All user reviews for the Yamaha RYDEEN

This was the kit that was used as a practise kit at my school. When they asked for some advice of good quality kits for cheap money I told them to get either a Pearl, Yamaha or a Tama. I think it cost around £400, but bearing in mind this is a discounted price.

The hardware is brilliant. It is made in the same factory as the motorcycles so its bound to be good. A hi-hat and a straight stand are included (no boom stand unfortunately). The tom mounting system is easy to adjust and get used toand i'm sure with some decent heads they'd sound pretty good.

For the money the snare drum isn't bad, but not brilliant, and is not easy to tune. The quality of the wood on the snare I played looked a little ropey, but what do you want. There was only one thing (apart from the heads, which are pretending to be Remo's) that annoyed me about this kit. This was the stupid mounting system of the floor tom. The legs are held using the same tension rods that are used for tightening the heads. The problem with this is they have an occasional tendency to work loose and collapse and if you forget your drum key, your screwed. This happened to me when rehearsing for a school show, so I was effectively playing a 4 piece kit. I however replaced these with more traditional hand screwing rods which I took from their old Pearl Export that was falling to bits.
Another small complaint is that kit does not come with a chain drive bass pedal, but after a while you get used to the strap.


The quality of this kit is both sterdy and well constructed and I am sure will last for years. The only thing that isn't really that good is the heads that are supplied with the kit, but this is a budget kit!
The quality of the stands are excellent!

A great beginner kit. Not for someone that has been playing for years as the kit is quite small, but it is fine for anyone under the age of 15. The sound is good for a basic kit but any experienced drummer will find the sound a little tiring at times. As long as you fit decent heads and some nice cymbals it should keep most kids happy for years, until they start begging their parents for a DW or a Tama.

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

I've been using this drum kit for over a year and a half. I was basically looking for a drum kit to start out that wasn't very expensive. I was looking into getting a low-end Tama until I stumbled upon this kit. I read user reviews about it and all I could find was that it's an EXCELLENT value for money. Especially the model with a 22" kick and standard tom, which is very powerful and with an exceptional sound at this price point. So I went for it and I'm not disappointed. The kick is really powerful and very deep, while the sound of the toms is very nice. The snare is very punchy too. What has really bothered me ever since the beginning are the paiste 101 cymbals, which aren't very good. It's better to invest on models like the Sabian XS20, which are really very nice. Plus, the kick pedal is really lousy. But, at the same time, Yamaha had to make ends meet given the price at which it sells these drums. Anyway, I wanted a double pedal so I got a Gibraltar and it's really good. The kick has even more punch with a really dry sound, it's great. Unfortunately, the force of the pedal made the drum head of the kick explode. So I changed it for an Evans EQ1 and it has now a huge resonance. Nothing that you can't fix with a small cushion, but it's really powerful!! I also switched to Pinstripe heads on the toms and they suit them perfectly, they sound really nice, exactly as I was expecting, more biting and precise. In the end, this beginner drum kit, which I didn't expect to keep very long, has turned into a very nice kit to progress and play in a band by simply correcting some minor details. It is an excellent drum set, which isn't expensive compared to competing products. I love the sound of Yamaha drums, which this kit has. It is really worth it to start out and, as time goes by, a couple of modifications make it better, given the quality of the drums themselves.