Side by Side Comparison of: Gammon Percussion vs Evans vs Hudson Music vs Brand: ALPHA

Great value, great set for adults adding to their music room. Very happy with the quality.

My soon-to-be-9 year old son is starting drum lessons for his birthday. I ordered these drums, and so far no complaints! I needed some help setting them up, but I have absolutely no experience with drums, and as of now, they have held up to both of my young sons banging away on them. His teacher said it was a good set for him when he saw them, and the company's customer service is amazing! One of the screws hadn't been threaded properly, and the company immediately emailed me back when I emailed them about a replacement piece, helped clarify exactly what I needed, and sent us a new one that we received only a couple days later.

This was amazing for the price. For ease of setup, it came with a follow-along DVD. My son was thrilled when he got this drum set for Christmas! This seems to be a quality starter drum set with potential to last a while.

On a side note, I purchased this drum set on Amazon from Musicians Discount Warehouse. When I received the drum set, I was missing a few small parts. I sent an email to them on the Saturday night before Christmas. By Sunday morning, I already had a response by email, and shortly after I received a phone call from a LIVE person. The tech was able to walk me through how to make the one drum still playable until he could ship out the parts. I received the parts quickly and everything was great. I am still amazed how this company worked--Fantastic customer service!

I have never met a more friendly company on Amazon as Musicians Discount Warehouse. I needed to have this delivered on a certain date. I got in contact with them, and within 2 hrs we were in touch. They told me when would be the best date to order it, they said to let them know as soon as I place so they could watch out for it and be sure it got sent. Very friendly.
Very helpful and a whole lot more.

Now for the drums itself, wow it came to the exact date as they said. Well wrapped for protection. We gave this to a church, so it took a while to check it all out. Everything was inside, great shape. Once the church set it up, we went to see it. Everyone was very happy with it. The blue was a great match. The drummer about 14 who likes to beat the beat, said it was very easy to set up and fine tune. For use in a church the song stays strong, does not over bear the hearing at all. With a chior, it matched just perfect, did not drown the chior out.

No matter what the drums may be used for, I think you will be very happy about them.
Now that the Pastor is vetry happy and proud to have them in his church. he asked me if we could find a 4 string bass guiltar, well Musicians Discount Warehouse has just the ones they are looking for.
We are placing our order for it today, and we are sure they will give us great service and it will be a great product just as the drunms were.

Last issue, during our contacts with Musicians Discount Warehouse, they told me if I ever need help with them, or have a problem they will do whatever it takes to solve the issue. Now that is better then any price you pay for an item, service / support number 1 in my books.

One last thing the church members say God Bless to you all at Musicians Discount Warehouse, they waited 4 years to find a good deal on drums, glad we could help some.

I have read the reviews for this set (some good, some horrible) but as a musician and a fellow drummer, i'm here to spill the facts. First of all, if you are looking at this product than you're either starting out, or you have a tight budget at the moment (my case). Let's begin with the drums themselves, not the hardware. The total price of this set is around $190 (plus shipping). That is still an amazing deal just for the shells and heads. No they are not maple or mahogany or whatever wood you think is the best, but it is sturdy and gets the job done. That said, be happy that there are full size drum shells for this price.

Now for the hardware. Yes, it is light weight and "cheap", but who can say no to free stuff. These peices will do untill you feel confident that you want to expand and upgrade your hardware. If you decide to embark on the journey of professional drumming, then you should upgrade your hardware and drum heads.

Overall this is an amazing price for starting out fresh with endless possibilities to expand. Be happy if you purchase this, because you will never find a better deal for this. Plus, my hardware is still perfect, but the cymbals are for practice only (dont expect Zildjian, just something to train with till the time is right. Overall
amazing deal. Build your own music legacy :).
Happy drumming!

Works great, I'm not a professional drummer so I don't know jack. My sister seems to like it though, as it is hers.

For someone unsure if they are going to stick with drumming it is fine to learn on and build up to something better. The seat broke it isn't madeto ssupport a lot of weight. The cymbals and high hats have begun pitting. I haven't played around too much on them so they haven't taken much abuse. There isn't much instruction on tightening the drum lugs just be very careful not to go to tight, I was scared to rip any heads. Surprisingly the full size Tom took the force of a trumpet being struck against it and won, the trumpet is no longer playable while the Tom is.

We bought this as a beginner drum set for our 10-year old son. It came in two large boxes, which contained all necessary parts. Assembly instructions came in the form of a CD which we didn't need to consult because a drummer friend helped us put it together. Assembly took about 2 hours, but we weren't trying for a speed record. The biggest part of that was getting the heads on all the drums. But it all came together pretty easily. Everything works great. My impression, from my friend's comments, some other reviews that we read prior to purchase, and my own observations, was that this is a decent full-size beginner set. Everything seemed solid and decent quality, but I gather the drum heads and cymbals aren't necessarily top of the line. Good enough to give my son a taste. And he is thrilled with it. Now to find someone who can give him lessons...

As a new adult drummer, this was a great set to get started and practice on. The cymbals are nothing more than practice fodder though, appearing to be painted aluminum maybe? Cymbals are not really playable except for a small kid or as a very beginner practice set. I snagged a couple of sabian bronze cymbals on the cheap and the sound improved dramatically. Definitely cheaper than buying a "name brand" set with entry level brass cymbals.

The shells are decent, they'll last a few years and will be the last thing I'll upgrade.

The heads are just acceptable. As soon as my budget allowed I got new remo heads and that, paired with the new cymbals, gave this set a passable sound that I can gig with and really enjoy practicing on, all for a total of under $300. This is a good starting point to build a budget set!

Great set to learn on.

The good:
1) Great price
2) Great customer service (was missing a tightening bolt, after contacting the company, who responded to me within 2 hours, by e-mail they had several more sent to me and I had received it within a couple days)
3) Looks nice
4) For a beginner this is a good way to start before you spend the money on something more expensive.

The bad:
1) Pretty cheap set, you'll notice this in the bounce, and sound
2) The throne actually broke in half within 3 days. I bought a new on on Amazon which was much better. It's also a little short for tall people.
3) Cymbals sound bad and can dent when hit.

It all depends on what you are looking for. It's something great to start with, but you'll want a new one fairly soon if you actually want to progress with drumming. But why waste the money on something better until you're sure you want to progress?

Returned it because of the sound quality.

Got these as a Christmas gift for my husband. The other reviews said assembling takes time and OMG it does! Worst part everything that could be a seperate piece, is. Also the instruction book is ikea simple but this needs more instruction. There is a DVD but a booklet is easier imo. Also the. Cymbal? Or whatever its called with the foot pedal sounds off.

Overall not a bad set for a beginner. My only complaint is the set was missing 3 washers for the tension rods and one of the tension rods for the toms was missing some threads.... Luckily there was an extra tension rod in the package.

Im not a drummer but i know the heads that come with this suck and so does the crash. but hey its cool you get what you pay for. and you can just simply upgrade your stuff whenever you want just like some other people said. I just had too much of a high expectancy for this. So if you get this dont expect much. Great price though. Im happy with it.

First of all, I must say that I have assembled a lot of things in my life, including many IKEA dressers and other furniture and have no problems following instructions. However, these instructions are truly horrible. First of all, they only come on a DVD, so you have to have a DVD player where you are going to be assembling the drums or a laptop computer with a DVD drive that you can bring to where you will be assembling this very bulky set. Second, you start the DVD and the instructions start flashing before your eyes, pictures with words, not someone actually performing assembly. There is a warning in the beginning telling you to watch the whole video before beginning, but I (as I expect most people) panicked on the about 20th step and started pausing the video. Given that there are no written instructions, how can anyone be expected to memorize the steps? Also, the video starts with the first step, there is no introduction to what the various parts are called. I am a beginner in the drum department, I bought this kit for my 10 year old. To tell me about heads and lugs and claws with a still picture without any arrows pointing at what they are talking about is confusing. Okay, I worked through this. One more thing, the parts they show you in the video don't look like the parts in your kit! There is a warning in the video, but only after you have searched the entire kit and verbally sent everyone responsible to hell (which is why I am sure they tell you to watch the whole video in the first place). The video is 9:33 minutes long, so if you have the patience and the memory to watch it before starting, this is the right kit for you. For the rest of you, please beware that assembling this is a frustrating exercise.

P.S. there are cardboard box pieces taped to the inside of the largest drum, which the instruction don't mention, but I figured they should be removed.

Gets the job done, but unless you are learning to play without arms, you will outgrow this kit in weeks...not months.

Put this together the night before Christmas and found it was missing the two legs for the bass drum. My kid wont be able to play it tomorrow...

this drumset is cheap. if you buy it you will have to replace the drum heads right away for face playing on trash can lids. the cymbals are sheet metal cheap cheap cheap. I really dont know why they made this set at all since it is pretty cheap and sounds awful.

like other reviews have said, the cymbols are like trash bin lids. And the drum heads do need to be upgraded. Perfect set for a child as is. However, for adults you will need to spend some money to upgrade it a bit.

WEll I have not even assembled the drums, but I reviewed them badly because all the metal parts come with some mysterious chemical that made me sick.
THe sellers are very nice they were very concerned and tried to help. I asked if they had any that didnt stink of chemicals and they said no. I never asked for a refund. I did ask them to replace the missing drumsticks and they sent me about 20 sets of drumsticks wow.

the chemical gave me headaches and naseau, mild to moderately. It was all over the screws and the metal components. At first I thought it was a pesticide, it may well be one. Now im thinking its probably some chemical to prevent RUST!

anytime I smelled the chemical or touched the metal I felt like some chemicals were affecting me in my body and my brain, and it also gave me a mild headache. I tried washing the metal items in the shower and even in a washing machine, the chemical persisted, it wouldnt come off!I got sick trying to wash them too. The only thing that seemed to help at all was soaking the parts in dense salt water for several days!
the chemical was still there but not as bad. I used gloves to try to assemble the item, but still felt somewhat sick afterwards. NOTE: if you soak them in salt water they will probably start to rust a little, thats what happened to mine. thats why im thinking the chemical may be to protect from rust.
I wish manufacturers would care less about stuf like rust and more about peoples health!
or if its a pesticide , care less about bugs and more about health!

the drums themselves seem nice enough but this is my very first drumset so I cant really say.

even though the sellers were very friendly and nice, I still feel the need to WARN PEOPLE about the potentially toxic chemical.no offense to the sellers,but people need to know, and naturally If i had none I could have avioded them.
sellers if you can find a way to demand they come without any chemicals on them, that would be awesome.

its rare that this happens but I have noticed some other products coming from china with strange smelling chemicals like this as well.
Buyers need to beware. It would be nice if our government would monitor and screen and protect us from products treated with strange toxic chemicals, but alas they obviously do not.

just beware, if you do decide to order these know what may happen. Maybe some people wont notice or care, but people that are sensitive to chemicals like me need to stay away from this product!

junk. wanted a cheap drumset, and this is a cheaply made drumset. cymbols you may as well toss in trash, they are atrocious.... and the heads are terrible sounding and ringy... so add 4 heads, and cymbols, you are over $500, so may as well save your money and buy QUALITY set. i made mistake of trying to go cheap route and regret it. if you are buying for a little kid to beat up on with no talent, this is great for fooling around with. but anyone else trying to actually learn, terrible choice.

honestly the worst drumset i've ever played. terrible sound quality and no persistence. do not waste your money on this crap

I bought this set as a a Christmas present for my daughter. The problem was that after only 2 weeks the drum heads broke. Specifically, one of the drum heads developed a hole while she was playing. She felt them to be of such poor quality that we replaced them with drumheads from a different manufacturer.

Damaged bass drum

do yourself a favor and save up your money to buy yourself a decent drum set. Maybe This thing is crap! you have to be really careful or this thing won't last you. and if you can't assemble something yourself then forget about it! this dvd that it came with that showed you how to build this wasn't even the same drum set(not even video or sound just pics trust me if the dvd is cheap then so will be the drums)! your call.