Gretsch Catalina Maple vs. Yamaha Tour Custom vs. Mapex Meridian vs. Pearl Vision Maple vs. Sonor Force 3007
Which of these is the best? Mapex Meridian won the Musikmesse competition, so that's looking good :cool:
If there are any other suggestions besides these options, please tell!
All good choices. Are you looking to buy? If you need hardware, I would learn towards the Mapex since it comes with hardware, I saw the birch Meridians with all the hardware for $700 or so on a few websites.
It`s good that you`re Comparing all maple kits. I hate when people come up with a bunch of different Level, Wood type kits and try to make us choose. ;)
Out of all of thos kits, IMO the Meridian would be best. It`s an amazing sounding and lookit kit. The Hardware on it is amazing as well. So yeah.
Meridian
I've only played the Yamaha Tour Custom and the Pearl Vision Maple kits back to back. If I was going to buy one of those two kits, it definitely would be the Yamaha Tour Custom, primarily because I prefer Yamaha's rack tom mounting much better. There is too much torque from the weight of the rack toms on the rims of the Pearl Vision kits.
I also heard good things about both the Gretsch and Mapex kits, but never had the chance to play them.
Dennis
Isn't the Catalina maple out of place here?
I would think the Force 3007 would be on par with the Renown Maple. :confused: :o
I just picture the Force 3007 as an excellent THICKER maple shell by Sonor, not an intermediate kit.
Mapex Meridian, hands down. As much as I hated to see the Pro Ms go, they definitely stepped things up this year with the Meridian series and in my opinion beat out the VBX/VMX Visions as the kings of mid-level kits.
You can't go wrong with any of those, but the Meridian gets my vote. The Force 3007 kits do have some flat-out GORGEOUS finishes though... :D
The Force kits sounds amazing (especially for the price) as well. I moved from an ELX to a Force 3007 and the improvement was drastic.Quote:
Originally Posted by FiliptheNickel
I had to make that decision (minus the Meridian) and I'm so happy I went with the Sonors.
Mapex or VMX imo..
I like the pearl 900 series that come w/the kit over the mapex hardware, and the VMX maple shells are what used to be called Session's (what i understand anyway)
but the meridian maples are cheaper and mapex has really stepped up their game and made some nice drums with the meridians, and I like the fact that there are no unnecessary hole in the kick,
but both kits have an inferior tom-mounting setup, the pearl has all the stress on the hoop, and the mapex has it all on 2 lugs.
(VMX comes stock with nicer heads i believe too)
The VMX kits do not come with 900 series hardware. They are only sold as shell packs.
fail
- VMXs don't come with any hardware other than tom arms for any rack toms that come in the shell pack, and those are from 1000 series ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by drumdevil31
- Both Meridian Maple and Birch have holes in the bass drum to accept a double tom arm. The Maple series does offer virgin kicks as component drums, but these are not part of the shell packs.
- I think the Mapex mounting system is great, even on bigger rack toms. As the drum gets bigger, so does the space between the lugs.
We can't just tell you the 'best', each has its own strong and weak points. You have made it even more difficult by having such a broad list of kits; I would find it easier comparing 2 kits, but 5? I don't have time to name all the highs and lows and my opinion on each.