Mapex VENUS SERIES

Okay, I would be very surprised to find a better entry-level kit especially after seeing that you can buy these for $200!! I originally bought mine for drummers to come over and jam with me on guitar.….I replaced the original snare with a 1960's Slingerland snare and I use a DrumDial to tune the Remo Coated Ambassadors….they are booming!! I also have some 1976 WMP Ludwigs and with the same heads, all tuned up they are neck and neck…..and like previously mentioned by other reviewers, this kick drum really slams…When it was time to record, I would go to C.A. House Music in St. Clairsville, Ohio to buy new heads and have Tim Siedler tune it up….Tim is a legendary drummer in that area and every time he was done tuning them he would give them 2 or 3 really hard whacks and mention how good they sounded….

Being drumming since 1992 and had a few kits in that time (First was a Maxwin 5pce from the 70's RIP), But by the early 2000's when that kit was no longer up to the punishment of metal drumming (Death/Grind) I needed a new kit on a budget.
Went to the local drum shop in Melbourne (Aus) Drummers Paradise, to see what $1000 would buy me. (June 2003)
At the time i knew Mapex were around a while and seen some drummers play them and they sounded good, and top drummers were starting to use them.
Mapex Venus Series rock size kit was there (Black of course!) for $999 so i thought why not try it. I mainly play Tama since 2006, but this kit holds up quite well for value, sound, quality & durability.
Of course i change skins after a couple of months of beating them to death (I'm a heavy hitter) to Remo's and now Evan's (Best!). I normal tune low & dead for metal, Bass drum fat & punchy, doomy toms & cracking mid-range snare.
And it sound great, although i admit the snare is not the greatest and hated it at first, taking a few years to get it right instead of a few minutes. The kick pedal was very standard, but since i use double kick pedals it rarely got used.
Since getting the Tama kit, it's been primarily use for live gigs in rock covers, grind/thrash/death metal bands, as the Tama is the stay home setup in the bedroom kit (Too big to travel). Hi-hat & cymbal stands are fine. All in bags too.
I recently brought a second kick drum as well as a 8" & 10" tom to make a big 8pce metal live kit out of it.
Due for a good clean & new skins and she be good again.
Think it was meant to be a Beginners/Advanced kit, I was at the advance state by year 2000 so it was a good step up. But i guess it be fine for most people.
Keeping this kit for a very long time now I've expanded it!
Make great for 1st kit. Enjoy!

I have been playing for eight years and the Venus series was my first kit. I have used it in a number of bands including punk rock, doom metal (early playing), indi/prog rock, and finally in funk and jazz bands.

Picked this up at the local music shop for about $550.

First off, I can't say enough about the bass drum it has great sound/resonance for live gigs and often I use it instead of my 1976 Ludwig set's bass drum for recording purposes. Also, durability is a huge asset to the Venus series. back when I was just starting out and didn't know how to properly care for my drums in transit to and from gigs this set held strong and continues to do so to this day! Of course these days I know better than to not use cases and/or keep the drums in a hot/cold car for an extended period of time (it really pains me to of think how dumb I was back then).

The stock snare and pedal were trash. But after all you normally buy a set for the toms and bass drum (occasionally a good snare comes with but usually its terrible stock stuff). Replace those items and it sounded great (also replacing the stock heads with Remo coated ambassadors helped a lot). Also the tom mount configuration was quite cumbersome and eventually I just switched to a free mounted system (which I highly recommend).

Great, already covered that!

Great first kit too bad they don't make them anymore I would for sure buy one for my nephew. Great playability too!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this kit from ADC Drums. It was an ex demo kit so i got it for half price even though it only had a few stick marks on the skins. All together this kit cost me £600 with a set of Sabian Pro Sonix Cymbals.

I love the Bass Drum on this kit and also the nice heavy duty stands you get with it. I also love the overall ambient sound, much better than its rival Pearl Forum kit which is an extra 100 quisd on the price.

I hate the bass pedal. Its POOR!! im gonna get an Iron Cobra by Tama. other than this its all good and a great kit to play.

Its Great Quality for the price the only thing is the tom mount is pretty annoying but its only my opinion, you may like it .

GO GET ONE ALL YOU DRUMMERS OUT THERE WITH 400 QUID TO SPARE. YOU WONT REGRET IT!!!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com