I don’t know about you, but when I don’t like the sound of something in my drumset I tend to not use it. So it’s important to me to have drum stuff that have sounds that I like.
When you first start playing the drums you usually don’t have the experience to know the difference that different materials can make sound wise; a metal or wood snare for instance. And if you don’t have a drummer friend or a teacher to guide you can spend hours on drum forums trying to get an idea of where it would be best to invest your hard earned cash.
I was fortunate to be able to borrow the basics of an old drumset when I started: a brandless metal snare, a kickdrum, high-hat and a bunch of cymbals. And with hindsight I believe anything better would have been wasted, but after a year or so of practicing I became more acuity aware of two factors: one – my wanting technique made it difficult to fully exploit the equipment I had, and two – even so, as my playing improved I became less than happy with how parts of my equipment sounded.
