Buy Cheap, Buy Twice!

Buy Cheap, Buy Twice: A False Economy

I've been playing drums a long time.  A very long time.  Subsequently, I often get younger people (friends, relatives, fans, whatever) asking me what gear they should buy.  I always reply, "buy the best you can afford".  This is normally followed by the counter-question "So what is the best?".

No way to answer that really.  Well, there is.  But it's too subjective (or is that objective?) to call ;-)

I've had most makes of drum gear over the years.  From the very old, to the very new, the top-of-the-range, to bottom of the bargain bucket.  There are brands which I think represent absolutely fantastic value for money, but that doesn't make them the best of course!  For example, I've had a full set of the Stagg Chinese cymbals.  They sounded beautiful, recorded well, cost pennies, and ... broke-up like a bar of chocolate straight from the fridge dropped on a concrete floor.  Amazing value, but poor quality.

Similar tales could be told of snare drums, drum kits, pedals, hardware ... very few of it these days is rubbish value for money. Manufacturing standards have advanced to the stage that even the cheapest mass produced drum kit is (technically at lest) built to a higher standard that the top of the range kit from the 60's or 70's.  

However, whenever I've played cheap stuff - even when excellent value for money, I find myself making excuses for it.  Either in my playing, or the sound I'm managing to get (more likely the sound I'm not managing to get!).  I'm at the stage in my life now where I no longer have to raid the bargain buckets for 'barely playable' kit.  I still need to shop smart, of course.  But these days that means snagging stuff that comes up in the sale, or comes up 'as new' on eBay.

And this tends to be the advice I give to people when they ask.  If you lust after that £1300 snare drum and nothing else will quite measure-up to it ... think about how you can make that affordable.  My favourite snare is a £1300 DW Edge.  I didn't pay £1300 for it.  I don't think I could, even if I had the money.  I picked mine up second hand, not even from eBay but from a reputable second-hand dealer.  Almost 2/3 off the cost and believe me, you'd think it was brand new when I collected it.

Due to the recession, the rapid growth of the retail Interweb and people shopping a lot smarter - the second hand instrument market is booming.  That hasn't mean that prices have crept up to regular retail values either.  It's just developed to the extend that almost anything you can think of, even relatively new and otherwise hard-to-get items can now be found second-hand at a fraction of their original retail cost.

The best shopping advice I could ever give is shop smart, shop used, buy the 'best' you can - and you will never regret it!

Top Links: -

www.ebay.co.uk

www.grahamrusselldrums.com