My brand spanking new Mapex Saturn rock & roll machine!

[Naigewron]

On friday I got a call from my dealer (no, not that kind of dealer) that a pallet full of boxes with Mapex logos had arrived:




So of course, on Saturday morning I headed down there, stuffed the boxes in my little Corolla (with a floor tom riding shotgun) and brought them down to our little rehearsal room to unpack them:




And after some assembly (kick drum heads and lugs), this is what the beast ended up looking like:




The toms were very nicely tuned straight out of the box, but they were definitely tuned way too high for me. It literally took me less than two minutes to get the toms sounding amazing though, and I didn't even touch the reso heads. I imagine that once I start really digging into the tuning subtleties of this kit, it will sound mindblowingly good. Man, I love the tunability of high end drums.

I had originally ordered a Black Panther Brass Cat snare to go with the kit, but that part of the order got lost somewhere in the supply chain. Oh well, I guess my Black Beauty will have to suffice for now

So, current specs:

Drums:
14x6,5 Ludwig Black Beauty snare
12x9 rack tom
16x16 floor tom
18x16 floor tom (BOOOOOM!)
24x18 kick drum (DOUBLE BOOOOOM!)

The finish is Arctic White with Black Nickel Hardware. Classic and versatile, and of course a white finish is always going to look killer on stage when it catches the different colours of the stage lights.

Cymbals:
(left to right)
14" Diril Traditional Hihat
18" Diril Traditional Crash
21" Meinl Byzance Dark Ride
18" Diril Traditional Crash
18" Wuhan China
18" Meinl MB20 Heavy Crash

I'll be experimenting with different cymbal setups. Those 18" crashes suddenly started to look pretty small next to that kick and those floor toms. Might have to break out my 19", 20" and 21" crashes instead

[Victor Alexandrov]

Saturns are the most underrated drums, imho. Congrats on the purchase and may they serve you well. BTW why dont you remove the tom mount?

[Naigewron]

Saturns are the most underrated drums, imho. Congrats on the purchase and may they serve you well. BTW why dont you remove the tom mount?

Thanks. About the tom mount; I haven't decided if I want to use the snare stand or mount it off the cymbal stand next to it. I switched it to the cymbal stand yesterday, and I'm really liking the Mapex tom mount quality so far. We'll see where I end up

[nik12]

BTW why dont you remove the tom mount?

This. I was wondering what the big black blob on the tom was. I assume you just haven't gotten around to it.

Looks great. I like that they were literally on a pallet. Mapex's Saturns are on my short list and it is kits like this that keep them there.

[MWRushR40]

Very nice man, they look great!

[sticks4drums]

Very nice indeed! I think you will find that the tom sounds better mounted off of the Mapex tom arm, and cymbal stand.

[titanone31]

welcome to the family
saturn's are spectacular drums
extremely happy with mine

[Benn]

Gorgeous. Enjoy!

The Black Beauty will suffice?! That's my dream snare man haha

[spx118]

Nice drums man. I love a white set if drums. Simple and classy.

[JY Kelly]

White drums with black HW is teh sexay! Good score, brother.

[Kiwi]

Congrats man, classy!

[tallicacrazy]

Wow, not normaly a fan of that set up but dayum thats nice!!

[Sundude]

Man....that looks great!!!! Saturns are my possible-new-drums list after seeing all the great kits on the PDF. I really can't recall anyone saying anything bad about them.


Congrats dude.

[dudewuttheheck]

Saturns are the most underrated drums, imho. Congrats on the purchase and may they serve you well. BTW why dont you remove the tom mount?

Agreed, I've played them and they really are, with scms the second most underrated imo.

I love the cymbals, though personally don't like how they are set up. Still very cool overall I love saturns.

[Naigewron]

I had originally ordered a Black Panther Brass Cat snare to go with the kit, but that part of the order got lost somewhere in the supply chain. Oh well, I guess my Black Beauty will have to suffice for now

So yeah, update on the Black Panther. Someone did indeed mess up, but it wasn't who we thought. Turns out the snare arrived in the store back in early July and has been sitting there ever since!

So I'm back to my original plan: Use the Black Panther as my main workhorse and use the Black Beauty as my studio snare and modding project. The Beauty sounds amazing, but the hardware quality is a big load of "meh". I'll probably start experimenting with different hoops and strainer mechanisms and see where it all leads me