Mapex Armory

This thing just cracks. I love that Mapex put the Tomahawk Series snare with the Armory Series drums because the trend over the past 15 years or so is...

Guys, this is the Mapex Armory Kit Ultramarine Gloss Studio Ease Fast Shell Tom Pack, and you know, hey, this joint is dope. It doesn't come like this...

So just all in all really nice hardware on a kit that comes in at a very nice price for five pieces.

I’d recommend checking out Mapex Armory, Yamaha Tour Custom, DW Design Series, and Tama Superstar. All pretty solid kits from my experience. Yamaha’s Stage Custom even sounds pretty good with the right heads. In terms of double pedal, DW3000s, Iron Cobra 600s, and Speed Cobra 310s I can personally recommend.

Whether that's a sound you want for the music you play, is up to you. Any drum can be used for any genre of music. It just depends on how you want your kit to sound and look. I like a lot of the Mapex Armory finishes, so if I was shopping in that price range, I'd have a hard time not going with one of those.

personally out of all those kits I'd go for either the TAMA Superstar Classic or Mapex Armory. Or look up used kits on facebook marketplace, reverb, craigslist, ebay, etc.

I purchased a Mapex Armory kit from Guitar Center several years ago and had to return them. I’d read good things about their drums and thought I’d give them a shot, despite the fact that it didn’t “feel right” — I’d always been a Ludwig or Gretsch guy. Three out of the five drums I bothered to unpack had dings in the bearing edges, irregular bearing edges, and/or loose lug casings that couldn’t be tightened because the mounting screws were run in crooked. No decent set of drums should come out of the factory that way.

For the price, the Mapex Armory is your best bet, but its really a blue to purple fade in my opinion. There is a small town dealer where I grew up that sent ludwig pink sparkle wrap and they wrapped a classic maple with it. I'm sure they could do that with purple wraps too. I guess it all depends on budget.

Since noise won't be a factor, I agree with choosing acoustic. My suggestions for mid-range kits would include Gretsch Catalina, Ludwig Neusonic, Mapex Armory, Pearl Vision, Sonor AQ2, Yamaha Stage Custom, and Tama Superstar. Shop used if you can through online marketplaces or classifieds like Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or equivalent.