TedEH
Cromulent
tl;dr: Where should I be looking for better-than-entry-level drums / shells?
Long version:
I ended up being a drummer for a bunch of reasons that aren't super important, but I've been getting by with some pretty basic drums for a while. I have one of those simple westbury kits that I threw some mesh heads on for "silent" practice, and a ddrum/d2 kit that I added a decent snare and good cymbals to that I use for everything else. They're both very basic entry level kits that I got for maybe $100 each and I've done as much as I can to tune them up, but now that I've been taking the drumming thing more seriously (in one band I've switch to drums permanently, and for another I'm at least filling in for now) - and this means playing shows, as well as some plans to record shortly - I'm starting to feel like I'm hitting the limit of what I can get out of these shells. I like the cymbals I've got, the pedals, etc., but the kick sounds pretty lame in particular and the toms aren't going to impress anyone. I've had to bring this kit to two shows so far and it feels sketchy .
So while I don't want to drop thousands into a custom / high-end kit and fancy hardware and racks and all that nonsense, I feel like there should be some middle ground in terms of just some shell+hardware packs I could get that would get me closer to pro-sounding with fresh skins and a good tuning. The catch is that I'm not sure where to look in terms of brands, models, used vs new, what kinds of materials or styles to avoid, etc. My aim is to stay under $1k cad, and I figure that should be more than doable. Any suggestions? Also willing to listen to advice as to whether or not upgrades are even worth it compared to trying to tune what I have better.
Long version:
I ended up being a drummer for a bunch of reasons that aren't super important, but I've been getting by with some pretty basic drums for a while. I have one of those simple westbury kits that I threw some mesh heads on for "silent" practice, and a ddrum/d2 kit that I added a decent snare and good cymbals to that I use for everything else. They're both very basic entry level kits that I got for maybe $100 each and I've done as much as I can to tune them up, but now that I've been taking the drumming thing more seriously (in one band I've switch to drums permanently, and for another I'm at least filling in for now) - and this means playing shows, as well as some plans to record shortly - I'm starting to feel like I'm hitting the limit of what I can get out of these shells. I like the cymbals I've got, the pedals, etc., but the kick sounds pretty lame in particular and the toms aren't going to impress anyone. I've had to bring this kit to two shows so far and it feels sketchy .
So while I don't want to drop thousands into a custom / high-end kit and fancy hardware and racks and all that nonsense, I feel like there should be some middle ground in terms of just some shell+hardware packs I could get that would get me closer to pro-sounding with fresh skins and a good tuning. The catch is that I'm not sure where to look in terms of brands, models, used vs new, what kinds of materials or styles to avoid, etc. My aim is to stay under $1k cad, and I figure that should be more than doable. Any suggestions? Also willing to listen to advice as to whether or not upgrades are even worth it compared to trying to tune what I have better.