DaveInNZHello Everyone,
I picked this up from my local drum shop Pocket Percussion. I am in the Philadelphia suburbs.
It’s an 2004 beech designer kit on in the following sizes.. 10x7, 12x8, 14x12, 16x16 floor tom, 22x18 bass drum and a matching 6.5x14 snare drum.
The shell thickness is 6.7mm for all the hanging toms and the snare drum. The bass drum and floor tom is 8.8mm. Even though the floor tom is that thick it blends in and it sounds like one cohesive set.
Since the early 2000’s I heard rumors that Sonor would make beech drums again. They showed up for a limited run in 2004 and 2005 US catalog and was only available in the US. I only saw 2 other kits on the Sonor Museum and this kit would be the third. I don’t know how many more of these kits are out there, but my guess is that these kits are very rare.
I spent a lot of time cleaning them up and they were in really nice shape and had all their plastic parts in shape and not broken. I have previously owned 3 maple light kits in the past and I have always have said they are the best sounding kits I have ever heard. It may be due to the slightly thicker shell 6.7mm vs 6mm and the heavier hardware. This is compared to my 6mm medium maple SQ2 kit. The designer kit was a bit more focused, louder and cleaner sounding than the sq2. The sq2 is more open sounding and not as loud. I sold my designer light kit for the sq2 but I still love the sq2 because the hardware is lighter, less stuff can break in it and the drums are just easier to move around from gig time gig.
The designer series has several problem parts that the sq2 fixed but luckily ST Drums makes replacement designer parts.
So the beech designer kit is still the same heavy kit as the maples. The sound is what I actually had envisioned in my mind what the beech drums would sound like. I have also owned an sq2 medium beech kit and a heavy beech Newport kit for comparison as well as my Phonics kit. I would say that beech designers are louder, focused and more punchy than the sq2 medium beech. Compared to the Newport kit, they are more open but share some of the same characteristic’s of being more focused, bit more powerful then the sq2 mediums. It is a bit of a hybrid between the two. The floor tom and bass drum are thicker than the 8mm heavy beech kit bass drum and floor tom at 8.8mm. The floor tom has a similar feel to the 8mm shell but with a bit more focus and I can tune it lower than the 8mm counterpart. The bass drum is not nearly as boomy as the 8mm counter part on the 22x18 Newport kit. It’s more focused and not nearly as boomy. It’s well controlled and a welcome change for me as I disliked it in the heavy beech Newport kit.
Overall it’s one of the best kits I have ever heard. I can say that for a lot of Sonor kits I owned so I slot it up there in sound with the designer maple light kit. I like to see and hear a kit in a lot of situations before I make a decision. The only thing I haven’t heard is what they sound like at a gig.
They are very much precision drums meaning that they are so focused, you better have your technique down. They sound great in jazz/fusion but also in rock/pop. This drums will never found fuzzy and that fits my playing style.
The snare drum is also a real gem. I owned and loved the sound of my medium beech sq2 snare and this designer snare is not different. It’s slightly more focused and aggressive but is still the same sound quality of my medium shell beech sq2 I foolishly sold.
Just an outstanding set of drums! The badges say maple lights as they never made beech badges. Hope I could shed some light on these rare drums.
Just an outstanding set of drums! The badges say maple lights as they never made beech badges. Hope I could shed some light on these rare drums.
