Ludwig Junior 5 Piece Drum Set with Cymbals (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'll start by saying I was a professional drummer, so I know a thing or two about drums. I purchased one of these kits because my wife wanted me to get the Cherry red color set for my 2 year old daughter. I wanted to buy the DW brand PDP Jr.Kit. So I figured I would get both, put them head to head and see which would go back to the store. Let me save you the time and extreme effort of having to try and re-pack one of these sets into the 23" square box that it ships in.
I didn't expect that this kit, or the PDP Jr. set were going to be professional sets. Both are made in China, so my expectations weren't 'that' high. Although I did expect a decent quality set. What I used to pay $1,500 for as a young drummer, I'm now seeing Pearl drums make for about $500.. So for $300 I should get 'somewhat' close.
First, let me address the question that all NON drummer parents are wondering... No, the drum set does NOT come with instructions on how to put it together. Yes, it has a LOT of parts to screw together (IE. Heads and drum rings, stands and legs). Yes, there IS a little paper that most people on here seem to have missed (or was added after their reviews) that tells you of a web page where you can go to get instructions. I didn't bother to go to this site to see if it was good enough, or accurate enough to help, but I'm sure it's a good start. I will add, this set has FAR more parts to to put together than the PDP kit did.
For a drummer, this was a very easy set to put together. Everything made perfect sense as I opened each of the cardboard boxed parts containers. A drum key and Sticks were included.. Everything you need to put this drum set together and play it with.
The drum set is the PERFECT size for a Tall 2 year to average size 9 year old drummer. The kit is Small just like it's advertised to be. Like everyone says here, the Cymbols are junk, although rugged enough for pretty much any heavy handed kid that likes to smash them with the sticks (or other things). They have a Dull, almost muffled sound to them. This is caused by the thickness that keeps them safe.
The quality of the actual drum shells are average. About what I would have expected for a set that's made in China, and NOT by Ludwig in Indiana. Standard Poplar wood is made into cylinders without any regard for what note or resonance the drums will tune to. Those shells are provide with really poor quality heads that make them sound even worse than they could. It would seem that the only reason they use "white" color heads is because they wanted to put the brand name "Ludwig" on every one of them. Like you, I don't like being told by a sales guy "you should just change the heads out with good ones", after all, you just spent 300 dollars on a set.
The hardware is not bad, but not great. All of the stands are constructed on the average to good side. The legs that hold up the base drum are adequate, and the legs that hold up the floor tom are fine, but on the thin side (like back in the 80's). One problem that I find with the Floor tom legs are that they don't seem to be long enough to 'grow' with the drummer over time. The same seems to be the case with the 1st and 2nd tom tom drum risers that sit on top of the base drum. They only go up to about 5" above the base drum, so as the drummer gets older they may start to find the drums getting too low for comfort.
The Drum pedal is very cheap. It uses a strap and a rod to hold it to a bracket with a spring. Although this is pretty normal, it reminds me of the most popular pedal ever sold, the "speed king" which ALWAYS squeaked, and then fell apart. When I first saw it I thought it was 'okay' for this set, and the age of the person using it, but after I saw the PDP drum kits fluid barring pedal, I just had to laugh at this toy (read my review on the PDP set with the same similar title if you want more details about that set).
The Hi-Hat stand and pedal are once again very 'toyish' compared to the PDP set. The Hi-Hat pedal, like the base pedal, is made of very poor quality aluminum. It's thin and looks like it would break very easily. The pedal is also connected to the spring arm by a flimsy strap. (unlike the PDPs little chain) Another problem I see with this Hi-Hat is, if you turn the cymbals connected to the inserted spring rod, and you make a full rotation, it will cause the strap on the pedal to twist around with it, causing it to break the pedal, or snap the strap. With kids I can easily see them spinning the cymbals around just like that. After all, I did the first time, just to make sure the rod was properly 'screwed' in, Big mistake.
The Rims of the drums are not bad, but very light weight. They bend very easy. As matter of fact, when I received my set the Floor Tom drum ring was flat on one side. A call to Ludwig in Indiana yielded me with a new ring replacement in about a week and a half. In the mean time I was able to use my hand to bend the broken ring somewhat into place to keep going on with my set up.
When I received the kit It was missing 2 of the 'tensioners' (those are the little screws that hold the drum ring and head to the drum itself). Without those I couldn't tune the drum. I set out to replace them with some that I had in a big box of extras I've collected over the years. After going through ALL of my tensioner screws I was unable to find ANY that matched these drums! They look like the 'standard' tensioners of the late 80's (large threads, like an 8-32 screw), but NONE of my standards fit the threading. Luckily I mentioned this as well when I ordered the new Ring for the floor tom, and sure enough, once again Ludwig customer support came through with new ones.
The drum thrown (seat) is very well made. The cushion is thick, comfortable, and wide enough for my large 230 pound bottom to sit on. It also seemed to hold up to my weight without any problems. Once I had a chance to tune up all the drums to the best of my ability I was able to sit down and play the set. Sure, I felt like I was riding on one of those tiny little circus bicycles, but heck, I was having fun!
The drums all sounded fine, not great, but certainly good enough for any drummer that's 2 to 9 years old. They didn't have any real resonance (meaning once you hit them the pure tone keeps going on) but they did have a proper 'note' or tone when being hit.
The snare drum was not as lucky.. When I hit it, I found that it was a bit "ringy". This isn't a good thing. Resonance and 'ring' are two different things. Ring is that twangy, harsh sound no one likes. It's the tone that 'perks' up your ears and makes you tilt your head as you look at it. I was able to take some paper towel and black tape and put it on the top head to give it that "Richy Ring" sound (a device that takes ring out of a drum). However I found that not only was it ringing from the top head, but the bottom as well. So after a little paper towel and tape on the bottom head as well, I was able to get the sound of the drum under control. Of course this made the drum very DEAD. Sure, it sounded like a snare, but it had no tonal quality to it. It was just more of a SMACK, all the snare, none of the drum tone. Perhaps with a little more playing with it, and a little less paper towel I could have gotten it back to a nice tone, and a decent sounding snare.
In conclusion, I would say that if you just "HAVE TO HAVE" the Red or the Blue color drum set for your child, than I would say this is your ONLY choice (over all others on the market). However, if sound and quality are your main goals, and Black is a good enough color (Black is the only color the PDP Jr. Kit comes in) than I would say that you should NOT buy this kit. I would spend $50 LESS and go for a MUCH better quality and sounding set in the PDP Jr. Kit. Not only will you save money, but you will get a better set, have one that will 'grow' with your drummer, last longer (my opinion based on perceived Constitution quality) and sound much better with less build time.

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