MusicRadar

The Dixon Predator is the latest product from a company looking to broaden its horizons

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• Review

Hardware

The shells are dressed in black hardware as standard, meaning there's no alternative. Black fittings are increasingly popular and justifiably so as they can add great visual store to a kit.

For maximum impact the black coating has to be comprehensively applied to all the hardware. The fact that the Predator lugs and rims are black while the tension rods aren't is easy enough to live with; this is not uncommon among black-clad kits.

More noticeable are the many other small areas where the black coating is mysteriously absent. The most prominent of these omissions has to be the tom arms, which rise out of the black tom post like a pair of silver tusks.

Dotted all around the kit are other black-free oversights, including bolts, washers, tension rods and air holes. Again it seems cruel to carp on at what is a manufacturer's attempt to add a little pizzazz to a kit, but as the maxim goes, if you're going to do it, then do it properly.

Hands On

The minor visual glitches are even more perplexing when considering the quality components Dixon has managed to include elsewhere on the kit. All of the drums wear genuine Evans batter heads and a Dunnet throw-off sits proudly on the snare. The two rack toms are equipped with RIMS-style suspension mounts while 3mm thick hoops are fitted across the drums.

In performance, the drums were quite impressive. The bass drum gave a satisfyingly deep thud, its EQ4 batter head affording it a dryish air that kept overtones at bay to the degree that no dampening was required.

At regular tensions the dryness meant that the beefy note didn't arrive with much presence at the top of the stroke. Slackening off the heads soon brought out a convincing slap that gave the drum a noticeable boost in the mix while still retaining its body.

The snare was, in the main, excellent, delivering a deep, fat crack that commandeered backbeats. The thick hoops imbued it with a metallic energy that was particularly noticeable when digging out rimshots.

Beneath the initial brightness sat the sort of dense clonk that only a wooden snare is capable of. Its 6 1/2" depth meant that at high tensions it still had real clout, while relaxing the tuning repositioned its sound somewhere in the region of massive.

Our only issue with the snare drum was with its very ordinary snare wires which were prone to unwanted and irritating buzzes. The very same wires were attached at one end to an expensive Dunnet throw-off. Very frustrating.

With such stubby depths, the toms would be expected to respond quickly and this proved to be true. Their coated Evans G1 heads meant that they were warm and natural rather than saturated, but they gave pleasantly ripe tones that decayed cleanly without being encroached by overtones. The floor tom was, predictably, a little more assertive in its voice, but not to the degree that it stood out.

Overview

There is no question that this is a lot of kit for the money. Not so long ago such a package would have been inconceivable at the price. In value and performance terms it deserves four stars.

It loses a star, however, for the visual lapses that make its appearance less convincing than its sound. That aside, the kit is proof of how serious Dixon is about making drums.