Ok so lately I've been expressing some interest in learning how to play the drums. I have been a guitarist for about 5-6 years now, although I've kinda been losing interest watching people play drums and hearing drum parts in songs. I started looking at beginner acoustic sets of drums and doing some pricing. I'm not looking for anything spectacular, cymbals included with the set would be fine until I know if it's something I'm gonna stick with and keep doing, as well as the stock heads. The dilema I'm really stuck at is whether to go electronic or acoustic for my first set.

The main argument I'm having is that I'll probably be an apartment dweller for the next 3-5 years(I'm 19 and I currently go to school and will probably doing internships around the country during summers). So if I did get an acoustic set I might not be able to play it unless I'm at home for weekends or if I'm on vacation, and maybe sometimes at my school apartment during the day. So then I started researching different electronic sets. This seems like a good solution, low noise, I can play them when I want and where I want. The only thing I'm worried about is long term durability of cymbals, which wouldn't be a problem if I got a higher quality set. The other thing is would it really feel like a real acoustic drumset. I don't want to learn to play on an electronic set and then not be able to play as well on an acoustic set later on down the road, and have it permanently gimp my playing cause I learned to play a certain way.

So JSP, I come to you to get drummers opinions on the acoustic vs electronic drums debate. Heres the TL;DR.

Acoustic
Pros
-More realistic feel and sound
-Higher quality

Cons
-Loud(which isn't a bad thing unless you have angry neighbors :p)
-More Expensive for quality equipment
-Less portability
-Might have to sell depending on where I move to.

Electronic
Pros
-More portability
-Can play mostly anytime anywhere

Cons
-Less realistic feel?
-Less durable?

This post was edited by BlackKnightsOfFistingPower on Jun 29 2009 06:17pm

Heres how i see it:




this it simply:
acoustic will be nicer to look, much easier to expand and cheaper to get a top of the range one
there also fairly easy to transport if u get the right cases and have a car
VERY easy to expand

electric u HAVE to spend more money in order to get a decent one, otherwise u will feel u have wasted money and they dont feel like real kits unless u do
there easily portable but lots of electronics to go wrong
the can also fit into any space really


TL;DR version
get an acoustic for ure 1st kit
there hard to expand unless u have a decent one

Acoustic.

Do mesh heads really work all that well? As in muffling the amount of sound that comes out of the drum, but still allowing you to hear what you're playing, cause I'd definetely get acoustic drums if this was a viable solution.

This post was edited by BlackKnightsOfFistingPower on Jun 30 2009 11:38am

Acoustic.
Electric sets don't feel as real.
In the end, you should try to combine both acoustic and electric.

electric ofc. accoustics are gay sauce

ive never used them, but apparently there really good

I might go into the place where I normally get my strings and shit and ask them some questions about them, cause I'd really get acoustic if they work that well, and they aren't too expensive online at least, less expensive than normal heads :p.

well, wen u buy a kit, unless its top of the range, they will genrally give u sum crappy skins on the drums anyway

so u can always play them a little bit and ask ure neighbours if its too much noise

Well I'll be at home til mid august, so I won't have to worry too much about noise here. It's during the school year and the next couple summers where I'll be in an apartment. And I may be getting a decent drumset for cheap from one of my friend's cousins I just have to find out if he wants to sell it to me, so I'm assuming he'd have decent heads on there already, I would just need to buy practice ones for the school year.