*cries* our band director wants dynasty as well sadly he doesn't understand that "nasty" is in the name to describe exactly how they are. I still want yamaha tenors that or pearl. cost is also a problem and we don't have the money to buy 1500 dollar quints. Our drums currently are old lets say ohh 10 years or more Im thinkg 13 years old

Whoaaaa there!! 1500 dollar quints? What are you encasing them in platinum?

The price for all 3 brands should be relatively competitive...

And don't knock em till ya tried em ;-)

When I referred to the Yamaha carriers as good, I meant the normal vest carriers, not the tube carriers. The tubes are the ones I have an issue with.

Plus, I don't like having to use three different kinds of wrenches to adjust a carrier.

I guess y'all are entitled to your own opinions. But...why has Pearl been losing corps to Yamaha and Dynasty? Why is Dynasty becoming so popular?

ummm because Dynasty and Yamaha offer deals on brass when you sign with them, or the caption head already has a sponsorship with Yamaha/Dynasty (Bluecoats). sorry man i dont think its cause Yamaha and Dynasty is so much better then Pearl... good effort, but try again.

and btw Randall May also made the vest carrier that you are refering too. from 96 till present Randall May has made all of Yamaha's and Pearl's carriers. so either way its not Pearl's carrier you have the problem with its the tubes in general.

as far as Dynasty being so popular. its amazing what a great marketing plan can do. its has little to do with quality, but thats the same with Pearl, Yamaha. look, if Ludwig would go after say Cadets and get them to use Selmar, Musser and Ludwig, Im sure there will be 100 schools switching to Ludwig, people singing their praises. a lot of people i know who "love" Dynasty is only because Blue Devils play them. again great marketing by Dynasty.



as far as opinions everything here has been backed up by facts. including yours. if you dont like Pearl thats fine, but you have to respect that people dont like Dynasty the way you dont like Pearl.

Bucanneers switched to dynasty this year, those things are tanks. The 32" bass nearly killed me, much heavier than the Premiers we were using at the start of the season. But if yoou tune them right they can sound beautiful. They have the snare drums with the batter side snares too which is cool. The Line I teach uses Yamaha, the racks are crap, I don't have the tubular ones, we have the t-bar racks cause we got the drums a few years before the tubular ones came out. I am looking into raising funds to replace the racks with the carbon fiber series that they came out with. One of our quint players forgot his rack at a football game last week and we borrowed one from the visiting band, it was the carbon fiber it was awesome. I have been having some equipment problems with the Yamaha's, bass tension rods snapping due to the high tension (I heard the corrected this on the current models). Also the receiving end where the tension rods on the snares screw in to seem to strip fairly easily causing uneven head tension, we lost a couple rims and heads due to this.
When we look into getting new drums in 5 or 6 years I would like to go with the Pearls, I use pearl equpment at home drumset wise and love it. Also love the tuning you can get out of Pearl field snares.

lol...it is amazing to me to find that people actually think Dynasty and Yamaha are actually "stealing" corps because of the quality of the drums...WHAT A JOKE...I think Multi shut that down already, but I just wanted to reitterate the fact that horn sponsorship plays a HUGE part in the decision making of these corps...they are looking at what is best for the whole corps not just the line...that is the one thing I think you are over-looking, and this is not opinion, it is pure fact...

Yes, it is just the tubes that I have an issue with. I didn't mean to imply that I don't like Randall May because of one of their products.

I think that you can't go wrong with the big three - Yamaha, Pearl and Dynasty. They're just different, although I think Yamaha is overpriced. For everything they make.

When exactly did Dynasty become one of the major marching drum makers? 2000, when devs started with them? It just seems like they snuck up out of nowhere into a major player. I don't have any experience with them, but if they really are better than Premier and Ludwig (and therefore, #3), then why do so many people seem to think they make trash? I don't think Premier and Ludwig are as bad as a lot of people make Dynasty sound.

Anyway, I honestly don't have any experience with anything other than Premier and (old, old, OLD) Ludwig. Based on my experience, get Premier, but ONLY if you can be NICE to your equipment. Take care of your Premiers, and they will take care of you, in my experience. The Equipment headaches are worth it to me because I LOVE the sound, especially the tenors when compared to Yamaha or Dynasty.

P.S. Try and get any parts you will need in advance of needing them, they have a DISGUSTING shipping time because they dn't really know how to set up a distributorship.

Go with Pearl. Dynasty sounds fine, but it is a cloudier, less open sound. Like snarepaint said, they aren't free floaters. Only buy free floaters. We have a Pearl FFX 14x12 that is Twelve years old, and it sounds almost as good as our BRAND NEW Pearl 14x12 FFX's. They are durable. And if you look hard enough, you can find them for cheaper than any other brand for brand new.

We play Pearl at my school, and I absolutely love the sound and durability. We've had our current drums for four or five years now, and they're just plain awesome. The snares still look brand new, as do the quints (and they're withstood a lot of wear and tear from two different very unruly guys), and the basses, except for a few scratches and a little rust because of a lot of rainy football seasons look nice too. Their equipment is tough as nails, and I love the sound of Pearl stuff.

Plus, the Pearl equipment our band started with has lasted well over ten years. Infact, every Homecoming when the Almuni come back, they march the old Pearl drums. And when we added another quads player this year, he played the quads we used before we got the new set of quints. Aside from the fact they were spray painted green (yeah, we're a little cheap =P) you couldn't tell the difference between the two.

And I think the fact that they're even still AROUND (and gone through three or four different players) is a testament to Pearl's durability.

Go Pearl. They last long, sound great, look great, and are just plain awesome.