Mapex Voyager 2010

I was recently shopping for a beginner set for my nephew. He seems like the kind of ten year old that will not give something up easy. That’s important for a drummer, because giving up the drums is a pain, not to mention expensive to purchase and depreciated value is astronomical. To minimise risk, I decided to focus on cheaper, common drum sets with standard hardware, that incase he quits, can be resold or integrated into other sets or different hardware can be changed out. For this I settled on a Mapex Voyager 2010 Jazz 5 piece drum set.

Thus far, over a year or so, he has stuck with the drums, and is doing really well. I attribute this to a good set, that can take the abuse a ten year old can dish out, while not being intimidating, or too big for him. MY first set was a ludwig parts set, which was huge, old, and falling apart. I told him he was lucky, but I think he realized it when he went to school band and saw the imported garbage sets the school uses, he apprechiated his Mapex.

As he should, because the build quality of this set is remarkable. For such a cheap price, (under 500 dollars US) you get comparible build and sound to a low level DW. I do not kid, yes there are some trade-offs, save cheaper woods, and yes to an expert this would matter, but for someone just starting out on a budget, or older but looking for something nice yet cheap, this is a great set.

It came with a DVD instruction setup video which was nice but I was there and we didn’t bother with it. He picked out a black set, but I liked the Burgundy myself. Standard set sizes, 22x18 bass drum, 12x9 and 13x10 tom toms, 16x16 floor tom, 14x5.5 snare drum. I like the snare sound, although it took some time to get the resonating to settle. The hardware like kick pedal feels cheap, but functions fine.

All in all, i think this is a great introductory set and wouldn’t think twice about picking up another one for a young player or someone who is on a strict budget.