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I'm after a cheap drum kit to get started learning. Plenty of Alesis DM Lite kits but they get poor reviews of the internet is to be believed (so I'm asking the internet...). Are they ok for starters? How do they compare to cheaper Roland TDs ?
£79.99
Where are you?
My sister just texted me to say her son is selling his kit for £100.
Based in Hebden Bridge.
Started about a year ago. I'm very happy with this so far:
https://www.gear4music.com/Drums-and-Percussion/Alesis-Nitro-Mesh-Electronic-Drum-Kit/2JHN
I decided at the minimum I wanted mesh heads and kick pad tower and this was about as cheap as I could find. There's also gear4music's own brand mesh head kit.
This might be worth a look as well:
https://www.thomann.de/gb/millenium_mps_150x_e_drum_mesh_set.htm
@thegeneralist - Edinburgh. But could be picked up next week. Has to be electric - if it is, can you pm me details please?
I had an Alesis DM6 kit. Hated it.
Like playing rubber bricks.
Can’t beat an acoustic kit for me, but good & cheap do not equate. Especially the cymbals.
I have two kits at the mo, Crush shells with Mapex hardware, Odery Fluence shells with a mix of Odery & Mapex hardware.
Istanbul Mehmet cymbals & a Mapex Black Panther snare. I prefer the Crush kit.
May be selling the Odery kit...
Roland HD1 is a good starter kit. It has a mesh head snare, doesn’t take up too much room and has at least 3 useful kits programmed in (and some gimmicky ones). There’s loads on eBay for a couple of hundreds.
@jimmy
Sorry. I did notice the other kits were electrical, but couldn't see that specifically mentioned in your post. Probably due to my complete lack of clue on drums.
Sisters are non electrical. Soz
If you buy an acoustic kit, you will also need cymbals, and they are not cheap. A budget acoustic kit with budget cymbals can be had for about £300-400 new. An acoustic kit takes up more room than an electronic kit, but not as much more as you might think
If you buy an electronic kit you won’t need cymbals, but if you want to hear it, you’ll need an amp or at the very least some headphones
Regardless of acoustic or electronic, if your kit has a true bass drum pedal, the noise WILL carry through the floor.
Thanks. Has to be electric and will go on a concrete garage floor so no worries.
In that case I’m afraid I can’t help, other than to repeat what I said above, that I hated the Alesis DM6 Pro that I had. It cost about £400 new nearly 10 years ago, I’m sure there are newer models in the Alesis range.
Also available are Roland & Yamaha but I have no experience of any of those
JD sed> Can’t beat an acoustic kit
Sometimes drummers actually deserve the drummer jokes.
Thanks. Has to be electric and will go on a concrete garage floor so no worries.
Just be aware that if the garage is attached to the house you might find the impact from the kickstand travels through the whole building. I was on a concrete garage floor but the thump could still be heard through the house. I had some old jigsaw type gym mats so I put the kit on that and it took care of the noise. If you really want to go OTT, sandwich some polystyrene between two layers of gym mats.
The main limit I'm finding with Alesis Nitro Mesh kit above is the pedal for the hi-hats. It's fine so long as you just keep your foot on it but as soon as you want to bring in in any left foot work it feels and sounds pretty horribly For Xmas this year I'm going to buy myself a hi-hat stand, cymbal stands, and low volume cymbals as well as a PA system and turn my kit into a hybrid kit.
Turns out drumming is just like mountain biking, there's always something else to buy which is going to make your life infinitely better.
My lad has a Roland kit, the entry level one bit was still a few hundred quid. TD-1K maybe? It’s been great for him but he’s desperate for an acoustic kit. So far he’s saved £500 and will probably be up to his target of £800 after Christmas and his birthday. I rashly promised to build him a soundproof shed in the garden thinking he’d never save up enough 😏
Regardless of acoustic or electronic, if your kit has a true bass drum pedal, the noise WILL carry through the floor.
100% true.
I quite fancy one of these:
My lad has a Roland kit, the entry level one bit was still a few hundred quid. TD-1K maybe
That's what I have my eye on!
Well it’s been an ideal introduction to drumming for him, it’s three years old now and has stood up to a lot of use. I never looked at Alesi, just went straight for Roland (because I like my Roland piano) therefore can’t offer any comparison. But the Roland stuff is good.