Then and now: How has your perception of Sonor changed since you came to the brand?

[Jules]

In a nutshell and being specific, are you happy about the current product line, product availability, service and general direction of the company?

What do you like or dislike?

[James Fullier III]

Not extremely excited about current Sonor LOL. For me at least they had everything almost perfect in late 80's to 90's when there was a FEVER or HARDCORE DESIRE for Phonic, Sig, Performer, Designer, Force 3000, Force Maple and even Sonic and Force Custom. There is no hardcore desire for SQ1 or AQ drums. They are just sort of "there". In the 90's people freaked out over Designer Hardware. In 2026 nobody notices Sonor hardware and most don't really care.

One thing they could do without major production or design changes is just offer most of the genuine veneers from the company that Sonor already uses which is Schorn and Groh out of Germany right here : https://www.sg-veneers.com/furniergalerie/

[DaveInNZ]

I think visually Sonor's gear has never looked better than with the Signature era lugs. Even now, they look absolutely badass. But in all other regards, there's no doubting the current stuff is higher quality and anything that distinguishes the older stuff from current could be accommodated easily.

They still drop the ball occasionally, the inner surface of my AQ2 bass drum hadn't been sanded down after cutting the hole for the tom mount for instance, but when we bought Hilite's new in the 90's the chrome on one lug failed completely within weeks and we were sent the wrong spares more times than the right ones... So the odd slip up is nothing new.

I agree that the veneers could use an update. Do that, reintroduce the Sig shaped lug with Tunesafe, offer a few more options on SQ2...

It's nit picking really - on the whole they're doing great.

[SonorBart]

My perception of Sonor, formed from the ads below, before I bought my Lites in early '84 was quality that was a cut above any other drum brand with extreme attention to detail. With having had and sold Bubinga Signatures, Red Maple Hilites, Rosewood Lites, and numerous snares combined with my current 4 kits, 2 snares, and 3 sets of hardware, my perception hasn't changed even though the music business and musical instrument market have changed significantly,

Sonor Man on Drum Ad.jpg (13.15 KiB) Viewed 713 times