Who Cares What Drums Look Like

How much do Looks affect your overall Love of drums

  • Total voters
    85
I voted 80% because I spent one day in Lafayette, Louisiana at three music stores trying to buy a set of drums. There were a couple I would have bought, but I did not care for the looks. I ended up buying one from Sweetwater. Peace and goodwill.
 
Drums are cool looking in any form.
Man I like those old ones that sat in the club with cigarette burns on top of the bass drum , heavily keyholed cymbals on stands with no protection on the stem. Totally blackened drum heads from years of brushes and stick work, a little beer spill here and there, a well seasoned kit is my pick
 
Number 1. The look of a drum kit communicates in at least two directions, so which are we talking about exactly? The look of a kit that tells the audience what kind of drummer is about to play? Or the look of a kit that helps tell a drummer what kind of drummer he's trying to be? Both are important, and I'd bet both are depended on quite a lot.

Number 2. Even jazz-cred has "a look". Even the stripped-down, 4-piece, I'm all about the sounds and "looks don't matter to me", even that has a look. I'd say especially so.

I'm making this too hard. 100 percent from me, with all other competing factors (sound, player technique, etc. etc.) each getting 100 percent as well. :)
 
DrummerJustLikeDad said:
Number 1. The look of a drum kit communicates in at least two directions, so which are we talking about exactly? The look of a kit that tells the audience what kind of drummer is about to play? Or the look of a kit that helps tell a drummer what kind of drummer he's trying to be? Both are important, and I'd bet both are depended on quite a lot.

Number 2. Even jazz-cred has "a look". Even the stripped-down, 4-piece, I'm all about the sounds and "looks don't matter to me", even that has a look. I'd say especially so.

I'm making this too hard. 100 percent from me, with all other competing factors (sound, player technique, etc. etc.) each getting 100 percent as well. :)
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make up your___ mind :D
 
Yeah. I like my drums to look good. No scratches, dings, scuffs. Cool sizes too!

That said, I'm completely open to color options. I mix and match sizes and colors all the time. Yeah... I'm weird.
 
jda said:
i mean let's say- How much do you care in percentage.
poll.
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I voted 100, 90, and 80. It said I could vote multiple times so I don't know what that means. I think I'm trying to say that I'll settle for less on the "looks" front, but only by -30%. Wow! That was nerdy. hahaha I was close to buying one of those mid-level, 1K-1.5K Mapex kits they have, but the finishes all looked like a$$. (in a bad way) so make of that what you will. 🤷‍♂️
 
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jda said:
"Good Lord we Got Bermuda at 30%!!!"
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Not surprised. I voted 20%.
Most kits look great. Regarding the audience, they have no idea what does and doesn't look good, as long as its not outrageously bad.
Music is largely audio driven, by far the most important aspect is does your kit SOUND great. I have boring looking kits, I have trashy player kits, I bought them because they sounded amazing.
I personally draw a line at white powder coated hardware, or gold leaf everywhere etc, but if the drums are affordable and sound amazing anything considered. In the end, 95% of kits you can buy (from mainstream makers to boutique) look fantastic.
 
If I was to buy a full new shell pack of my favorite model I'd care, but I play so many weird "franken setups" that it's not that big of a deal.

I also play mostly house kits and 99% of them are either black or brown which doesn't stand out as too weird.

I have some specific leanings, like if I was to get a sparkle it would probably be some sort of dark gold or bronze as those other colors become a bit much.

I also don't really necessarily feel a need to see any wood grain and that goes for guitars and basses as well, unless it's done in a quite rustic manner.

All the bursts, Chevy designs etc..are also just a bit too much for me.

Solid bright red is also a bit "ugh."
 
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Looks affect my overall love of drums?

🤔

I love drums, but I don't want to play on some POS/beater kit with no love given to its maintenance.
 
" who doesn't like the looks of a good Tama Warlord"..
who buys on looks alone
 
I have kits in all stages of aesthetic: super clean, worn but loved, and reclamation project. I love my clean DWs and my worn but loved Rogers, but my orphan Gretsch is just stealing the show right now. They aren't quite a reclamation project, but certainly aren't shiny and pretty, either. But they have "that great Gretsch sound!"
 
I’m a shallow dude: If my Starclassic kit had a wood veneer like my Sonor kit, I would not have bought it. If it had been an all-white or all-black kit, nope. Had it been a wrap: nope.
 
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About 20 years ago I had a chance to buy a set of mint, used Peavey Radial drums for a ridiculously low price - the sound was heavenly... but I could not get past the looks. If it's an ugly kit, that's a show stopper. Looks do matter but for me it's also a mix of sound, hardware, cost, and probably a bunch of other things that don't come to mind right now. The pic below was not the kit, but a random picture as a reminder of what those drums looked like.
original.jpg
 
If you're a working drummer and you're on stage a lot then yeah looks matter. You have to look and sound the part.

If you live in a studio who cares as long as it sounds the part.
 
Slightly off topic but lately I’d been thinking about how obsessive I’ve always been about scratches, imperfections, rust etc and in a way it’s so stupid, even if a kit has rusted rims like the one I just cleaned up, it still plays, as long as all the rods and throws and fixtures work smoothly it shouldn’t matter as much as it does to me.
 
Depends on the kit. For some reason, a small 4pc one up-one down kit with mismatched or beat up finishes looks alright to me. A big kit with double kicks, multiple toms and a dozen cymbals looks horrible if everything is mismatched or cobbled together with spare parts.

I had every intention of grabbing a kit with a classic sparkle or oyster wrap, but wound up buying an all aluminum kit. The sound grabbed my attention. Looks were a very small part of the equation.
 
JoeVermont said:
About 20 years ago I had a chance to buy a set of mint, used Peavey Radial drums for a ridiculously low price - the sound was heavenly... but I could not get past the looks. If it's an ugly kit, that's a show stopper. Looks do matter but for me it's also a mix of sound, hardware, cost, and probably a bunch of other things that don't come to mind right now. The pic below was not the kit, but a random picture as a reminder of what those drums looked like.
original.jpg
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I don't hate the looks, but I can see how polarizing these would be. They are appealing to me in that weird North drums way.
 
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