There are some big differences in these kits and I hope the highlights I point out here help you.
Ok… compare birch to maple. Birch will knock off a little low end and add a decent chunk to the high end. If you are looking to studio/home record this is a good thing since it will help you rely less on the EQ.
Basswood is really just a filler wood that is more cost efficient and falls in the range of being either maple or mahogany in sound. Apparently there is argument on both sides. Oh.. yeah I mean filler wood as in they use it to fill in the ply between the outer and inner ply of the drum. Some drum kits employ this method because having the higher grade wood on the inner and outer ply allows them to have a better finish and tonal sound. Some would argue that using different types of wood causes timber confusion… in that if the natural timber of birch isn’t in line with the basswood they will cancel each other out.
A little on the construction:
The
Tama kit… unless I looked at the wrong one… has 6 ply on all the shells except the 7 ply bass drum. The
Gretsch kit uses 6 ply shells all the way round. Now the theory is that less ply = less material to move = easier to get the drum to resonate. This will make the drum sound more warm or round.
The bearing edges… the flatter they go the more card board like the drums become… less articulation and more thud. A 45 is pretty standard… I can’t find any information on the
Tama bearing edge for that kit other than they say it is precisely cut… ya know one would hope they do that anyways. The
Gretsch is cut at a 30.
Both drum sets you have selected here have die-cast hoops… nothing wrong with this at all. Just know that there are other rims out there… such as wood or triple flange. Each has it’s own unique sound when placed on a drum.
Take this all with a grain of salt. You really should do research on what you want to get out of a drum, then go buy it. You will be happier in the long run if you buy what you are looking for. Imagine having seven drums that will just never get you to the right feel/sound you want… or five that do it all.
Hit up this site as a reference… lots of great info
Drum Tuning Bible
Linear Mode
