Part of Michael’s Drums series of life-long joy
Michael’s Drums 11
2019 Update
Based on this I got a Mapex Armory kit. Bass drum is instant killer deep and thuddish and still responsive — love it. (I usually cock the beater off-kilter, so that it impinges with a triangular strike at low kicks, such that the triangle digs deeper into the batter head with increasing power; this seems to add maximum character-ability.) The steel “tomahawk” snare drum is silly-overpowering for this kit and my other kits…so it sits on the snare shelf. I want to try their hand-hammered version sometime. This kit should come with a similar wood snare, IMO; this tomahawk monster sounds waaay out of place (not bad, just mismatched).
The responsiveness of the kit is very different from the TAYE go-kit and also my main Ludwig all-maple kit; comparatively it feels, sounds and plays “compressedly”. It does not excel at all at low-levels and responds best from mezzo-forte to full-on FFF or whatever I can give it (which is nice, the lack of volume compression from the mid up toward the top — I’m not sure where the top is of this kit). Below mf it becomes character-less, but above mf, all the way up, it brings on smiles and foot-tapping groove — this may be the first kit I’ve played that sounds better the louder it’s played. For under $1k it pretty much can’t be beat and is a wonderful alternative kit…it also provides a place for what has become a second cymbal setup…this time mostly Meinl. More on those soon.
This kit is beautiful, sturdy enough, and the shells are nicely rough, not all laden with smooth laquer, in fact hardly coated with laquer at all (which is great for best wood / non-plasticky tone). The sound is a combination of birch and maple — crack (when played above mf), nice sustain, and an interesting mix of tone with a kind of heightening ‘bump’ in the mid-front of the note. It kinda reminds me of the difference between a chrome snare and an acrolyte snare, but in a wooden version…as if the shells are self-gating to some extent.
I’m going to try playing it up on a small wooden stage, hoping to improve the low-level tonality with added resonance. I did replace the key-only bass drum lugs (both sides) with winged lugs that were for a Mapex Saturn bass; no difference in tone just much easier to tune. I disagree w/ Ollie in the review (the low-level is homogenous), but I’ll try his suggestion of replacing the batter heads, then adjust this note if warranted.