there`s a lot of vex drums on ebay right now, and they seem to be a good steal... what`s your experience with them?

From England,
Dick

Are Vex Drum sets any good for beginers. The reason I am asking is because I am looking at a Vex drum set on ebay right now and I wanted to know if they are any good and how long they last.

My son got a set from eBay and they`re a pretty nice set for the price. But I`ve been having some problems with the seller from eBay. The throne (seat) was missing a component and e-mailed them about the problem. They responded quickly saying they would ship another cushion that week 4/20/04. Since then they haven`t resonded to any of my e-mails with any status. I`ve been reasonable not flaming them or anything. Just asking from some status, but nothing. Now I`m PO`d, I gave them until 5/10/04 to resond with at least some status otherwise I`d give them negative feedback. It`s 5/10 today and still nothing from them. My son saved his money for an entire year to buy drums and this is the experience he got!

I have had one for almost 6 months now. I love it! My friend actually owns a Tama rockstar and he feels he got riped off after he played my Vex and I told him how much I got mine for LOL

A drum student of mine just got a maple Vex kit off of Ebay, and I helped him set it up.

A few comments:

- The bass drum was out of round (truly warped in places), and the hoops didn`t fit on it that well.
- The hihat clutch and felts were practically unusable - had to replace it immediately.
- The hihat stand`s spring is incredibly tight, and loosening it all the way didn`t help much.
- The hardware is nice in general (amazing that it came with so much for the price), but the bass drum legs were a bit wobbly.
- The toms are REALLY DEEP, making it difficult to position them ergonimically over the mass drum for a young beginner.
- The tom hoops were inconsistent,ly shaped and I couldn`t use a drum key on the small tom`s hoops becuase the edge of the rim was too close to the top of the lug. Very frustrating!
- That said, they were pretty hard to tune in general.

I`d say that buying a drumkit on Ebay is generally a bad idea, as you can`t see or hear it for yourself. These drums are really inexpensive, but I`d say you`re getting what you pay for. From this experience, I`d recommend that people go out and get a Taye, Yamaha, Mapex, or other entry-level kit that may cost a bit more, but has much better quality control.

My 2 cents,

Mark

I bought a Vex maple kit a few months ago on ebay, and had the same problem someone else mentioned, although not to the same degree. One of the rims (tom) was a bit out of round but manageable. Another was difficult to tune due to the edge of the rim, just like that other person. Also, the snare throw-off was a bit cheesy and I broke it within 3 weeks. But, I replaced that with a new one I got a great deal on, and all is well. For the price, I`m not complaining too much. I imagine I`ll do a bunch of upgrading, heads, cymbals, but all of my shells are round, maple, really pretty, and in general don`t sound too bad. I have definitely played, seen, heard worse.

I just received the Vex set that sells for 349.00 to your door. I added a roto tom set by the same company, as they looked pretty heavy duty, and I wanted the drum names to match.

I didn`t have any problems setting up my set. They give a Pearl website instead of instructions on construction, but this is my 3rd set of Drums, so it didn`t take much. The throne, is better than any other I have seen for up to 800.00. The heads are not great, but not as bad as you would find on a set from Titan, or others in that range. The bass petal is better than average, the high hat had no problems at all. The cymbal pack was better than most throw in`s, but I added quite a bit to the set to arrive when the set did. I ordered the drum dead ring kit, that brings the heads up to a good sound, they are removable and a full set for 20.00. I ordered an extra 4 boom stands, and 6 cymbals, even between Sabian and Zildjian. End result is a set that plays and sounds, and looks better than about 70% of the sets I have seen and heard up to 1200.00. However, the roto-toms are a little weak, or maybe I was expecting too much. Bottom line, I have been playing 38 years, and this is a good deal for a intermediate or so players.

so i just bought my brother a vex drumset off of ebay- damn thing gave me some link to some site to put it all together... problem is I CANT FIND THE LINK! does ANYONE!!!! know what site they send u to to set up ur drums?!?!?!

I ordered that set from ebay as well. It`s due today, I can`t wait!!

Here is the link:

http://www.pearldrum.com/education/how_to/default.asp

You may have to type it in if it doesn`t work by clicking on it.

Happy Drumming!
Fran

I got 20 ply vented snare from vex sounds just as good as Abe`s (deftones) and he has an o.c.d.p

I am looking at a pair of vex drums on ebay right now. Whats the retail price on them and do they sound good.

is this a good set for begginners? and should i get a 5 peice or a 7 peice. My daughter is 15 and she`s wanting to pursue drums.

-Allison

The 20 ply maple vented vex snares go for $150.00. This is great when you consider keller charges $200.00 for just the 20 ply shell with no holes drilled and no bearing edges. For the guy who bought his Vex snare, do you like it? I`m a heavy hitter and would instantly replace the hoops with die cast. Is this snare an 8 lug or 10 lug? I am very interested in this drum. All the finnishes I have seen are not to my liking and I would probably re wrap the shell in some sort of glass glitter for cheap. But over all, how does this snare feel?? Sounds like this is the only thing they did right.

Beetham

I purchased a Vex Maple Kit in October of 04. This review is kind of long and may seem negative, but if you find it as such, just keep reading and it`ll get better!

SECTION 1: "MISSES" of the VEX MAPLE DRUM SET
I, too, had problems with the seller. First, he sent me a Fire Engine Red snare drum when I had ordered a wine red kit. There was no reply to my emails for that problem. Second, the tom mounts were of very poor quality. One broke the night I set up the kit, and the other died a few days after that. I had to replace them with Gibraltar tom arms, which cost well over 60 bucks for both. Again, there was no response to the problem from the seller. Third, the stands, heads and hardware were horrible. Fourth, there were some irregularities with the bearing edges on several of the drums, which I corrected with my instructor both of us armed with a lot of patience, and a little sandpaper.

HITS:
Where my VEX kit excelled was: first, the wine red finish was very glossy and nice. Second, contrary to what I have read in this section, my bass drum hoops fit well, but I opted for a TAMA plastic hoop on the batter side for pedal reasons. Third, the hardware on the drum (ie lugs, tension rods, legs and hoops) are all pretty solid. There were, though, some oddball bass drum tension rods that were a little funny looking, but their functionality was fine. Another note on the drum hardware; unlike other economy kits, the lugs on both the toms and the bass drum aren`t spring mounted or "loaded", so they aren`t prone to hisses when the spring gets thrown off the feed shaft. This I consider a definite plus since I remember when I was in high school and had to take off all of my tom/bass drum lugs to stuff them with cotton so that the spring had to stay in place...that was a huge pain in the ass that you don`t have to suffer through with the VEX. Fourth, the sound, when tuned correctly with the right heads is great. I tried single and double ply resonant batter heads, single ply coated batters (all by Evans) with the standard REMO clear Ambassadors on bottom and I found that the drums, at least for moderately hard hitters like myself, responded better to the double ply oil filled hydraulics. They produce an awesome warm resonant tone that MAPLE drums are known for when tuned correctly. The bass drum with an EVANs EQ3 Batter and a REMO Ambassador head on the outside is as punchy and modern as any TAMA ROCKSTAR kit I have heard. The 12 tom is my favorite. Whether it is tuned high or low, it sounds great. And the floor tom with the hydraulic head on it sounds like a cannon...it is amazing.

Like another drummer who bought a VEX kit of of EBAY who said that after having a friend play his own TAMA or PEARL kit and then play the VEX and feel like the friend got shafted...yea, pretty much. If you have about 200 bucks, patience, and some time to correct some manufacturing SNAFUs...then the VEX CAN BE (notice that CAN BE is in all caps) a great drum set. I have enjoyed the hell out of mine. It has been like a work in progress, and now after a couple hundred dollars, it`ll hang with pretty much anything you put in front of it. Of course it won`t hang with the likes of a well tuned DW COLLECTORS, STARCLASSIC or MASTER`S SERIES, but depending on the tuning of some of the lesser lines, you could have a gem, but you`ve got to put in the time.

Conversely, I have also been to GUITAR CENTER and seen GRETCH, PEARL, TAMA and YAMAHA starter kits for around 5 or 6 hundred dollars. They come with their high quality SUSPENSION MOUNTING SYSTEMS and quality entry level HARDWARE...so those also, could be a viable option that you should explore.

Another quick note: I ended up taking off the 13 tom and just using the 12 rack with the 16 floor tom, and honestly, I get compliments on them every time we head in to the studio and at almost all our gigs. So I guess you`re asking yourself, "Was it worth it?" Well, yes, but luckily I had my own quality hardware, my own snare drum, and had saved enough money opting for the VEX over the Pearl Export to buy some good heads (I use Evans Hydraulics on top with Ambassadors on bottom) and the drums sound great...a ton better than some CUSTOM DW`s I heard a young drummer playing on at a gig just this last weekend. At the same time, if you’re not up to the challenge of actually making your drums sound great, I think you would be happier with a lot less work and headache if you got a YAMAHA stage custom that sell for $550 (on sale) at GUITAR CENTER.

This is a pretty long review, but I hope it helped. Please feel free to email me at mjbrimhall@juno.com and I`ll answer any question posed.

JAY

i was shopping for drums this past week and was very tempted to get the $355 vex package off ebay, but after some sage advice, i went ahead and forked out an extra $100 and got a sonor force 1003 kit instead. however, i`ve heard aside from the actual drums, the hardware that came with it was of pretty good quality and i was wondering if anyone has used and/or has any feedback on the vex double bass pedal they advertise on ebay for $99. it looks pretty solid.