Yamaha STAGE CUSTOM NOUVEAU

I've been drumming for close to 2 years. Currently in an Alt-Rock band.

I acquired my Stage Custom Nouveau from a local music store for 900 Canadian. They came with full hardware (2 boom stands, snare and hi-hat stand and single pedal). They are a natural woodgrain finish.

I love these drums. The hardware is awesome. Even the Bass pedal is pretty good for an entry model. The stands are all sturdy, I even have an adapter arm holding a 20" cast bronze Ride symbal with a 16" Paiste Rude crash on the same stand.

The stock heads are crap, yes, but I've never seen a brand new kit with nice heads. Once i got my Remo battered Pinstripes on them they hummed. The snare sounds nice and sharp as well. I was VERY impressed with the bass drum. Once I'd fiddled with it enough it came out with a low punchy tone I didn't expect to get from a mid-range kit.

Only thing I can gripe about are the cheap plastic lugs. While I've never had a problem on any toms or the bassdrum, the lugs on my snare tend to break (i play a really tight snare head). At first I thought it was the environment causing fluxuations in the tension.. but after moving them I still had problems splitting the lugs.

Moral of the story: If you play your Snare head REALLY tight... might consider either replacing the plastic lugs with metal lugs.

I pretty much touched on this already. The quality was great. I couldn't expect more for the price range of this kit.

This kit impressed me more than any other kit within 500 dollars of it. I tested the tama rockstar, tama superstar, Gretsch Catalina, PdP LX and MX and NONE of them compared to the value of the Stage Custom Nouveau Advantage.

I advise anyone who can't afford to spend 2k to seriously consider this kit. It sounds spectacular for its price!

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