thinking of buying a drumset off my neighbour for 200$ should i do it

it's p clearly not a good drumset, i didn't catch the name of the brand but i figure with some good skins & once i have the money new cymbals it'll be OK and i have been dying for one for a long time. really unclear on this but seems to me it's somewhere between a child's first drumset and a standard low-end 'real' one. comes with everything

Is your neighbor named Hurting or Jordan?

Or cutty?

should you buy it?

for $200.00?

absof--glutely

^^ thats what i was thinking

basically if anyone has any horror stories of cheap drumsets now would be a good time to tell them

i currently play guitar in two bands & do percussion in a collaborative recording project w/ my roommate, presence of drums would make our jams so much sweeter. also we have been thinking of having shows/parties in our place & a house drumset would make that a lot easier. we live in a building where other people make tonnes of noise and have only gotten one noise complaint for playing records loud at like 2am. so there are a lot of benefits

i'd buy it. a budget kit might not do wonders for your recording project tho but will still be lots of fun

i'd pay more attention to the quality of the hardware, or, if you're gonna buy it, make sure to get decent hardware.

i recognize that i am someone who is p stingy when it comes to spending on musical equipment and will eternally prolong buying better equipment if i'm not forced to (why i still borrow my drummer's fuzz pedal, why i have shitty pickups) but if the hardware is so poor it's really just falling apart i guess i'll be forced to?

I would hesitate to pull the trigger. Your orders are to (1) find out the brand, (2) see what it comes with -- how many drums, what sizes, does it include cymbal stands? A hi-hat stand? A bass drum pedal? (3) if stands/pedal are included, see what brands those are (4) take a good look at the heads (the "skins", i.e. the part that you beat) and make sure there are no holes or big dents. It's ok if they look worn but if they're really shot you can replace them but it's going to cost you more money. Do this and report back.

Also keep in mind that, unless the $200 includes cymbals, which I doubt, you're probably going to want cymbals, and even the cheapest ones will probably set you back another couple hundred bucks.

The biggest potential drawbacks to a cheap kit, aside from just maybe not sounding as good, is the potential for shitty hardware, which will mean stuff doesn't stay in place, falls over while you're playing, etc. A shitty house kit can be a really bad experience for a band.

1) ok
2) snare, kick, 2 toms incl 1 floor tom, hi hat, ride, stands everything
3) ok
4) ok

thank you

so basically there is a consensus that shitty drums are ok for humble purposes such as mine so long as skins & hardware are decent? how much would those set me back provided they aren't?

The biggest potential drawbacks to a cheap kit, aside from just maybe not sounding as good, is the potential for shitty hardware, which will mean stuff doesn't stay in place, falls over while you're playing, etc. A shitty house kit can be a really bad experience for a band.

otm - all my horror stories re playing someone else's kit involve shitty hardware

heads are what, about $15-20? depending on the size?

Hmm. Well the good news is that you'd be getting everything you need. The bad news is that if you're getting that much for that cheap it might be of highly questionable quality. OTOH maybe your neighbor is just a nice guy or doesn't know much about what the kit is worth or just doesn't care.

Did he say what he paid for it?

i can't remember what i paid for mine, because i bought pieces at different times.

yeah that sounds right for heads (at least for Remos, which are perfectly good). Depending on the damage he might be looking at replacing 1-4 heads (unlikely that the bottom/rear heads are damaged but you never know).

didn't say what he paid

the cymbals are of noticeably questionable quality, they just don't look good they look cheap & would probably be the first thing i opt to replace.

it depends on what you want to play, what types of shows you wanna put on at your house.

I managed to put together a pretty nice vintage setup for probably under $1000 spread out over time. I bought a 60s rogers kit (rack, floor, kick) for about $400 (non-collectible because it had non-Rogers hardware on the drums), a 60s gretsch snare for like $120 (same deal), some vintage zildjian hats for $100, a free ride cymbal from an old practice space that I don't know the brand but sounds good, and a used istanbul crash for $150. Stands and kick pedal were from a former kit but probably worth $200 or so in all?

If you're willing to really go piecemeal and buy non-matching stuff/take an occasional freebie a good-playing/sounding kit can be had cheap. For example if I didn't give a shit about the vintage maple shells and all that, I probably could have put together a perfectly fine multi-colored kit of Tama/Pearl type drums for much less than I spent.

I don't know much about those junior/starter kits but my guess is that they're actually overpriced for their quality in spite of their cheapness, since their target market is people who know nothing about drums.

or people who don't care that much.

thing is i am definitely not in the position to pay much more than 200 on a drumset; the imminent affordability is a huge attraction and if i were to get serious about it i could replace parts as i do become more serious

^^ that is a good way to go about it.

the first thing i replaced was the kick pedal because i wanted one more conducive to playing fast

Yeah, that can be done. You can make the drums sound better just with better heads, get better cymbals one by one, better stands if the ones you have are no longer sturdy enough, etc. I'd still make sure it's at least a legit brand.

ok so tomorrow i'm going to go over w/ my drummer and he's going to appraise it. i'll try and figure out which brand it is & other specs report back here

Wait wait did you say 2 toms including the floor tom?

Also there are some decidedly shitty sets put there that aren't worth $200 new (and this is speaking as a shitty and highly pragmatic drummer/music store owner) so don't get overexcited until you get the brand.

can you even buy a drumset for only $200 new?

I bought a drum set for $100 from a guy that I met at a food co-op in Idaho. He was giving up all his worldly goods, quitting his programming job, changing his name to something like "Rainbow-Follower" and was going to wander the country as a "troubadour".

Totally worth a hundred bucks, led to having shitty band in my basement with friends, some of whom are classically trained music PhDs who were slumming it. I have no idea if the drums are any good because they're the only ones I've ever played so they feel alright to me and I'm terrible anyway.

i mean, apart from something like this, which i got for $40 or whatever my music store owner friend got it for for wholesale

http://store.drumbum.com/media/junior-drum-set1.jpg

ok so i bought it! sorry for not reporting back w/ the brand (there is none btw) & deets but my drummer said the hardware is legit -- thx a lot :) i'll post a photo of it once it's set up

sweet, grats. enjoy it in good health.