Guitar Gear Forum

My son is hinting as wanting to start learning drums. I don't think I'm ready for a full-on acoustic drum kit in the house, but an electronic kit would be a good start. I know nothing about drums, so are there any beginner level electronic kits out there worth a damn? Brands to look at or ones to avoid?

Alesia makes one that’s small and has mesh heads that feel pretty nice. I think I bought it for about tree fiddy. Also for my son to learn some drums. He loved them for about 2 weeks and hasn’t touched them in a year LoLoL.

NinjaRaf wrote:Alesia makes one that’s small and has mesh heads that feel pretty nice. I think I bought it for about tree fiddy. Also for my son to learn some drums. He loved them for about 2 weeks and hasn’t touched them in a year LoLoL.

Yeah that's why I want to go the cheap route first. He has a Yamaha desktop sized electronic kit (DD-55c??) that I gave him years ago, but anytime he's done jamming guitars at Guitar Center he'll head over to the drum room and try out the kits.

The Alesis kits sounded pretty good.

How does Simmons compare to Alesis?

It’s not the Simmons of old; I wasn’t enamored with their GC products. I can’t say the same for Alesis - their big kit is becoming really tempting. The speaker is silly, though: It is identical, and I mean IDENTICAL, to the Headrush FRFR112, the Alto thingy, and probably a dozen other GC products, and they’re all rubbish. Not a problem for me, as I have the Accugroove.

Every time I go to GC Middleton, there is, inevitably, a guy buying strings or something, and he brings his kids. Those kids will almost instantly gravitate towards the electronic drum kits, and it makes me both irritated by them being uncoordinated six-year-olds banging on drums at random, and comforted, with the observation that they are showing an interest in actually playing music. I would seriously consider buying a set, but I A. Refuse to buy the one off the floor, for the aforementioned reason, and B. Am currently looking for a new job, and have to keep my expenses in check, no pun intended.

Yeah Alesis Nitros are fine for practicing. And you can use their MIDI Out to trigger EZ Drummer if you want to record with it.

Hipster Salad wrote:
How does Simmons compare to Alesis?

honestly... I wouldn't get hung up too much on sound as much as feel if you're getting your kid their first kit to learn on... I've seen it a bunch of times where kids who learn on electronic kits sit behind an acoustic kit and are lost since they feel so much different.....

I'd say prioritize mesh heads over a powerful drum processor especially if the controller has MIDI out since you could hook it up to a computer and get amazing sounds

Yeah the Alesis Nitro with mesh heads is what I'd go with if I got rid of my acoustic set. Use it with EZdrummer for better sounding sets and he's good to go. I always find slightly used ones on facebook market place, but Guitar Center always puts them on sale 4th of July weekend.

Honestly the standard kit preset #1 on the Alesis sounds fine, I wouldn't gig or record with it but for learning and even band practice it's not an issue at all.

The Alesis kits show up on Craigslist, etc pretty cheap, sometimes. I got a full kit for $100 last year

Most GCs have Alesis kits. I recommend trying before you buy. I had one of the mid tier Alesis for a bit and compared it to Roland TD-1MK and would the say the Roland feel wise blows the Alesis out of the water.

If you can find a used Roland I’d recommend that over any of the Alesis offerings.

Edit
To clarify what I mean in regards to feel it’s the bounce on the heads. Even though the Roland heads are smaller diameter compared to the Command X I had they feel and bounce so much more like a real drum. For a kid it probably doesn’t matter all that much but if you can get them at comparable prices go with the Roland IMO.

I see the Nitros for $200 on CL a lot. Considering grabbing one for the possibility of hosting silent band practices in my apartment

Ok, after several FB Marketplace fails on getting some sets (ghosted on 4 listings in a row), I just went and bought a new Alesis Nitro kit.

So...


How to amplify this on the cheap? Old boombox? Cheap 15w crate amp?

I use the Alesis Nitro module. I used to have the whole lot but I upgraded the pads to a custom kit with actual shells.


But yeah the Alesis Nitro is cool. And it has a MIDI out so you can trigger EZ Drummer or Superior Drummer for recording.

But the stock sounds are good enough for practice right out of the box. When we were using the e-kit on band practice, we just used the very first preset (rock kit 01) and it was fine

Hipster Salad wrote:Ok, after several FB Marketplace fails on getting some sets (ghosted on 4 listings in a row), I just went and bought a new Alesis Nitro kit.

So...


How to amplify this on the cheap? Old boombox? Cheap 15w crate amp?

Powered monitor. Doesn't have to be an expensive one. Gemini, Alto etc makes some good, cheap ones. Get something with a 10" speaker at the list.
If you find a cheap keyboard amp that's good too. Even a bass amp could work.
Guitar amps are too midrange focused and won't sound good..

But for practice, headphones are ideal, so he can play at any time and tirn it up loud without bothering anyone lol

My bro had a yamaha kit that sounded great. May have been dt xpress or something.

Here’s a used kit for $260 shipped.

https://reverb.com/item/66765402-yamaha ... t=66765402