may become.

It's a similar situation to the Epiphone/Gibson thing with guitars - guitarist tells you he owns a Les Paul, then turns up to the first practice with a mid-level Epiphone *facepalm*

None of it really matters if the instrument sounds fine but that's the kind of trickery you get in the world of marketing. I notice on the PDP website they describe their lower kits as simply 'hardwood'. This is surely at least decade behind the 8 ball as far as drum marketing goes?

Personally I think the big oval lugs are ugly and that's the reason I wouldn't buy them. I never wanted to spend a fortune on a brand new kit, so I always knew Mapex would be the top contender (which I ended up buying, but that was a decision based on the price and sizes I wanted, not so much the brand)
 
I think PDP would always struggle to break through the stigma of being 'the cheaper DW'. What I'm trying to say is that a lot of people will never see them as being anything more than mid-level kits, no matter how good they may become.

DW's goal with he PDP brand is to supply and be known as a supplier of low end and mid-level kits. They are intended to be seen as "the more affordable DW." Perhaps the stigma has already been broken through?
 
To me the Performance series just proves that DW drums have always been way over priced. Kind of like Harleys. This is what they are really worth.
 
Back
Top