Overall this is a great drum kit for gigs. Some part are perfect and others are far from it. Breaking it down:
Kick drum - this is a little monster! With the right heads and tuning, you cannot tell it's shallow drum. But be careful - you need a lot of dampening to remove some nasty rumbly overtones which can form. I ported the front head to allow me easy access to the inside. I switched the batter head with a coated EMAD, which greatly improved the sound.
Also, using the rod provided, and attaching the 10" tom to it, makes the bass drum sound much worse - the low end dissapears. I use one of the two clamps provided to mount the 10" tom to a cymbal stand, leaving the bass drum by itself, which makes it sound fuller and bigger. A cymbal boom arm for a ride is also usable in the hole and doesn't affect the sound as much as a mounted tom.
10" snare drum - very poor sound, only usable in very quiet situations and more of a breakbeat/jungle/drum&bass context, which I don't do. I changed the top head with a semi-old double-ply tom head, which improved the sound, but not by much. It's a 10" snare, didn't expect alot, but still got dissapointed.
10" tom - one of the best 10" I have heard. The tuning was easy and it sings with a single ply top and bottom head. Amazing little tom, using it all the time even on my studio kit to record stuff.
13" tom - it's an okay tom, easy to tune similar to the 10". However, it doesn't fit with the overall sound I'm going for - just this as a floor tom is not enough for my needs. I've resorted to sometimes using it as a rack tom on my main studio/rehearsal kit. Also the legs are quite short - they don't go as high as I want/need them to match my usual playing height.
Tambourine - it's okay. Haven't used it much to be honest.
Hardware - overall great quality for the price. All the lugs and tension rods work great. Only downside is harder playing makes them come loose relatively quickly.
The current configuration I use it in is for gigging - the 20" kick and the 10" tom, combined with a 16" Gretsch Catalina floor tom (which is also mahagony) and a 14" snare drum from my collection. This way the strengths and weaknesses of the drum set are covered, while still remainging portable due to he shallow bass drum.
The tambourine, 10" snare and 13" floor tom I sometimes use in the studio for recordings.
Overall if you need a good, cheap drum set for rehearsals or gigging, this will do a great job, and even perfect job if you have other good snare drums.
