Welcome!
I myself just got a
DW kit (I'd had the snare for years; just got the kick/toms), and my early reviews are that it is amazing!
The shells are maple, sized 10", 12", 14", and 22" (snare is 14"). Each shell has a root note stamped on the inside, as well as a "born on" date. I've changed the heads a couple of times, and they're very easy to tune and stay in tune very well. The tom mounts attached to the shells are free-floating; they have small metal/rubber hoops that fit around the lugs, but that aren't drilled into the drums. They attach to four lugs, so there is no undue stress on your lugs when you mount them, and again, no extra holes drilled into your shells.
The only drawback to
DWs is that unless you custom order a kit with a floor tom and tom mounts on the kick drum (which isn't recommended, since they have to drill more holes into the drums!) you
will have to invest in some new hardware to hold your toms. I tried the
DW clamp-on tom mounts (example:
DW double mount,
Pacific also makes similar mounts for cheaper, I believe) and while those worked great, there's too much stress on your older cymbal stands. I got a lot of movement from mine, which while they never fell over, they moved a bit too much for my liking.
I then went with the rack you see above (got a great deal at a local shop here in Columbus) and
Gibraltar tom mounts. The
Gibraltar mounts didn't have the complete 360-degree range that the
DW ones do, but mounted on a rack you don't need it.
If you're going all-out,
DW does make some great stands (both cymbal/tom stands and just double-tom stands--
example 1,
example 2) that most music stores will try to get you to buy anyway, and they have a plethora of dog bone attachments that--if you're willing to pony up the dough--will allow you to set up pretty much anything in anyway imagineable.
Bottom line, the drums are immaculate. I've been playing mine for about six weeks in different setups, and they sound good each and every time I play them, regardless of the hardware I've used. But, be advised that you're going to pay a lot of money for the
DW name on anything you buy from them.
Hope this helps! Happy drumming, and welcome!
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