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I mainly play guitar but am looking to pickup a small kit for screwing around on and some possible home recording/lofi tracking via 4track. I dunno much about drums and my friends who do are really into it so any advice they give is to get really nice stuff but I am looking on the cheap as in under $200 tops and doesn't need to sound any "better" than say Gories or Pussy Galore type music. I am realistically probably gonna make it into a small "one man band" setup with hi-hat, kick, and a foot snare setup for some noisey simple garage type stuff. I like the idea of smaller "junior" size drums but don't have any real experience with them and have been advised away. Any recommendations? Should i go with one of those $100 new Pulse junior kits from musicians friend and replace things as necessary or go with a used full size kit and just use the parts I need? Or buy parts separate and assemble? There's a few partial brand name kits for around $200 where I'd need to get hardware separate and few "cheaopo brand" kits with everything for about $125 around here but I just don't know enough outside of common sense when looking at them.

Just go with a DigiTech Trio!



I'm also curious about this.

Basically any drum can sound good. Look on CL, there's usually old CB or Pearl kits that some kid's parents are selling because they lost interest etc. I would go with that. If you're not in a rush it can be insanely cheap. Same goes with individual drums. You don't need anything fancy period, if it had heads and functioning lugs you're there.

A junior sized drum set will most likely leave you wishing you had real drums but it could work.

Sometimes you can get lucky and get old Japanese off brand kits for hella cheap.

Boston CL finds first two pages:

https://boston.craigslist.org/nos/msg/5034880231.html

https://boston.craigslist.org/bmw/msg/5024037374.html

https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/msg/5013330185.html

Get that mapex and piece stuff together or that red one...

all depends on the heads. i have three kits, one cheapo that was my first, one fucking expensive one and one that was dirt cheap until i put good heads on it.

all about good heads.

TWSS.

All great suggestions so far. Definitely go used. I don't think it will be hard to find drums/shells for $200, but to get a whole kit including cymbals, hi-hat, stands and hardware, plus possibly needing new heads...well, thats gonna be tough. Keep your eyes peeled on CL. Skip the junior kits if possible--have you seen them in person..? They are small and the hardware is not great. I understand that you don't need them to sound amazing, or look amazing, but you probably want them to stay together and not fall apart when playing them.

cheap shells you can work with, cheap cymbals you cannot if you're a heavy hitter. waste of time and money. save up for the good shit.
(i've broken so many zildjians...)

If you want small, Mapex and Gretsch, among others, started putting out decent starter non-junk jazz-sized kits about ten years ago. Some of that should certainly be in the CL stream by now.

I stumbled upon a SP kit with symbols and everything (minus seat a few bolts) for $60 on my way home from work today, it needs heads but for $60 I figured I can blow so extra on that. Thanks for the advice guys! any advice on decent head brands? I know Evans and Remo but that's about it...