Pulse Drums

[Brian_SG]

I'm looking for a beginning set to learn on and play with at my house. Pulse seems to have pretty good deals for this kind of thing. Anyone have any experience with them?

[Elton Bear]

Never heard of it. While you can get some OK sounding kits for dirt cheap, I would strongly recommend getting a brand like Pearl, Gretsch, or Mapex, who all do kits from around £300.

If you can stretch to that budget, you'll get something you can learn on, gig on when the time comes, and that has a re-sale value of you upgrade or simply don't get on with playing.

[mikeh]

The couple of Pulse kits I've seen up close appeared to be very low quality and candidly, the resell value on "off-brand" kits normally is less than a recognized name.

I agree with Elton Bear - Pearl, etc. all have entry level kits that in general will be as good if not better than Pulse and will likely hold a better resell value.

[tddrummer]

I know a guy who giged on pulses for 2yrs. and had no problem...so for begining drums...i'd say you'll be fine.

[isfahani]

I agree - if you buy a used 'name brand' you will have a kit with decent hardware (lugs, hoops, holders) that will have basically the same resale value as when you bought it.

If you buy a new Pulse kit the hardware is already compromised even if the shells are decent eg: kick drum spurs, after a year of setting up and tearing down, they're done - this is where they really cut the cost on these entry level kits.

I gigged on them for a few years and the kick drum spurs were the last to go after a year, all of the stands were done with in a month. The snare sucked to start with, so I had to buy the generic Pearl steel shell - that's still working after 10 years!

[Brian_SG]

Thanks for the replies guys. After doing some looking around and hearing some thoughts, an electronic drum kit might be the better thing for me. Any thoughts on those?

[Elton Bear]

Same deal, my friend. Buy cheap, it'll be crap racks, mis-triggering, no sensitivity, and little resale value. I'd go for a recognised brand and pay a little extra for more features and usability.

The only ones I've got on with personally are the Rolands (HD1, TD3, TD6, TD20), but they ain't cheap. I've heard good things about the Yamaha alternatives but haven't tried them myself.