Best drums/cymbals for lowest price!

[dudleys100]

Howdy, I am a guitarist/singer and would like to learn drums. I can keep a beat and then some but I would not call myself a drummer. I would however like to get better. I have a friend that is very good and may take lessons from him. I have access to a very cheap CB set with terrible cymbals and an even worse snare. I have been thinking of getting a nice snare, and cymbals, then later get a kit. So my questions are:
1) What snare would be the most cost effective/versatile while remaining high quality?
2) What would be a good crash, and high hats?

I play mainly blues, contemporary, and rock. I need something versatile. I would like to find a company that is lesser known with good value. In the guitar world I would compare to Tacoma, and Reverend. Thanks. Ken

[jitteringjim]

Check your PM box.

[vaughn]

you want a good versatile snare drum cheap look at pearl's chad smith signature. it's what you want and it's inexpensive - under $200. you could probably get one on ebay for $100-$150 at the most.

if you want to spend more go for a brass shell or a maple shell for a warmer sound, you can do a lot with a very good quality snare drum by changing tone, tightening snares, heads etc without choking the drum. try puresound 20 strand snare wires too. cheap snare drums don't give you any options. the better quality snare drums are made by companies like Pork Pie, DW, Dunnett, Yamaha. pearl makes good ones - the brass sensitone is sweet and cheap. DW's Edge is great but expensive and weighs about 25 lbs and their Craviotto is really nice. gretsch and pacific are decent too. for the best sounding snare drums in the world check out www.dunnett.com. this guy makes some great stuff, custom but $$$ are involved!

cymbals??? sheesh, read the other cymbal posts, that's a tougher one than the snare question. sabian, zildjian are solid standards but you also have UFIP which kick ass but are hard to find, bosphorus, meinl, istanbul, etc. just don't buy cheap cymbals, you already know how bad they suck . for versatile cymbals stick with zildjian's Avedis, A custom or K series. the others are either crap or more suited for either loud rock or jazz. with sabians go for AA, HHX and maybe AAX. you'll have to play them to find the right stuff but thinner crashes sound like what you want. check out sabian's AAX stage hats...damn nice hats! the sabian and zildjian websites have audio files for all of their cymbals. that will give you an idea of what you want but DO NOT purchase something solely by what you hear on the site. good luck and have fun (learn your rudiments)!!!

peace~