Remember how Daughter got a drum set?
It’s a good entry-level set, Pearl Forum. But like anything entry-level, shortcuts are made to enable it to be affordable. Crappy heads, crappy cymbals. But in a way, having the crap allows you to appreciate the good stuff.
We put an Evans head on the snare. An Evans Genera HD Dry Batter Coated Snare Head, to be specific. Nice improvement in the snare’s sound.
But more important? Daughter’s been saving her money, made Christmas present requests of gift cards, and this morning we counted it all up. She finally had enough to allow her to get a cymbal upgrade! She picked up a cymbal pack: Sabian B8 Performance Pack. It comes with a set of 14″ hi-hats, 16″ thin crash, 20″ ride, and a bonus 18″ thin crash. She also picked up 2 boom stands.
We set it all up and boy, what a difference. Yes, these are Sabian’s entry-level cymbals, but they’re a huge upgrade from the Pearl cymbals she had (merely a 14″ hi hat and a 18″ crash/ride). They sound pretty decent, tho with all the cymbal options now, she’s having a hard time adjusting to them. 🙂 Just having to learn the new layout for her set, tweaking placement, angles, and other things.
Next up… a new hi-hat stand, and new top-heads for all her toms (maybe the bottom heads too, depending upon money). I reckon once that’s done, it’s going to sound pretty darn good.
She also got a stick bag and a music stand. She hung the bag off her floor tom. She put the music stand off to the side of the hi-hat. She’s feeling more like a real drummer now. Me? I’m just happy she’s enjoying music, enjoying playing, enjoying the challenge, and yes… even the fact she’s saving her money, setting goals, working towards them, and then feeling the satisfaction of accomplishment. All good stuff.
Now, just need to get her to practice more regularly. I figure with the new cymbals, she’ll be happier to play. 🙂
Stuff From Hsoi 
Glad she got some new plates! Those make all the difference in the world compared to the cheapo kit cymbals – might as well be playing with trash can lids with those…
New heads make a lot of difference – learning to tune them makes a huge difference, too 🙂
The Sabian B8’s are “entry level” but still a HUGE world of difference. In fact, pinging various cymbals in the cymbal room at Guitar Center, they do compare pretty well to expensive cymbals — it’s all about what your ear likes more than price, tho no question the main reason she got these was price (tho we both liked the Sabian B8’s better than say Zildjian ZBT’s; Paiste’s high end cymbals are VERY nice but too pricey). We also think that the 20″ ride sounds really good for what you get and compared very well to more expensive rides. We think the 16″ thin crash sounds a little “trashy” but it’s kinda cool overtones, almost like a China in some respects. The best part tho was the hi-hat… oh man…massive improvement. The trouble is it then became such a clean good sound that now we can hear some issues with the hi-hat stand (all covered up before by the crap of the old hats). I do think once she gets a new hat stand and new heads, she’ll have the set where she wants it… then it’ll just become a matter of “finding her sound, finding her set layout”, if you will.
She’s learning about tuning. Found some good references online and we sat down one day and just tuned everything on her set. Even the crap Pearl-branded heads sound a lot better tuned up, tho still sound crappy. Moving to that one Evans head gave her a nice idea of how much good heads matter. When we change the tom heads, we’ll experiment more with tuning.
I *love* Paiste Signature series plates, but they always broke too easily for me (but then, I play like a gorilla, so…). I have a number of Sabian AAX Metal crashes, a Sabian Paragon ride, some flavor of Sabian China, and an old, old pair of Zildjian Quick Beat hats. couple of random splash cymbals, etc.
The B8s, while entry level in Sabian’s line, definitely sounded better to me than ZBTs, too. The reason neither sounds as good as the higher end cymbals made by both companies is that they’re made with a less expensive bronze alloy (and the manufacturing process is simpler, too). So, someday, if she sticks with it, she may want to upgrade – but the B8s are definitely serviceable.
BTW – some history… Zildjain and Sabian both had their start in the same family. When the head of the family passed on, his sons inherited the company, and disagreed on how to run the business… So they split. One kept the name, but both were able to use the bronze formula that was used in the classic Zildjain As – and that’s the bronze that’s in the normal line Zildjains (As, etc) and Sabians (AAs, HHs, etc). So, in many ways, the cymbals between those two are similar – the differences lie in how they’re manufactured and what profiles, etc, they use. Sabian has been more innovative in creating different sounds, and such.
Yup. She’s understanding of the entry-level-ness of it all and is cool with it. She played a bunch of cymbals that sounded awesome, then saw the price tag (e.g. $400 for just that cymbal) and decided to be happy with the B8’s. 🙂 She knows if she sticks with it, she’ll upgrade. No real worries. But still, I was rather impressed with how good the B8’s do sound for what you’re getting.
Cool on the history. I knew they were ultimately from the same family, but didn’t know all those details.
Apparently, SA BI and AN are his kids’ initials 😉
Yeah, top end plates get real expensive, real quick… unfortunately…