Thinking of picking up a bop kit

Good choice. As others have said, if Breakbeats came with an 18" kick instead I would have bought it.. instead I bought a PDP New Yorker from GC with a coupon for $400 shipped last year.

Prior to that I bought the Premier APK from American Musical Supply but I was not impressed with the mounts or the bearing edges.. granted it's a low-cost kit but still... I promptly returned it and got the PDP.

Other notables are the Sonor Safari, Bop, and Players SE. I have yet to experience an ill-made product from Sonor, and many people praise the Safari and Players' quality for the price.
 
Yes def report back on the Emad on it, as I was curious about this, but still have the factory on mine.
going to take longer than I hoped. One of the bass drum hoops is obviously out of round and not contacting the flesh hoop uniformly, making even tuning a pain. Toms tuned up nicely, getting a surprisingly deep rumble from the floor tom.

Thinking of just getting unfinished maple hoops from dfd. I'm already swapping out the claws from a bass drum that's been sitting around for 10 years. At this point I'm thinking of just going further and tossing s hoops on the toms and rewrapping for funsies. Maybe a wmp or a flame, or perhaps a walopus offering. After selling off the other crap that came with the thing I'm still money ahead anyway.
 
Call the place you bought it from to contact Ludwig or contact them yourself. I've heard they have great customer service.

If you really don't want to be bothered buy a new metal hoop from drum factory direct. I just used them for the first time the other day. $15 for an 18" black bass hoop for my other kit. I ordered at 3pm and it came the very next day.
 
Call the place you bought it from to contact Ludwig or contact them yourself. I've heard they have great customer service.

If you really don't want to be bothered buy a new metal hoop from drum factory direct. I just used them for the first time the other day. $15 for an 18" black bass hoop for my other kit. I ordered at 3pm and it came the very next day.
as previously stated, I got the kit used from craigslist on the cheap. There is no warranty or anyone to contact.

Also, I don't see the point of getting metal hoops when wood hoops of that size are only a few dollars more (dfd maple hoops are already in the mail), plus I'll have the option to cut out part of the hoop for the bass pedal if needed/wanted. I may try my hand at the router table and reuse the inlays from the stock hoops.
 
Ahh my bad! I missed the part about CL... yeah I thought the same thing about wood vs metal but I was too cheap at the time to spend another $15 on a "3rd" kit.
 
Update, if anyone cares.

Mounted the DW lift last night. Incredibly stable and solid. Relatively expensive but a clear upgrade.

The hoops are hanging up with a coat of poly on them now. I think these are really going to improve the entire look of the kit. I didn't do a terrible job routing out for the inlay, although the bit hopped once in the first one because I didn't have the featherboard set correctly. I don't think anyone will see it. I should be able to get another coat or two of poly on by Wednesday, when I plan on taking them out to the blues jam I sometimes sub at. That ought to be a fun test.
 
Planning on it. I'm also going to record the jam to hear how it sounds in context. If I can find a snippet that isn't awful, I'll upload that too. I plan on recording some A-B comparisons with the emad/eq3 combo vs the stock heads over the weekend.
 
About the DW lift.... I'm considering getting one for another kit I have... do you find your pedal clears the hoop much better now?
 
I won't know until I'm done applying poly and getting the inlays back on. But part of the reason I got wood hoops is that I can notch some material out if it's still a problem.

Well, I guess I could toss the good old one on and see.
 
Thanks for asking. Now I know I have to remove maybe 3/8.

Edit: maybe more. I'm not sure how much I can take off before the hoop gets too weak. I don't think a different riser is going to change anything. The hoop is still 1.5 inches, and 90 degrees is still the same. I'm beginning to see the benefit of converting a floor tom. I don't see much of a way around some excess forward angle without using some non conventional beater. Depending on how much closer I can get with notching the hoop, I'll look into something else, perhaps buy some cheaper beaters and see how well bending the shaft works.
 
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the slight angle isnt bothering my in the least. At first I thought it was going to be a huge deal, but my kick drum still sounds just fine. :)
 
I'm really not all that worried about it myself, but I figure if I'm still doing assembly, might as well do it now.
 
Throw a regular hoop on there as opposed to a bass hoop. I was just curious because I was going between putting a bass hoop and using the riser it came with vs the DW lift. I like the DW lift better but it seems like it will work better with regular 2.3mm flanged hoops. Just not as pretty :/

It must be a size thing because on my 18" converted floor tom my pedal clears the hoop and riser just fine with no angle. Very strange 2 inches makes such a difference. I wonder if it's because with the 18" its angled very slightly towards the player.
 
Throw a regular hoop on there as opposed to a bass hoop. I was just curious because I was going between putting a bass hoop and using the riser it came with vs the DW lift. I like the DW lift better but it seems like it will work better with regular 2.3mm flanged hoops. Just not as pretty :/

It must be a size thing because on my 18" converted floor tom my pedal clears the hoop and riser just fine with no angle. Very strange 2 inches makes such a difference. I wonder if it's because with the 18" its angled very slightly towards the player.
could be any number of variables. I didn't play with angling the drum, because I'm pretty stalwart about bass drums being level, but this may be cause for me to rethink my stance.

Other things could be that you have a beater that sticks out farther from the shaft, or a footboard that brings the chain/strap further from the drum. That's basically where I'm having my issue, is with the chain rubbing. I could probably get a little more clearance by playing with the drum angle, riser height, beater height.

A regular hoop is probably the easiest solution, but I'm kind of stubborn and I really want to just see what I can come up with entirely for the sake of doing so. Also, the wood hoops have much more visual appeal, not that anybody but me would ever care. I'm going to round out some of the hoop on a drum sander this afternoon anyway. I like to tinker.

The appeal of the DW riser to me is entirely in the stability, and the ability to accomodate a double pedal easily by being able to offset the pedal to get the beaters more centered. The couple pedals I've tried just seem to grip to it very well, too. The DW riser is really as solid as playing on a 22" bass drum. No little hops, no wiggle, no rattles.
 
So, that was interesting. I don't think anybody but the bass player noticed I was playing a bop kit, so that was a positive, I suppose. I certainly noticed, at least with the bass drum. I haven't played anything smaller than a 20 in my life, and I don't think I've played an unported bass drum in at least 10 years. Probably longer even. Needless to say, my technique needs to adapt. You would think that the increased rebound from the smaller drum and the unported reso would make the bass drum easier to play, and this may hold true in time, but right now I'm only at a point where I can keep it simple just because the feel is so foreign.

Here's a snippet from the jam. It's just from a handheld Tascam DR-05, but it's decent for what it is. Drums are all acoustic, everything else is from an amp or PA: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xjv08ra5hvdqg9f/rrjam1.mp3?dl=0. I still want to play with the bass drum sound, but I don't think it was bad for it's maiden voyage.

Here's some pictures:
fwkntl.jpg

fa2at1.jpg

2emkhw2.jpg
 
Years ago I bought a SPL street Bop shell pack brand new for $249. I added Zildjian cymbals and some decent hardware, changed the heads to Remos. It's been about six years and I'm still loving this kit. It's compact, sounds great and still looks new. I play at home mostly and take it to open mic nights. I was wondering how much they cost now and they are no longer available. I've only seen one used one come up for sale at $500. The people that bought this kit realize what they are and are hanging onto them. This was one of those underestimated diamond in the rough deals. I made my living as a professional drummer for about four years playing with a band in Costa Rica. Been playing since I was 13 and am 64 now. I've been lucky enough to play a lot of different drum kits in all of those years and this sparkly little street bop kit still brings a smile to my face. I've gotten some great deals in life and this drum kit was definitely one of them. The snare is the only thing lacking a bit but is usable. I am a woodworker so made three really cool snare drums of exotic hardwoods and switch them out with this kit. These drums with good heads are great! If you can find one of these street bop kits used in good condition for under $450 (especially if they changed the heads and it comes with decent hardware and maybe some decent cymbals) GRAB it!
 
Years ago I bought a SPL street Bop shell pack brand new for $249.
If I recall ..... those had birch shells. And yeah, not bad kits. I think the rack tom even had a suspension mount (kinda unusual at this price point).

And welcome to Drummerworld.
 
The SPL will have zero resale value.
True. I bought an SPL Bop used, like new, for $180. I told the seller to keep the snare. IMO you can throw the cheap kit snares away. The rest of the kit is serviceable. (Mine included a $40 riser so I probably paid in the $150 range for the actual drums.)

I don’t know about the other kits, but add in the cost of new heads for the SPL. The factory heads are really not useable. The reso heads are thin smooth plastic like you find on a kiddy toy kit. 🤦🏻‍♂️ I’m also not a fan of a 10” tom but the bass drum is full and loud. Good little kit overall, after those new heads, but nowhere near my Sonor Bop SE… and that’s a cheap kit too.

Edit—
I just replied to a six-year-old thread. That’s when it’s time to take a break. Goodnight.
 
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