DW Drums (& Hardware) are the most overrated trash in the industry....

Please forgive me, as I am about to go on a quick rant. This will be a personal opinion so I don't except all to agree with me. Just need a place to vent because my non-drummer (civilian) wife has no idea what the hell i'm talking about haha

I have been playing drums for roughly 25 years. Last 15 years have been spent touring and doing local gigging around town. Throughout the years, I have owned several 5000/9000 boom stands and pedals.

Story 1: When the 9000 Pedal first dropped, I was 15 years old. I had spent all summer saving up to buy the excessively overpriced double version of this pedal. This was the first gen of the 9000 pedal. Shortly after I purchased, the problems started right away: Chain drive, hinges, and even the cam broke on this pedal. Chain drive & Hinges had to be replaced multiple times. At the time, I attributed this to just being a young hard hitter, but as the years went on... I found that most of their hardware products didn't do any better - even as I got older and began to be easier on my stuff and more dynamic of a player. Once I replaced the parts a final time, I off'd this pedal and got a 5000 single. The hinges broke on this several times as well!!

Story 2: Owned several 5000 booms - all trash and broke non-stop as well. Got a good 3 years out of them before I just gave up. Some examples include the toothless titler/adjuster breaking clean off the stand, the TechLock system malfunctioning/stripping and more. Keep in mind, I wasn't just throwing this stuff around. Yeah, I was traveling, but I always took everything apart before putting back into the hardshell cases they lived in, inside of a trailer.

Story 3: I own a 2002 DW Edge snare that I bought alongside a Collector's Series set (which I recently sold). I upgraded the butt plate to the DW 3 way switch a few years back. Bottom snare head broke at a rehearsal yesterday. After changing the head out this morning, I noticed that one of the transfer screws to that plate was broken off. Almost like it had snapped in half. This isn't even my main snare, so I barley use it in the first place. I am just so done with the lack of quality in their products.

Don't even get me started on the Collector's series drums. Which are $2k + and all sound like MUD and cardboard. I've had people tell me the Performance series have more personality.

DW - You suck. Do better John Good. You can't build a reliable brand off simply signing the top players in the game (who get everything for free and have no problems getting things replaced)

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