Ask MusicRadar: what's the best drum kit for a beginner?

Vote for your favourite first setup

The MusicRadar Team, Thu 17 Sep 2009, 12:01 pm UTC

Ask musicradar

Welcome to Ask MusicRadar, a section of MusicRadar devoted to the best in music-making products as voted for by you - the all-knowing, gear-buying, gear-playing and all-round gear-loving community. This week we're asking: what's the best drum kit for a beginner?

If you're just starting out and your first set hasn't let you down, we want to know. If you're a seasoned pro whose early days behind the kit were filled with joy (not fear of your five-piece falling apart at the seams), we need to know!

As long as it's A) affordable (let's say a four or five-piece under £500), B) can handle a n00b's misplaced rimshots (or a guitarist attempting to 'show you' how it's done) , and C) doesn't look and sound like a bag of spanners when hauling it onstage for your band's first few gigs… it's in.

What to do now

Get involved: choose your drum kit and share you suggestion, and reasons why, like this:

Via MusicRadar (log in and leave a comment below with a link as usual)
Via Twitter (follow @musicradar and tag your submission with #askmusicradar)
Via Facebook (become a fan at http://facebook.com/musicradar and post suggestions on our wall)
Or via ask@musicradar.com (just send an email the old-fashioned way)

Once we've got all your nominations, we'll create a shortlist, a poll and finally your definitive list of the best beginner drum kits your money can buy.

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User comments (5)

oldskin

8 weeks ago.

years ago I had a Premier outfit, blue sparkle, I remeber, then gave up drumming for about 15 years, when out and bought a CB kit around 200.00 pounds,upgraded the skins and cymbals, it done me good for a while, just to get back into the music, still got it now, then upgraded to a Sonor force 20000, great little kit, cost about 400.00, now playing a Ludwig Accent CS.
I would say any cheap kit is ok, but just be prepaired to upgrade skins and cymbals if you got to cheap.

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tarrys

9 weeks ago.

My first kit was a pearl export. I still have it today and its still going strong. Great Hardware, i have never bought a new hi-hat stand in 19 years of playing. Maybe things have changed between now and back then, but Pearl are solid kits that in my opinion are 100% reliable and sound great.

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thebeagle

9 weeks ago.

I'd go for a Premier Cabria, but the hardware's crap. Mapex seem to have discontinued their Venus, which was pretty good; the Yamaha Gigmaker I played ages back was okay, but IMO you need to allow at least fifty quid to replace ALL of the batter heads on any budget kit straight away with something decent, it makes all the difference.

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Yaheli

9 weeks ago.

Can't remember exactly how much it costs but the Sonor Force 507 is great and I think it's under 500 euro

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alonetogether

9 weeks ago.

How about a Pearl Export - you can get a standard 5-piece shellpack for under £500 and because it's a well made kit it'll do you until you're at least at the intermediate level of drumming. Whatever that means.

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