Time for my son to upgrade

[Axe_meister]

My 8 year old has now been playing drums for nearly 3 years. He is showing some talent (full independent coordination of all 4 limbs and can play all the rudiments well) but he hates his cheap electronic kit so much that he just won't practise. His teacher says he has the ability to sail through to grade 3, except for his lack of practice.
So looking for a small but fairly decent budget acoustic kit. Teacher recommend gear4 starter kit, but replace cymbals.
Any other recommedations

[monquixote]

You can't go wrong with Yamaha. From the cheapest to the most expensive they are great.

Budget for replacing the heads (at least the batter and ideally, but less importantly the res heads) as this makes a huge difference to the sound and response.

Cymbals are more important than drums. You can make cheap drums sound good with new well tuned heads, but cheap cymbals sound like bin lids however good you are. Avoid the cheaper Zildjians cymbals and go for one of the cheaper brands like stag. Cast sound a lot better than pressed and really if you can possibly afford it try to get something made of proper bronze as it's impossible to get a good sound from something made of brass like Sabian Solars.

If you don't buy them as a pack then spend more on getting a decent set of hi-hats as you are going to be using them a lot. Next most important is the ride (Don't buy anything labeled as a crash/ride as this generally means shit). Cheap crashes can sound fine. Don't bother buying chinas or splashes at this point as having fewer better cymbals is more important.

[austint01]

You can't go wrong with Yamaha. From the cheapest to the most expensive they are great.

Budget for replacing the heads (at least the batter and ideally, but less importantly the res heads) as this makes a huge difference to the sound and response.

Cymbals are more important than drums. You can make cheap drums sound good with new well tuned heads, but cheap cymbals sound like bin lids however good you are. Avoid the cheaper Zildjians cymbals and go for one of the cheaper brands like stag. Cast sound a lot better than pressed and really if you can possibly afford it try to get something made of proper bronze as it's impossible to get a good sound from something made of brass like Sabian Solars.

If you don't buy them as a pack then spend more on getting a decent set of hi-hats as you are going to be using them a lot. Next most important is the ride (Don't buy anything labeled as a crash/ride as this generally means shit). Cheap crashes can sound fine. Don't bother buying chinas or splashes at this point as having fewer better cymbals is more important.

Don't need any more advice. Monquixote nailed it.

[thebeagle]

Everything that that Monquixote said Stagg got it totally right with their SH and DH cymbals (cast bronze, many of them hand-hammered, and if the grapevine's to be believed made using ex-Zildjian machinery), look around for some secondhand as they go for peanuts considering how good they are.

As far as kits go, yep, Yam are definitely worth looking at. If you're looking for physically small, I'd also see if you can find a secondhand Gretsch Catalina Club or Premier Artist Club (or even better, a Yamaha Hipgig - rocking horse shit though) - though to be honest, a good secondhand midrange drum kit from any decent maker (Premier, Yamaha, Tama, Mapex, even *spit* Pearl) will be ten times better than what your money would get new from G4M or wherever - drum kits depreciate terribly.

[daveyh]

If he's been playing for three years and you're sure it's just the kit that's the issue, why are you getting him a budget kit?

[Axe_meister]

If he's been playing for three years and you're sure it's just the kit that's the issue, why are you getting him a budget kit?

Main reason is cost. Also thinking that even a budget kit would feel and sound like a proper kit, compared to his current cheap electronic kit.
I've managed to improve the sound somewhat using Midi triggering into Hydrogen on his PC, but he hates the feel of the thing, he doesn't get the bounce or the dynamics he'd get on a real kit.

[jalapeno]

Why not a better s/h electronic kit ?

Seriously - a full kit in the house is not something to take on lightly ....... when he practices the whole street listens .......

[thereformant]

I can echo the good reviews of stagg cymbals. I picked up a stagg myra crash second had on ebay really cheaply and it sounds pretty nice. The other thing you should budget for eventually is probably a replacement snare, the ones that come with starteer kits can be improved to some extent by replacing the batter head and snare wires but even after doing so you wont get rid of the nasty over-tones. Obviously id also prioritise replacing the heads and wires on the snare over re-skinning the toms.

[Drumman74]

If you haven't purchased a kit yet, and are looking for an excellent acoustic kit for the money...the absolute best I've found(I've been looking for my 5 yr old...I'm a pro drummer with 30+yrs playing) is the Sonor Bop kit for $399. this is just the drums, so hardware and cymbals are an extra expense...but as far as quality and great sounding drums, you won't find better for the money IMO.