What Would You Do If You Were Me, It's about drums, not guitars, but you can still give input Options

[purple hayes]

I want to learn to play drums better. I have a set of electronic drums (Yamaha DTXpress). They work OK, but I want more than they can give, mesh drum heads, more pads, dual kick drums, chockable cymbals. I've found a set of craigslist with pedals, throne and everything for $2000 USD. I've got that much cash, but that's almost all of my "mad money" that I can spend on gear.

Would you consider spending that much cash on your non-primary instrument? I'd really like to learn to play drums, but I'm frustrated with my current kit.

If this new kit just wasn't working for me, I wouldn't be out that much money because the price on Craigslist is pretty low price for such a nice set.

[Toni Suominen]

If you are not happy with your current drumkit, and it doesn't give you any inspiration and you think that the new kit would, I say go for it, but only if you really want to learn how to play drums.

And yeah, high-end electronic drumsets are craazy-expensive, so if you buy it and don't like it you could probably get your money back when you sell it.

And one more thing, buying an acoustic drumset would be cheaper, but I'm assuming because you want an electronic set that you live in an apartment or you want to record the drums via MIDI?

This post has been edited by Toni Suominen: Feb 2 2009, 02:25 PM

[superize]

This is a tuff one for sure.....

I have been in this situation before were i really wanted to buy a new guitar but if i would buy on i wouldent have any money left at all..... I decided not to buy.....

Cant really tell in your situation

[MickeM]

I wouldn't spend that kind of money unless I felt drums was my thing. Even if you can get the money back you will still have $2000 locked inside that set until you find a buyer. And what if economy crisis strikes at you and your potential buyers at the same time, an expensive drumkid won't put food on the table and pay the bills; unless you're a god like drummer

I would also like to play the drums and I've kept my eyes on a few cheap sets, including the Roland entry set. But I'll have to wait until things calm down. The IT sector where I work is starting to feel some tension as the industry order less and less hours.

Fairly negaive post, I know, but I'll add a happy face here to smooth things out

[purple hayes]

Fairly negative post, I know, but I'll add a happy face here to smooth things out

I know the economy isn't strong right now, but I'm pretty good with money. I have a house payment and utilities, but that's it. No car payment, no student loan, no credit card debt. I'd be buying these drums with cash. We've got money in savings for emergencies. The money what would be used to buy the drums is coming from money that I've earned that was specifically set aside to blow on music gear.

I wouldn't risk buying drums over putting food on the table.

[Fran]

Short answer:
I wouldn't spend that kind of cash on a "secondary" instrument. But that's just me.


Long answer:
I guess it all boils down to what other things you plan on buying in the future. If you already have everything you want and don't plan on buying any other new gear or spend money anywhere else until you save up some cash again, then I guess there's no problem.

But if you get the drums and then a short time later you realize you'd have better saved the money to get a better guitar/amp/fx/you-name-it, then you might regret spending so much on something that is not your "primary" goal in music.

So... 1) how long will it take you to save up some "mad money" again and 2) Can you survive til then without any other needs?

[29a]

If I were you I'd ask myself if there was anything else I'd like to buy where that money might get handy. If you can't come up with something in a reasonable amount of time you should probably buy it. ...Or you could do a value benefit analysis... But mostly I stick to the first method =P

... Jonas

[Trond Vold]

$2000 is alot of money....... I wouldn't have gone to those lengths for a secondary instrument. I do understand the temptation of buying a fun new toy like that though, especially if you enjoy playing the drums and want to explore further.

Maybe make a pro/con list with the drums and other equipment you might need? and then make your decision.

[Sigfridsson]

I would personally never spend those kind of money on a secondary instrument, especially if it would involve burning my entire budget on it!

However I thought I'd let you know that you can actually get pretty good quality stuff for a lot less!
My friend bought a Roland TD3-KW for roughly 750€, he also spent roughly another 200€ buying a throne + a DW-4002 double pedal

I'm personally no huge fan of electronic drums but I must say it sounds pretty good considering price etc, he can even practice in the middle of the night, all the pieces are well padded and don't really make any noise.

I do however think the TD3 series has been replaced with the TD4 series, from what I've seen/read about it it's the same setup as the TD3 with some cool upgrades and features to the drum module!

Also if you want to get a double pedal for these kind of kits, make sure you buy one where both the bass drum beaters are quite tight together as most often the bass drum trigger pads are quite small on electronic drum kits!

This post has been edited by Sigfridsson: Feb 3 2009, 09:30 AM

[purple hayes]

Long answer:
I guess it all boils down to what other things you plan on buying in the future. If you already have everything you want and don't plan on buying any other new gear or spend money anywhere else until you save up some cash again, then I guess there's no problem.

So... 1) how long will it take you to save up some "mad money" again and 2) Can you survive til then without any other needs?

Well, if I got off my butt and sold some of the other gear I have sitting around on eBay and Craigslist, I could probably have over $1,000 by the end of February or early March. Yes, $2000 is a lot to spend on a secondary instrument, but I'm pretty happy with all my current gear except the drums.

[Ivan Milenkovic]

Check out this great kit mate, our drummer just bought it, and I think it is very good and feels very nicely when playing. It goes around 1500$

http://www.zzounds.com/item--YAMDXPIVSP

[Ramiro Delforte]

I think if you really want to learn well an instrument you have to buy "the real thing". What I mean by that is an acoustic drum. For example, if you want to learn to play the piano really well you cannot have a cheap Casio (or sometimes an expensive one) you have to own a real acoustic piano because the sensations and the connection with the instrument is a world of differences.
My advice is: if you really want to learn how to play the drums you'll have to buy an acoustic, because for what you've said the electronic one has completed a period of your learning.

Also you could sell the electronic in order to make the bill shorter when you buy the acoustic one.

[purple hayes]

Check out this great kit mate, our drummer just bought it, and I think it is very good and feels very nicely when playing. It goes around 1500$

http://www.zzounds.com/item--YAMDXPIVSP

I'm sure that's a nice set (my current set is Yamaha), but for $500 more, I'm getting the double pedal, amp, throne and all mesh heads.

if you really want to learn how to play the drums you'll have to buy an acoustic

They've got to be electric so I can practice at odd hours (and recording them is easier).