This Drum Set SHOULD NOT Sound This Good - $400 Amazon Drum Set Review

Would you play this kit? 👀

Was this a 5 piece set?

I bought this kit based on reviews from professional drummers claiming some cheap kits can be customized into some decent kits. Well, I bought an Eastar kit and they came damaged, split and warped shells. This had me looking closely at the materials, wood and manufacturing of the shells etc. Man, they are very very cheap. The seam on the inside of the bass shell just came loose and was split right down that seam. The floor tom shell was warped down the seam and you could see what looked like wood glue adhesive that melted and stained where they tried repairing it to be shipped out again, idk. Looked like a stain that drenched the wood halfway around the inner shell. I mean I didn't expect much, they're so damn cheap, but I did expect some better manufacturing on this product. The rim of the shells were also chipped all over... which makes me think, just how cheap are these material used? Hardware, symbols and heads of course are cheap materials... Anyways, sent it back after inspecting everything. The only saving grace imo is, if you were able to have a kit by Eastar or one of the other cheapo brands shipped in one piece, then you could definitely customize and make a decent sounding kit with just using the shells. You'll end up spending more on the hardware I'm sure. Sometimes, it's worth spending that extra couple hundred for the bottom end line of a known good manufacturer. Just my opinion... I was not pissed that the drums were damaged but the time I wasted opening, setting up, noticing the damage and repacking everything... a waste of time and tape. If you order this kit, cross your fingers that it comes undamaged and you should be good. Just know they are cheap for a reason.
Nice vid though RDavidR!!! You got them sounding really nice!!!

Basswood shouldn't sound bad if it's thick enough. The main things that matter for resonance of shells (or most things) are the mass and the stiffness. The stiffness depends on the cube (third power) of the thickness, so soft wood that's significantly thicker can actually be stiffer than harder wood. You can double the stiffness of the wood by making it just 26 percent thicker. (1.26 x 1.26 x 1.26 = 2.00) . If you double the thicknes of the wood, it's EIGHT TIMES STIFFER. (2 * 2 * 2 = 8)

Different woods don't have different sounds independent of their thickness, and for any of the common woods, the thickness matters more than the particular wood. There is no maple sound, or beech or birch or mahogany sound.

The outer plies of the wood also matter much more to the stiffness than the inner plies. The inner plies mostly act as a spacer so that the outer plies can do their thing resisting stretching (on the outside of a bend) or compression (on the inside of a bend), like foamcore board or an I-beam. Pretty much any wood is fine for the inner plies and will make little difference to stiffness. Harder woods for the outer plies will make things stiffer, but just making things a ply or two thicker will do that, too.

That means that if, for example, you use a soft wood that's half as rigid and half as dense (rigidity and density are usually strongly correlated), but you make it twice as thick, you end up with a shell the same mass (twice as much wood that's half as dense) and about 4 times stiffer. POUND FOR POUND, LIGHT WOODS ARE MUCH STIFFER THAN DENSE WOODS. That is why acoustic guitar tops are usually made of spruce or cedar, NOT mahogany or rosewood or ebony. The only really important "tonewood" in a guitar is typically a fairly cheap, light, soft wood.)

The softer wood may not reflect very high frequencies as much, but using the hardwood for just the outermost plies should do the trick, making it very nearly as reflective at all frequencies as solid hard wood. (Not that that's necessarily better.)

Expensive hardwoods are WAY OVERSOLD.

NEVER ATTRIBUTE THE SOUND TO THE WOOD. ALWAYS GIVE THE THICKNESS as well as the wood type.

It's about the "tuning" and the "player".

I have this set. I’m a huge fan of these types of cheap, knock off copycat musical instruments. Gets novices or beginners into music, and also allows those people who may be financially limited to play.
I changed the cymbals out and went with Evans heads and switched to a double kick pedal. Then I even peeled off the Eastar logo stickers too. Nobody even asks me what kid of drums I have 😂.

If you go to the affiliate link, it says its poplar, not birch

I’d gig that set.

if it sounds good and looks good... yeah. two checks as yes.

rdavidr once bought me a fishing net to throw over my current wife

...it still works

Great playing brother. In the pocket on a Mel Davis track called Pieces. Love it. Great vid. Drum on. D

Lol you rocky jazz fusion guys are all the same. Me love small drum. Me love big cymbal. 😂😂😂 Just giving you a little hell. You're a good drummister

With my comment below there where a few time I had concerts where I had my set as a practice be fore we made it to the stage the stage manager and event coordinator was told that my set vs a Yamaha set was request over all the other there where a few gospel artist stated if my set was not on stage they would not perform it was a cheap Royce drum set but with the right heads accessory tuning it beat a 6000 drum set the way it sounded

My first set was a Royce with 12 13 16 22 14 snare I change all the heads to remo pinstripe with remo muffers inside for the bass remo pinstripe or power stroke 3 with the dot I had to change all the hardware pull the backs off added a 15 marching snare gutted turned it to a hanging tom bought a remo master. Touch piccolo I still have 30 years and still have not found anything like it the best snare ever used used a mixture of cymbals from zildjian amir 14 hihats zbt hihats as crashes 14 crash 16 crash 18 crash ride 20 ride Sabian aax studio 14 aa medium thin 16 e20 b8 pro crash 16 ride 20 now I currently used Zildjian rock hihats and admir hihats zildjian advedis Medium crash 16 medium thin crash 16 zbt 14 crash my very first cymbal that is missing a quarter of it and still sounds good as is or sometimes I bend it into a china 16 fock crash 20 scrimbar ride and a zildjian ride from the early 70s I still use the pinstripe even though that I feel that they are made thinner to the heads in the 90s on my bass I still use pinstripe or power stroke 3 looking to invest a brand new cymbal pack soon Sabian aa explosion or the zildjian advedis current line

90% of the sound is the player and 10% is the kit tbh

What amazes me most is your progress as a drummer. You've gotten pretty good over the 4 years I've been watching ;)

The sound is extremely clear and quality of your cymbals gives a extra nice play, definitely I will have this in my expectations, may I ask for the specifications of your cymbals ?

A 10 lug kick?

Would like to see you do a review on a Basix kit.

My first kit was a Slingerland that didn’t have reso heads

$400 is a more than a month salary in south america 😔😭

I’ve used this drum set before and the
symbols do suck

The Drums doesn't make a good drummer, Drummer make a good drums.

David, I could use your advice: I'm 38 and have always wanted to play an instrument. My ear always leaned drums in every song I ever heard, but for convenience and space reasons, I purchased an acoustic guitar instead. First fail made, because I'm a lefty but purchased a standard right instead. I ended up returning it and still regret not pursuing drums. Long story short, for someone like me, with absolutely zero musical skill, which instrument should I start with? I do realize that both are absolutely unique and different instruments, so 🤷‍♂️

I would buy this drumset.

Beautiful Dave, thanks for sharing

I don't play but I love watching people play; super satisfying imo.

Sick 🔥!

My procrastination skills will make this paradox impossible.

I've got to have the drums facing me. It seems like having the batter surfaces even with the floor would make my wrists fly apart and anyone in the room would get blinded by all the carpal tunnel shrapnel.

you shouldn't do a review about a kit and swap out half the shit that comes in the kit with your own equipment like wtf lol

My 1st kit was a Tama rockstar 6 piece with a gibralter rack system and all sabian b8 cymbals. Bought it used for 600 bucks. I was a lucky young lad.

Like the song funky jazz!

I am a retire touring sound engineer after 44 years and over 10 million miles. I have mixed almost every brand of drums on the market. I am really impressed by how good these drums sound for the money. A drummer can go out and buy the finest most expensive drums available. If they do not know how to properly tune those drums they are worthless and sound like crap. All drummers think they know how to tune. Out of about 100 drummers I've mixed only about two of them knew how to get it right.

Agree, just picked up the single Tom Set, 18" Bass, Hardware and heads were decent, Recommend this for sure

Wow that was amazing my first drum set was an old slingerland double maple it was extremely heavy and huge Toms and four times the latest kit that I had was a DW design Series in Tobacco Burst I set it up really nice with some beautiful Remo pinstripes and a powerstroke X on the snare I invested in some decent symbols that sounded pretty good Zildjian a custom going to set an Iron Cobra double pedals 2 years ago I had to sell it because the family took priority which was okay but I am floored to hear how that sounds

Ja schön gespielt !!! Aber ging es um dich ??

I got the silver sparkle one, gonna get another and put them together to make a massive kit, lol

The beginner stuff is much better now than back then.

My first drum set was given to me by Josh freeze, Gary Cassidy and the kick drum was an extra long cannon that belonged to stryper.. Growing up in OC playing in indie/ punk bands had its perks.. Oh Schnackenberg… Rad Days indeed

Interesting they chose to put 10 lugs per side on the 20" kick when most pro 20" kicks have only 8, yet they only put six lugs per side on the 16" floor tom. Would seem like it'd make better sense for them to move four lugs from the kick (total) over to the floor tom to make both drums more in line with professional standard. I doubt that would change their cost structure much if at all. Those extra lugs would be super helpful for dialing in a 16" floor tom. Great video, thanks for making it!

I wish I had this 2 years ago and 2 years ago I got my first drum set. A Millennium Focus Junior. Now That Millennium was super fun until my band teacher told me to get a Ludwig and I just gave that Millennium away to my cousin but I got him a Ludwig accent like mine and last time I had seen that Millennium was at my Youngest Cousins house and that was 8 months ago. It was also looking very beat up and was being held up by tape. I do recall replacing the snare and floor tom heads but that kid beated on it alot so it didnt look much different than what I put on. And I do Believe his parents bought him a gammon but I dont really know cause I havent been their in awhile.

Let me know if you want to sell it. Have a daughter wanting to learn so I’m currently in the market.m for a beginner kit. Currently checking out a quest love. But she really wants a sparkly pink kit. Exact words!

Hey this was an awesome review. I have a small recording studio that I've started up and I was needing an affordable house kit. Would this fit the bill you think? I'm starting up so my budget isn't too high. Thank you.

Eastar drums are pretty sweet deals, but they can't seem to get it together. Every listing in the photos says Birch, but down in the description it says Poplar. I emailed customer support today and they told me everything was Poplar (for the smaller 18" kits, haven't asked about this kit yet). I have no problem with Poplar, but if it's listed as Birch it should be Birch. This kit you showed also shows Poplar down in the description. That's a lil sketchy considering Birch is a better wood. They sound good and are a good deal regardless, but false advertising is false advertising. Regardless thanks for reviewing the brand. I'm still getting the super compact kit because I like undrilled bass drums.

My first kit was a Dixon kit with a kick
pedal that broke while playing heel down. So yes, I’d play on that kit in a heartbeat.

I would like to see you playing with only two original cymbals.

How loud is a drum kit in the house realistically?

come for the review, stay for the funk. hot damn my guy

Love the music you played along! Who is that?