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I would imagine shipping a kit from the US to Australia would be ridiculously expensive. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Hell, the postage on some pedals I've received from the US has been around $40.

Surely cheaper to buy local? Surely.

All preference.

Go bash on some shit.

The most important thing to worry about with drums is being good at tuning and picking good heads.
I've been using my friends' kits and regardless of the brand if you take the time to tune them up right with good heads they will sound good.
I'm in the same situation right now in a way, except I want to buy everything piece by piece.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALNmVkHN8BA[/youtube]

I got a mid-range Gretsch kit for around $600 USD a few years ago. Nice kit once it had decent heads on it.

Expect to spend a lot more that you want to. Sticks are expensive, and you'll break them. A lot. Especially while learning before you get good technique. Heads are expensive as shit, and depending on how much you'll play, you'll need to change them.

Heads and hardware are important. The cheap kits are cheap because they have hardware that might as well be made of aluminum foil. Garbage wood too, but that's not a big deal when your kit is bending under the weight of air.
Good heads make a HUGE difference. A good set of heads makes it sound like a drumset. Stock heads almost always suck. Tuning is very important too. You want your kit in tune so that you don't get unwanted, dissonant resonance and overtones.

I've been burned on used kits before, so beware when buying used. I found what looked like a good deal on a kit and bought it. It needed some cleaning and new heads, but on the outside looked ok. Got it home and went to change the heads, and as soon as I opened up the bass drum, I smelled mildew. The entire kit must have gotten wet, or sat in a damp basement or something. I salvaged the vintage cymbals it came with, along with some of the hardware, and pitched the rest.
If you buy used, pull off the heads, check the rims, etc.

maz91379 wrote:So i've been looking at a few new kits as well as used stuff over here although i've yet to go try any out i've noticed anything decent is well out of my price range however I think i might be able to slowly pull something together especially if i go ahead and buy cymbals, some sort of snare, and maybe a kick pedal ,but probably not, while i visit the us. Any recommendations? Been thinking of getting either a Meinl mcs, Sabian b8, or Paiste PST 5, pack and a snare around $200 or under?

Edit : Or i can sell my sovtek head for $900 or trade it for the orange ad30 and sell that (two offers i've gotten so far) buy a used mid range starter kit minus cymbols for around 500ish(pearl export worth it?) which leaves me $280-400 to find a another tube amp and ill probably be able to spend 200+ish for cymbols with a separate budget so everything works out happy without waiting too long? Probably end up with two shitty non functioning rigs instead of one average working one .

Skip the pearl kit. Those are ridiculously low-end, despite being at the same price range as much better kits.

I recommend Gretsch - they make good kits for not a lot of cash. Skip the base-model Blackhawks, but anything past that is quite nice.

Also, look into Ddrum. They make some really nice kits at great prices.

Just to show you how much you can do with practically nothing...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9v-y45F-po[/youtube]

That's why I'm going piece by piece personally.

maz91379 wrote:I'd totally jump on a gretch kit if i lived in the us or if i found one used but new even with hardware it's http://tiny.cc/4fldc which is about 900 more than i can spend. Is the ddrum "Diablo Punx" entry level kit any better? I assume if i found one used it would be around 500ish without cymbals. I soo hate the price of music gear here. It's not everything but 50%+ markup on random stuff for whatever reason is not cool. I think that's my main reason for wanting to move back as soon as possible . I think i just need to go get a job when i get back here in march I'm amazed at how far i've gotten for 4 months part time pizza making pay from before i left the states on my guitar rig.

Inertia wrote:Just to show you how much you can do with practically nothing...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9v-y45F-po[/youtube]

That's why I'm going piece by piece personally.

I'm tempted to buy a used no name kit for $100 right now, thinking "how bad could it be" but then i recall the shittyness of one of my friends no name kits but then i'm all like BUT I COULD TUNE IT!, most likely it's already falling apart though so i know better . Think i just need to do piece by piece scouting craigslist type things and music forums and pick up what i can carry back when i visit the states.

I've played that Ddrum kit before. If the store that had it hadn't marked it up to $1200 ( ) I would have bought it on the spot.

Also, never buy a $100 kit. You can try to justify it all you want, but it will still be garbage, and that's why it's only $100.

Plus, that's $100 AUD. So that's like the equivalent of a $13.73 kit in the US after conversion rates and regional markups. Which means the kit will likely be on fire when you pick it up.

And no one wants to play an on fire drum kit.

Noise... wrote:And no one wants to play an on fire drum kit.

You must be new here.

Inertia wrote:Just to show you how much you can do with practically nothing...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9v-y45F-po[/youtube]

That's why I'm going piece by piece personally.

That was awesome.

theshoegazer wrote:[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9v-y45F-po[/youtube]

That's why I'm going piece by piece personally.

That was awesome.[/quote]

Indeed it was. Going to see TM tonight!

maz91379 wrote:
Oh newb question when people say a drum kit is tuned low does that mean it's kinda like brighter while high means it's more like boomy and big? As i thought those two terms were swop-ed or something. As i thought low meant like boomy but after watching drum videos i'm confused.

To me tuning low means this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT95gQ0T0bY[/youtube]