Hello drumlines.org community, I have a question on what exactly is the "best" drums on the market right now? I am in the process of starting a new independent ensemble in the central Florida area, and we have decided to buy new battery instruments. So I ask you, what exactly SHOULD we buy because all of our staff has mixed feelings about it. Budget is not an issue.

I don't think there really is a "Best drum brand on the market" right now. Each brand has their strengths and weaknesses. If I was pressed to choose one brand that was best right now, I would say wait for the Tama drums to get on the market (I think they are premiering at PASIC?) and get those. Some really innovative equipment that Tom Float has been thinking up for years.

From a stand point of once equipment tech for a line, best name or price is not what you really want to only think about.

Your future cost is the most important consideration. I'll say this from experience- simplicity and ease of care. You don't want to find out that your equipment is a pain to deal with. Is the company that makes the drum, parts and customer service dependable? Are replacement parts expensive?

Drums with a bunch of parts my look cool and make the drums sound good, but parts get lost and broken in the hands of kids. And if it has a bunch of parts, that means that it takes all the parts to function properly.

Simplicity in design, ease of care, tuneability, price of parts and pieces.

I think this is an important consideration.

Yea I can't wait to see what TAMA has in store. Tom Float called my instructor and tried to get us to switch over from Yamaha to Tama. I would've loved to see how that went, but our relationship with Yamaha was just really good so we ended not taking the deal but I sure am excited for it!

I'm sure you can find a whole bunch of opinions via a search, but here's my own personal experience:

1: Pearl. Well-engineered and built, sound great, durable. I like that the metal parts of the snare have a bare aluminum finish since powder coats tend to flake. The 16-strand snares can give a very wet tuning if you desire. My favorite basses, too.

1A: Yamaha. Engineering and build quality are right up there with Pearl. Of the drums I've had my hands on, these two brands are definitely a cut above. I like that the tenor rims curve inward to protect the shells' bearing edges from errant sticks. The last time I shopped for drums, Yamaha drums were about 10-15% more expensive than Pearl.

3: Dynasty. The fit and finish are a notch down from Pearl and Yamaha, but they're not bad drums. Think Chevy versus Cadillac. Functional, but it ain't an Escalade. The last time I bought drums, the price was significantly cheaper than Yamaha or Pearl -- enough so that we went with Dynasty. The tenor mounting system is by far the best on the market. Tension rods have an annoying tendency to rust.

"Don't go there": Ludwig. I suppose they're playable and I've managed to get a decent sound from their free-floating snares so long as Mylar bottom heads were used. But it seems like they haven't done any R&D or made any improvements since 1990 or so while the rest of the world passed them by. Poor quality powder coating on the hardware and high prices don't add to their appeal. And I can't stand the snare throwoff. Disengaging the snare is easy enough, but it makes a loud thwack when you re-engage it.

"They coulda been a contender": Premier. I like what little I've seen of their recent Revolution line. But with the company running into financial problems, I wouldn't touch new Premier drums with a 10-foot pole. Who knows if you'd be able to get replacement parts.

I personally haven't gotten my hands on Mapex drums, but I'm interested. Pricing seems good, engineering looks good, they have a reputation for well-built drum sets, and there are some innovative features like aluminum bass drum hoops.

Along similar lines, I'm interested in checking out Tama's offerings. The snare mechanism is one of many interesting little design features. I have no idea how their pricing is going to compare.

I would definitely say Pearl. Others have said Tama but there a newer design, however an impressive one. I would give them some time in the market before I purchased one. Having played on both Yamaha and Pearl I like the sound of the Pearl much better. If you are not in need of dropping the snares look into there pipe snares that utilize both top and bottom snare mechanisms. They have a real crisp sound to them. Pearl has put a lot of thought into there design trying to perfect it and minimize the extras to give an easy to work on very dependable drum as well as there carriers.

Thanks for all the advice, but what if we wanted slings instead of harnesses? Will this work with any drum? Whatt attachments are needed?

If looking to side drum I am not sure of what, or if any of the other brands have anything available but I know Pearl does. you need the leg rest:

http://www.lonestarpercussion.com/Categories/Pipe-Band-Heads-Sticks-and-Accessories/Pearl-LR-40.html

the level bar:

http://www.lonestarpercussion.com/Categories/Pipe-Band-Heads-Sticks-and-Accessories/Pearl-MH-30.html

And your choice of sling. there are many available from leather, nylon to padded versions. For snares, if money was no object I would look into these. Probably the ultimate high tension snare.

http://www.hendersongroupltd.com/Cart/pc/configurePrd.asp?idProduct=3669

It's a brand most of the marching community isn't aware of, however they don't make Multi Tenors or a pitched bass line so you won't be able to keep a brand along the entire line just a thought to ponder.

Slings can be made to work with any snare drum. Along with the sling itself, you'd probably want a carry hook or angle reduction bar to attach the sling, plus a leg rest.

{EDIT} PipeStyle beat me to the punch, chiming in quickly with good info, but be aware the Pearl MH-30 level bar is designed for triple-flange hoops, not the cast aluminum rims on a high tension snare drum. If you prefer a level bar (aka angle reduction bar) to a carry hook, there are ones out there that would work. Gator (formerly XL Specialty) makes one. Look for one that clamps on to the tension ring (aka edge ring or collar) instead of one that fastens via the drum's tension rods.

Is this an traditional line or a corps line? I have never hearsd anyone say..."budget is not an issue." That sounded so..nice. Lol

Would you specify what you mean by traditional and corps?

I'm going to guess and say he means corps style or show style.

It is a competition line, so that would be corps style.

You want to use a sling for a comp line? That's kinda weird but hey, whatever floats your boat.

There are different types of competitive lines. There are "corps style" or at least corps-influenced competitive circuits like WGI. There are standstill competitions with playing and arranging similar to what you'd find in HBCU's (historically black colleges & universities). There are some niche competitions for military-style or ROTC units and who knows what else.

If your line will be doing movement along the lines of a WGI-style indoor performance, you absolutely do not want to use slings. Even if it's a fairly slow and basic drill, slings aren't ideal for movement in various directions. As your legs move, so does the drum.

I work at a school that uses Pearls and a school that uses Yamahas. I feel like I have to work a lot harder to get a good sound out of the Yamahas. I'm changing a lot of my heads over this year and experimenting with different tuning schemes and muffling to get what I want. I have a pretty typical head setup on my Pearls and they sound amazing. The battery is constantly complemented by judges for the tuning of the drums and general quality of sound. I have Evans Grey Hybrids on the Pearl snares with MS3 bottom heads. The batter heads are relatively cranked, but the bottom heads are not. When the kids play anything clean, whether it's heavy impacts, tricky dense stuff, or roll segments, the sound gives me chills. To me, Yamaha makes quality drums, but the Pearls are like heaven on earth. Hopefully I can come up with a Yamaha scheme that I like this winter.

Also, it is worth nothing that Pearl came out with new harnesses last year. I tried some on at their DCI booth, and they felt amazing. They are definitely what I would chose for a scholastic drumline, because they are lightweight and their shape would work well for a variety of body shapes.

I agree that the Dynasty tenor mounting system is fantastic. They also make a good product that has served many top ensembles well over the years. I love the sound that Glasssmen, Matrix, and Rhythm X have gotten out of their Dynasty drums in recent years (although RX is switching to Pearl this season). I also kind of like Dynasty drums' eye-catching appearance. You can't help but notice when a Dynasty line takes the field.

I love Yamaha.....

Ok now that I've said that, does anyone have any background on Mapex and Tama drums?

from my personal experience

1. Pearl, the sound is phenomenal, wide range of tuning schemes.
the hardware is one of the most durable on the market. Plenty of options to custom your line. revamped carrier system works very well, Prices are spot on for what you get.

2. Yamaha, The hardware very durable. but with the birch shells they use for their production drums are limited in the tuning schemes. Pretty decent range of custom colors. The carrier system has some issues but for the most part works well. Price wise more expensive then Pearl. My opinion you are not getting anything more for the price. Pretty dead even. Its more a matter of what you are looking for in a drum.

Side note, What frustrates me with Yamaha, the drums the corps uses are NOT the drums available to the public. Maple are used in all top DCI Yamaha corps last summer. So what you hear on the field is not what you are going to get when you buy a Yamaha drum. I checked with Yamaha all the DCI drums are considered Prototypes and only available to be sold after the corps are done with them. Kind of like false advertising in my book.

3. Mapex, I have had limited dealings with this brand. I will say the design is a frankenstein of different brands. As far as sound the snares are a combo of birch maple. which lends the drums a sound in between Pearl and Yamaha. tenors have a inner ply of walnut which gives the drums a interesting sound. Darker then most on the market. Bass drums are all maple and have a Pearl sound to them. Hardware from what I've seen, seems durable. I have heard very little complaints about the groups I know who use them. Not a big fan of XL carrier systems. I would avoid them. Decent amount of options to custom the drums. Price point is little lower the the top two. For a start up group, I would look hard at these drums.


4. Dynasty, everything here is functional, but for me I don't see the durability. Shells are maple, but with the hardware design. it becomes a challenge to get the drums to a tuning scheme that is pleasant to my ears. Snares always have a "boxy" sound to me. with the right combo of heads and tuning they can sound decent. hardware is just not up to par with the other top brands. The tenor bar is great unfortunately its makes the drums heavier then needed. Plenty of options to customize the drums, carrier system is pretty well designed. Price point definitely makes them appealing for a group with small budget. customer service is probably the best of all the top brands.


Stay away from: Ludwig, Premier,
Ludwig, over engineered designed, poor hardware. I have to disagree with skydog on one point. I was never able to use mylar heads on the bottom with the USA snares. the stress ring on the snare side is so shallow that after a couple days the flesh hoop bottoms out on the stress ring. Forget double hooping. Fiber bottoms worked but barley. Shells on the snare were incredibly thin. which helps the drum project but durability suffered. tenors are so heavy and have no projection. just over all sub par set of drums. horrible carriers and high price point. make them a brand to avoid

Premier, I actually like the sound achieved by Premier drums,
Birch shells but they work. Its the hardware that is this brands downfall. Just always have some issue with parts either falling off or loosening up. They have to be very heavily maintained. Last time I saw the carrier system is XL, which stated before not a fan of. Plenty of options to customize.
Price point is hard to find since they only have one dealership in USA at this point. which makes support a big issue. Premier is coming back but I would still stay away at this point.

honorable mention:

Tama, I have absolutely no experience with them. From what I have seen. the hardware is top notch, the shells Maple or bubinga/birch sound amazing. Plenty of options to customize. carriers systems seem engineered the best of all brands. Only reason I don't have them in my top. is price point. Longstar percussion is the only place I saw the drums for sale and they are the most expensive on the market. You do get what you pay for. High quality. but upwards of 600 for 12x14 wrapped maple snare drum. is a little extreme. Most schools can't afford that price point.

Lonstar Percussion Snares

I've had Dynasty and Pearl. I prefer the Pearl. Dynasty was fine and did the job but I don't know that I would call them a drum company. Pearl, Mapex, Yamaha, Tama, and Ludwig are all drum companies meaning that is their specialty. I would rank them in the following order:

Pearl
Yamaha
Mapex
Tama
Dynasty
Ludwig

Tama is interesting and their snares look great and sound pretty good. The design flaw lies in the weight of the drum. Time will tell if they move up the list. I am also hearing that Ludwig is on the cusp of releasing something new soon. I believe they hired away one of the driving forces behind Dynasty's Marching line so that should be interesting to watch soon.

I've heard Ludwig signed a known designer to redesign their Marching equipment, per Drum Corps Planet. While Premier has gotten another US Distributor in MarchingUSA (I believe) to carry their hardware. Not to mention that Premier is also getting either a redesign or a restructuring on quality of parts.

So, the marching industry is crowded now, and could get even more-so within the near future.

Hello, you have interesting opinions. I would like to talk with you. Call me or email me if you like, thanks. Tom 818-807-87!2 tomfloatsnugglebunnyª^townsgmail.com

I believe that was true with Ludwig. I also think it has pretty much fallen through at this point. They hired Al Murray previously from Dynasty and there was going to be a redesign but recently most of the marching side of their business has been cut. Not much happening there right now.

Marching USA is the new Premier and Aluphone distributor for the US. I haven't heard anything of a redesign from them though. The Marching USA guys know what they are doing though. They have a warehouse full of parts right now and is one of the only companies currently that can get you a full drumline in less than a month. Expect good things from these guys.

I realized I never really put my thoughts on the drums on the market right now.

These will be ranked in the order of my preferences.

1. Pearl
There is just something to these drums. You automatically know a Pearl line before you even see it. The snares sound so full and rich no matter how you tune them. The tenors have a nice deep sound to them that really feels in that midrange. And the bass drums sound awesome tuned high or low. All of the hardware is top notch stuff too. Nothing breaks on these. The fact that they have broken away from Randal May is probably the best thing for this brand. If you remember a few years ago at DCI finals, you would walk around the lot and see banana tenors everywhere because the crap May was using really was crap. Compared the Yamaha, May screwed Pearl. The new Air ride harnesses are probably the best on the market right now as well.

2. Mapex
Surprising right? I consider these guys the cheap Pearl drums at this point. Some of the stuff is not as good as what Pearl is turning out. For example, they use the Dynasty snare throwoff on these drums. But the sound you get out of the drums is phenomenal. The snare sound with these is compared with Pearl almost every time I see it brought up. The tenor's have that Walnut bit that really makes them pop, but still have that low end presence. And the basses are by far their specialty. They boom like crazy. I however, am not a fan of the hardware system that they use. The XL stuff always seemed like a joke to me and the fact that their attachment system is just set screws really makes me iffy. They are good drums though.

3. Yamaha
I just cannot get behind the sound of these drums. There is just no presence to them whatever. I mean, they functionally sound like what a drumline should, but there is nothing special about them. I have always thought their snares sound like a cardboard box and that the tenors and basses have very little bottom end. The hardware is good though. That is for sure. The problem is that because these drums have the Yamaha name on them, they cost exorbitantly more than other brands on the market. Why pay more for an inferior sounding drum? It is also largely a struggle to get service for these drums as well. I had lug casings poping like crazy on the tenors of a group I taught at one point and tried to get a response from one of their customer service people about where I could buy them. Still haven't gotten a response to this day.

4.Premier
They have been marred by their fill of problems in the past. From just over complicated designs prone to breaking to also not being able to provide parts to fix the overcomplicated drums, Premier has largely been forgotten as a top tier brand when it comes to marching percussion. But with the recent investment Marching USA has put into Premier, the chance of a brand revival is rather high. There really isn't anything wrong with the drums. They are the only brand that has a truly free floating snare and the tenors and basses are not the worst on the market by a long shot. The biggest problem with this brand is once again, the XL hardware. The other issue would be the lack of marching keyboards to use with the marching drums. However, that isn't going to be an issue with these guys anymore. Marching USA is designing their own outdoor frames to pair with the Premier keyboards. I can tell you the frames are quite nice.

5. Dynasty
Ugh. I have personally been involved with Yamaha, Pearl, Dynasty, and Mapex drums and can honestly say the issues I have had with Dynasty drums largely dwarfs any of the other drums. The lugs on the drums are junk at best. They constantly break. The rims on the tenors are one of the few brands that DO NOT claim to protect the bearing edge from stray hits. They are also the only ones where I have seen edges on the drums basically disintegrate because of this. The drums don't necessarily sound bad, just different. The snares are extremely dry, but still have presence to them. However, I have noticed that they will actually make a snare line dirtier because of this. You better be clean to rock Dynasty drums. I've found the tenors to have a nice twangy sound to them that a lot of people enjoy. I have never been amazed by the basses though. The other issue is just how heavy the tenors are. The harness system places the drums much farther out from your body than usual which increases the perceived weight of the drums. The tenor rail, although the most stable of all of the brands, is also much heavier than any of the other brands. Almost every time I've seen a Dynasty line, the finishes almost look tacky to me.

Honorable mention: Tama
Yes, I realize they are already out, but there are a few too many issues with the line for me to consider them yet. They are the best drums out on the market right now. The features they have put out are almost common sense, but no one else does them. The drums look great and knowing Tama and seeing the drums in person, the stuff is very durable. But here's the issues. The prices of these drums are just too much for most any high school lines to consider purchasing when there are lines out there like Mapex that are like half of much of these drums. Another problem would be weight. All of these extra features adds weight to the drums and it shows. The last and most problematic problem with this brand is there is no front ensemble pieces to pair with these drums. I highly doubt any of the brands currently on the market will give an independent line any sort of a deal if they are marching a Tama batterie. That basically means that anyone who wants to march Tama drums can kiss any deals on equipment good bye. The brand is easy to fix, but they need to come out with a cheaper model for school lines and start making some keyboards or get someone else to provide them.

Look for a completely redesigned Ludwig snare very soon. I've heard the ideas, seen very fast glimpses of the material.

Trust Al...he put Dynasty on the map, he can fix Ludwig.

Oh yeah, Al knows what he is doing. I just don't think Ludwig does.

Ludwig was taken over by other companies and suffered in marching drums they still make good drum sets!

Thanks for your take, Pearl is good they make the best Pipe Band snare as well! I have Premier drums and they sound great I guess the maintenance was the real problem. Parts and supplies. I can`t replace the snares on my Pipe Snare they don`t make them anymore.

I'm actually not a large fan of their drumsets either. I've always felt like I would much rather have an old Ludwig rather than one of the new ones. Drums are personal though. To each their own.

I had a Ringo set Black Oyster Pearl finish for my 1st drum set and it was a few years ago so that is what I remember. I would not say Ludwig is the best drum sets but still good. The Classic maple shells are close to the older sets they made and used by almost eveyone at one time. Their snare drums are still very good as well, Steve Gadd and John Bonham are a couple of examples.

I think Yamaha used Ludwig as a model for their drums when they started to get involved in the market! At one time Yamaha were the leading drums to use as well. Recording Custom are still used in many studios.

So maybe not the best but still good!!!

I will counter that statement and top it, SONOR SQ2, or maybe my two Sonor sets will do just fine! Oh I have a 89 Yamaha tour customs, not impressed! Won't stay in tune. I had a small Lud 73,4 pc I took on a loan security thing. They sounded great, had to beat them to make them sound good.

Personally I prefer Maple shells & Mahogany shells, Bronze for a snare!

Did we get off the subject? I think so, I was only saying that Ludwig drum sets are still good and now I`m at war with Sonor drums! We are talking marching percussion and battery instruments but I can clarify a couple of things. Ludwig is probably the most recorded drums if you ever wanted to research it, practically eveything you heard as a hit from the 1960`s beginning of Rock until the mid 1980`s was played on Ludwig drum sets and their Supra Phonic snare even more so played with other sets like Yamaha in the 1980`s. The whole point being they were the top drums for a very long time. If I was going there now I would say DW or Drum Workshop are in that position now!

DW is an American made product where the market was taken over by Pearl, Yamaha and Tama from the 1980`s until DW. Meaning another country was collecting our money and they had the quality but they did fashion their products from American ideas. This brings us to Sonor a very high quality drum but the most expensive as well! They are best known for their hardware and they keep improving on the drums as a product as well making older sets hard to find replacement parts and being similar to the Premier idea listed above.

I`m taking a chance here but if you compared your Sonor sets to the new Ludwigs I would prefer the Ludwigs in their Classic and Legacy models to the entry level Sonor models. Another comparison would be marching drums where as low as Ludwig may be on the list Sonor didn`t even make it!