anyone have any experience with ACRYLIC drums?

spaustin889

Junior Member
so this is my first post on here, but im certainly not new to drums. im going on 18 and have been playing for 11 years now. i got a cheap used kit and played on it for 7 years and got a PDP kit a little less than 4 years ago, and for the price i paid for it, its awesome.

anyways, i've been thinking about new drumsets now for the past couple of months, and i've decided that i think i want to go custom, mainly acrylic i know the turnaround for most companys is around 25 weeks so i should have plenty of time to get the money together... anyways, i've decided if a do acrylic, im going to do clear sheels w/ 50% offset tube lugs, and either red metal flake or lime green metal flake for the hardware


so i guess i just wanted to know what are the pros/cons why or why i shouldnt buy acrylic and whatnot
 
Hello man! :D welcome to our forum! And we have been talking about that stuff, try to find, you even can listen how it sounds... ;)
 
I played Ludwig clear vistalite for some 25 years. Think about going into this kit as "this it the last kit I'm ever going to buy" or at least "I'm gonna keep this kit for the rest of my life". When you go custom order, you follow "your vision". Few others may share that vision, if you decide to sell somewhere down the line. So where you stand to lose money on a custom kit (should you sell it) a vintage stock vistalite kit is more apt to retain it's value, if not go up. The re-issue Bonham vistalite kits sell for much less than an original vistalite kit of same color and sizes. I sold my clear Ludwig vistalites for a lot more money than I paid for them, but that's the nature of collectors. Other than that, they made great stage drums. And welcome.
 
while they do look cool, and their sound is pretty good, I have found that they don't have the warmth of wood drums. If your are recording with them in a studio, you will probably notice this if you have each drum mic'd. However, if you record with just some overheads and room mics (like the classic rock artists), then you will love the sound of the drums.
 
yeah, they will deffinatly be for stage and stuff

as far as keeping them, i will probably have them for a long time

i know the sound will be a little different and that i will lose some of the tone and warmth over a wood kit, but these will be for shows and more for looks than the best possible sound

for recording i have alot of friends in the business and alot of friends who play drums who have nice kits of all different types and sizes, so finding a good sounding recording kit wont be a problem, also the memphis drumshop (i live in memphis) will rent kits out to people for recording, so if i really wanted a great sounding kit, i could get one from them for the day

ill try and find a pic of something im looking at getting
 
Clear%20Red%20Acylic.jpg


this comes from spaun drums, and is something like what i want, im still deciding on the sizes, im probably going to do something like a 10'' rack tom and 14 and 16'' floor toms, still unsure on the bass drum

im also going to do 50% offest lugs (tube lugs preferably)

and red hardware (like in the pic) or lime green...whichever one i choose wil have a metal flake so it will sparkle
 
I've had a vistalite and sold it for twice the amount I paid for. Acryl is loud and bright. Stay away from it.
 
yeah, they will deffinatly be for stage and stuff

as far as keeping them, i will probably have them for a long time

i know the sound will be a little different and that i will lose some of the tone and warmth over a wood kit, but these will be for shows and more for looks than the best possible sound

for recording i have alot of friends in the business and alot of friends who play drums who have nice kits of all different types and sizes, so finding a good sounding recording kit wont be a problem, also the memphis drumshop (i live in memphis) will rent kits out to people for recording, so if i really wanted a great sounding kit, i could get one from them for the day

ill try and find a pic of something im looking at getting


To me this is absolutely the wrong reason to drop allot of cash on a kit. Doesn't matter how cool the kit looks if it doesn't sound good. Sure I like people to tell me my kit looks nice but if I'm playing out I want them to first say, man those sound great! For the money you're going to drop on an acrylic kit you can have a sweet custom or even stock wood kit that can look killer and sound just as good as they look. Keep in mind acrylics scratch easily so you need some super nice cases probably foam lined and allot of care when transporting and setting up. I played on a few different ones years ago and they were o.k. I just didn't like the sound. It's your money to do with as you please but if it were me I'd invest it in a high quality, yamaha, pear, tama, dw or spaun wood kit and end up with a kit that could last me forever!
 
Acrylics seem to being enjoying a resurgence lately- there's a real trend toward gigging with them, I've noticed, and winter NAMM was overflowing with acrylic drums!

You should definitely test drive some if you're serious about committing to acrylics.
They do sound unique, but not bad. There's several high-profile pro drummers that record with them, and loads more performing live on them. I saw Muse recently, and Dom was playing a Tama acrylic kit and it sounded way better than the 2 wooden kits the headlining act used.
I think they can sound just fine, but as mentioned previously they may require a little more maintenance and caution when transporting.

A friend of mine bought a hybrid Spaun kit from ebay, and he said the maple/acrylic snare is the best he's owned, and he's been through TONS of 'holy grail' type drums. I was suprised to hear he liked the acrylic so much. Said it was very loud and sensitive/responsive.
Maybe you'd consider a little wood in the mix?
this is the one he had:
Hybrid%20Red.jpg
 
Acrylic sound great....just a little different. When I posted the audio clips of the three kits, the acrylic kit got as much love as the two types of wood. You want to be careful not to pimp out the kit too much. Acrylics are hot now again, but that will only last at best a few years, and then you will be known as the guy with the "plastic" toys. I think many would agree that while acrylics are great, they are a cool "second" kit to a traditional wood kit.
 
Hi, I've got a 80' sonor acryl drums i think it sounds really good, by the way I'm looking for a 18' floor tom in red for it. This kind of kit is very convenient for small clubs. vinidi.
 

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To me this is absolutely the wrong reason to drop allot of cash on a kit. Doesn't matter how cool the kit looks if it doesn't sound good. Sure I like people to tell me my kit looks nice but if I'm playing out I want them to first say, man those sound great! For the money you're going to drop on an acrylic kit you can have a sweet custom or even stock wood kit that can look killer and sound just as good as they look. Keep in mind acrylics scratch easily so you need some super nice cases probably foam lined and allot of care when transporting and setting up. I played on a few different ones years ago and they were o.k. I just didn't like the sound. It's your money to do with as you please but if it were me I'd invest it in a high quality, yamaha, pear, tama, dw or spaun wood kit and end up with a kit that could last me forever!

Well, he never said he wanted to play a kit that "doesn't sound good." Acrylic just has a different sound that ply, to some better and to some worse.

If he is going to use these mainly for performance, what the kit looks like is actually a big factor. At that point, you're not just a musician, you're an entertainer and how you look and what you play is important, maybe just as important as your sound if you need to get the social acceptance of the audience.

Also, consider that plywood is really a processed wood composite material with gobs of glue in it and a clear acrylic coating over it. Glue is another form of plastic, so your "wood" set actually is a cousin to the acrylic set. Don't get me wrong, some of the greatest sets ever made are of plywood, but a plywood drum should not be confused with a wood drum.
 
Well i have not owned a set since i have only owned 2 sets my cb and now my yamaha...but i have played on one once before...the toms sounded sort of..um how should i say this....tasteless? if thats a word appropriate to decribe them...and the bass drum sounded pretty good but it didnt have a natural sound...it sounded just different...acrylics are kool and all but nothing beats natural wood for me...but its all up to what u prefer....
 
I LOVE my acrylics. look and sound great. very bright, but they do lack warmth. i probably wouldnt record with them, but they sound excellent live. very loud.

Some people love 'em, some people HATE 'em. End of story.

Count me among the lovers. But I agree with most of what has been said above. They are better for live than recording. I have a Vistalite kit for live, but I have an african mahogany for recording. Two different tools for two completely different uses.
 
I have a 7pc set of clear starlite RCI Acrylics that I got from acrylicdrumsheaven.com and I love 'em. I had a set of late 70's vintage Ludwig Vistalites and they can't hold a candle to the sound I get with my modern acrylics. Much warmer sound.
 
i have a 70's sonor acryl kit that i really love, they are sturdy, look fantastic, and sound fantastic. i had honestly bought the kit solely on the basis of it's looks and it's rarity, however i was very pleasantly surprised to find that they sound as good as they look, i have used them not only on live shows but also on several recordings... they definitely gave a few engineers a shock when hearing how good they sound! this particular kit definitely doesn't lack in warmth and roundness of tone... i think the thing to remember is that the sound of an acrylic kit, like any other kit, will depend on build quality, bearing edges and shell roundness, tuning, head selection, and of course the player's own touch on the instrument. imho, those factors often influence the sound more than shell material itself.
 
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