So, you are ready to invest in a drum set for the youth room because your drummer is tired of lugging all 48 pieces of his kit to the church every Wednesday night. This is a move I would recommend if your drummer is a consistent part of your youth program and if you foresee his/her presence in the group for a while. If your drummer in your upstart program is a senior who will graduate in 6 months, this may not be a wise investment. If you decide to proceed, I would like to offer some suggestions in buying that youth building drum kit.
1.Don’t’ be afraid to buy used.
Buying used is often better than buying new. An intermediate level drum kit can be purchased used for what an entry level kit can be purchased brand new. Often these don’t have any cosmetic issues. If they do, that just knocks the price down even more. As for cymbals, little can be done to make cheap cymbals sound good. Buying quality used cymbals online or from a pawn shop is a much better investment than buying cheaper new cymbals. With a little cymbal polish, they will look and sound a lot better than the cheaper new ones.
2. Don’t overlook the cymbals.
Let’s say you have a budget of $700 for drums, cymbals, and hardware. Often what happens is people will spend $550-$600 on drums and hardware and get cymbals with what’s left. In worship drumming, cymbals are played as much or more than the drums. Therefore, it stands to reason that they should be as nice or nicer. Many times drum manufacturers will offer kits with cymbals. Typically drum manufacturers don’t make good cymbals. Avoid these cymbals…they are little more than shiny sheet metal. Cymbals don’t really wear out, unless they get cracked or broken. As mentioned above, a used quality cymbal will sound much better than a new, cheap cymbal. I would check pawn shops, ebay, or online music sites that sell used cymbals and look for Zildjian A series, Sabian AA or AAX series, or Paiste Sound Formula or 2002 series cymbals. Usually a little cymbal polish and they will be sounding great. If you can’t find any of these or still can’t afford them used, look for bronze cymbals (as opposed to the standard brass ones). Zildjian’s ZBT (Zildjian Bronze Technology), Sabian’s B8 series, and Paiste’s Alpha series. These often come in packs that include high hats, a ride, and a crash, or high hats and a crash/ride, a dual purpose cymbal for entry level kits.
You can make a cheap drum set sound good, but you can’t make cheap cymbals sound good. What I mean is that with drums, you can put new heads, muffler rings, dampening materials, and other items into the kit to customize the sound. You may not have the highest quality hardware (screws that won’t stay in place or lugs that back out, etc) because of your entry level investment, but you should be able to make the drums sound decent. As for cymbals, aside from putting some tape on them to cut down on the ring, you can’t do much with a bad-sounding cymbal. Pearl, Tama, Ludwig, Yamaha, Mapex and many other brands offer entry level kits that are made to the same specs as their intermediate models, but with cheaper materials to defer cost. If you can get one of these, do it. Most of these start at around $500. Some brands such as Pulse or Percussion Plus can be purchased for around $300 but quality may be an issue if you want this kit to be in the youth room when the next youth minister arrives. Regardless of what you buy, a new set of drum heads should be a part of your initial purchase. Resonant heads (bottom) are less important than the batter (top) heads. If your drummer plays really loud, I recommend Remo Pinstripes or Evans EC2 heads. For lower volume, smaller venues, I recommend Remo Ambassador heads or any other single-ply head. Heads that come on drums from the factory are not quality heads. They will not sound right and after a few sessions they will sound even worse!
Maybe this will help you get the right kit for your youth building!
Jason Huffman is the Director of Youth Ministries at First United Methodist Church, Palestine, TX
www.reachyouthministries.org
www.fumcpalestine.com
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