Product: Mapex Meridian Maple Studioease
Price Paid: USD 929.94
Submitted
04/17/2009
at
06:28pm
by
Kevin
Features
:
8
The pinstripe heads are ok (Chinese Remo heads) but I changed them out for Evans G2 (toms). The snare drum takes some time to get a sound. I am also not a big fan of the plastic snare strainer harness (flex issues). I took the snare drum apart and finished off the inside shell with several coats of Tung oil. I changed out the snare tape for chord and changed out the head for a Remo Ambassador (much better now!).
It should be noted that all the lugs are single point of contact (one screw and a small placement spike). While the marketing hype states better sustain and lower mass on the shell, my gut instinct tells me ???cost savings.???
Sound Quality
:
9
The shells are good quality and the bearing edges are good. All lugs are properly lubricated. Make sure you go through the entire kit and tighten up all bolts on the inside of the drum shell. I already had bolts rolling around in the bass drum after the first week of use. ???All-in-all this is a very good kit for the money.??? If you spend a little extra time and money on it you will have a great kit on par with a much more expensive set! The sound of these drums is maple all the way, big and punchy!
Reliability/Durability
:
8
The weakest points of this kit are the bass drum hoops. Mapex should take a good look at Tama???s bass drum hoops as an example of lower cost and quality. The Mapex bass drum hoops are basically unfinished and sub-par. I replaced them with Keller twelve ply hoops (stained them pale yellow and coated them with polyurethane). This also made a difference in how well a double ply bass drum head will seat against the hoop.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
N/A
Overall Rating
:
9
I have been playing drums for over thirty years and have been somewhat spoiled using Yamaha Recording Series drums for the last fifteen years.
I recently started playing out again (weekends) and wanted a set that was durable, inexpensive, but sounding good. My prior experience with Mapex drums has been positive. After researching a lot of companies I couldn???t find anything in this price range with all 100% maple shells and decent hardware, not to mention the excellent Delmar rap (blue sparkle). The drums are a good deal, but if you want them to be on par with more expensive sets you need to do some tweaking.
