Your first drum kit: what to actually buy

Buying a first kit feels like the hard part. It is not. Almost any complete kit, tuned and in a room you are allowed to play in, will take a beginner further than a better kit sitting untuned in a garage. The job here is to stop you overspending on the wrong things and underspending on the two that matter.

Brian's answer to this question is one sentence long.

Brian says: "I'm a big Yamaha guy. All their introductory-level products sound professional, pretty much. Just grab a Yamaha, anything you can grab, used or new."

That is a brand preference from someone who has played on a lot of kits, and it is a useful shortcut if you want one. What follows is the rest of the decision, in the site's words.

What a "drum kit" includes, and what the box leaves out

A five-piece kit means five drums: kick, snare, and three toms. That is the number on the label. What arrives in the box varies a lot, and this is where first-time buyers get caught.

Usually included: the shells, the tom mounts, a kick pedal, a hi-hat stand, a snare stand, and two or three cymbal stands.

Often missing, or included in a form you will replace quickly: cymbals, a throne (the stool), and the heads already on the drums. Some starter packs bundle brass cymbals that sound like a saucepan lid. A kit advertised at one price and a kit you can actually play are not always the same purchase, so read the contents list before you compare two prices.

New or used

Used is a good idea for a first kit, and drums survive it better than most instruments. Wood shells do not wear out the way a guitar neck or a piano action does.

What actually wears out or breaks: heads (cheap to replace, and you were going to replace them anyway), the kick pedal, hi-hat clutches, cymbal felts and sleeves, and the threads on stands.

What to check before you hand over money:

• Shells. Look inside. A shell should be round, dry and unsplit, with no soft or swollen wood at the edges. A wrap peeling at the seam is cosmetic.
• Lugs and rods. Every tension rod should turn. Seized rods and stripped threads are the one repair that is genuinely annoying.
• Hardware. Extend every stand fully and tighten it. If it slips under hand pressure, it will slip under a cymbal.
• Cymbals. Run a finger around the edge, then hold one up to the light. A hairline crack from the edge inward only gets longer.
• The pedal. Press it thirty times. It should come back the same way every time.

Local marketplace listings and pawn shops beat online auctions for one reason: you can play the thing first, and you are not paying to ship eighty pounds of steel.

Where to spend, if you have a bit more

This is our opinion rather than a law, and you are free to weigh it against anyone else's: put spare money into cymbals and a throne before you put it into shells. A middling shell pack with decent cymbals sounds better than a lovely shell pack with bad ones, and a proper adjustable throne is what keeps your back working after an hour.

New heads are the cheapest upgrade in music. A tired beginner kit with fresh heads, tuned properly, surprises people.

Sizes, briefly

A standard kit has a 20 or 22 inch kick. If you are short on space, a smaller kick and a four-piece setup lose you nothing at the start, and you can add drums later. Children under about ten are usually better on a junior-sized kit, because reaching the pedals matters more than owning a fifth tom.

The two things that matter more than the kit

Tuning. Most kits that sound cheap are not cheap, they are untuned. That is a ten-minute job with a drum key, and there is a whole guide on it here.

Somewhere you are allowed to play. A kit you feel guilty about is a kit you stop using. Sort the room out at the same time as the kit, not six months later when everybody has fallen out about it.

---

Get the next guide by email. One short email when the next guide is written, and the three ways to make a kit quieter to start you off: send me the tips.

Want the hour that makes it click? Brian teaches beginners in Austin, outdoors, and the first lesson is 45 minutes for $29 - it comes off your first pack if you carry on: book a first lesson.