Anyone own one yet?

[Elements]

Just wondering if any of the members have purchased one of these kits yet and could tell us thier opinions?

[SESSION25]

no I haven't. In fact i've never even played one.

[mfo9168389]

no I haven't. In fact i've never even seen one.

[rsdrumz]

They're not available yet. Don't quote me on this, but I think you can start getting them in late May.

[AnimalGLX]

I have a "self made" Reference :) .

[SLIPKNOT1]

I heard May at the earliest as well so your not going to find anyone who has one already. The only people who have even heard one in person are the people who were at NAMM and the number of people who have actually played one are pretty slim outside the Pearl employee/artist family.

Billy Cobham and John Blackwell were two of the non Pearl artsist who tried them out in the booth.

[Andy @ MIT]

they won't be out for at least a month

[carl62]

they won't be out for at least a month
NOT TRUE! Dale's Drum Shop in Harrisburg, Pa. already has one and I was playing it this afternoon. They're not bad. The snare has one hell of a crack to it (I guess it's the 20 ply shell they use) and the bass has some serious volume and BOOM to it as well. The toms though didn't sound any different then what I've heard from the 4 ply maple Masters they had in the store. Again, they sound good and do have a lot of projection, volume and sustain, but I honestly don't think they are worth all this hype of being this "sonically terrific" drumset as Pearl is trying to come across with. Are they worth the extra bucks in what you'd have to pay between a Masters and these? IMHO, no. Again, these are just my opinions and observations on them. Once they hit all the stores, then everyone can try them out and see for themselves if sonically they're what they'd want and worth all the hype (personally, I don't think so). Everybody's different though. The only thing that I'd wish though is that they would put some of those seven finishes in the Masters series. That root beer fade is NICE!!

[AnimalGLX]

You are absolutely right Carl62, everybody has it own opinion.
I've changed the bearing-edges on my Masterworks to half-round 45 and full round, maybe you remember this thread!! (http://www.pearldrummersforum.com/showthread.php?t=75941) :D
I also own a Masterworks with the original Bearing-edges and I can asure you, they sound totally different. The Masterworks with the "Reference-BE's" has more lows, they sound "fatter" and tuning is a lot easier :) .
In my opinion the Reference is Pearl's best sounding drumkit ever and absolutely not a hype!

[kev]

Reference's sound nice .. actually, i think they all seem to sound nice, I've never played A Pearl kit before, i was almost wondering the same thing as the thread....

[MetalDrummer88]

I heard today that theres only 3 in the US. 2 were at columbus drum daze and I got to play one. They are quite nice.

[MeltedPixel]

NOT TRUE! Dale's Drum Shop in Harrisburg, Pa.When I used to live up in PA I went to dales for my drum stuff, I LOVE that place!