Peace Paragon Maple Kit Reviews 5

I have played on this kit, put pricing can stem from about $1,300 for a basic pack and up, depending on how you customize it.

For one, for a company in which I've seen more beginner kits than pro kits, this Paragon Maple kit is truly awesome. The maple has has the punchy mids that asre expected of any maple kit of it's design, but I'll get into specs later. The 22" x 18" bass has the perfect boom when tuned high and an ever better "thump" when tuned down. The 8" x 10" and 9" x 12" toms are easy to tune, and provide excellent yet lively tone when tuned high and blend well and attack quickly and strongly when tuned low. The 14" x 12" floor tom was nice a low the way I preferred it with very little to no muffling of the drumhead needed. The 6 1/2" x 14" snare that was provided sounded perfect for rimshots and was easy to tune for that sweet spot any rock drummer goes for. All the drums were fitted with premium Remo heads (Pinstripes for the toms, Coated Emperor heads for snare, and a Powerstork 3 head for the bass). All rack tom scome with Peace's patent-pending L.I.F.T. System proves to be my favorite when it comes to mounts. The finish, which was called "Firestorm" was beautiful...probably one of my favorite finishes on any kit so far. The hardware included a couple of Peace's 800 series boom stands, their 741 series 2-legged high-hat stand and their newest Peace Velocity Dual Chain Double Kick Pedal (one of my all-time favorites).

Hmmm...not a lot from what I saw...seeing the "pearl"-style tom arms being used on the mounts made me think about how a bunch of off-brands have really seemed to cheapen the look of those mounts...they were extremely sturdy on the kit I tried, buit they made me think...Peace dos make other mounts if you want to customize...

The shell composition is 9 ply 100% Canadian Rock Maple - thin, but versitile and strong. This wood choice made Tama's first maple kits (Artstar II and the first of the Starclassic Maples) popular before they switched to 7 ply on their basses and 6 ply on their toms. The quality of these drums is exsquisite...extremely well built and from what I saw, beautifully finished. The hardware was also sturdy, probably up to Pearl and DW levels (I think both are in some cases overrated, depending on product). The pedal was also worry-free...Peace did release a newer, more powerful pedal, under the "velocity Nitro-Kick" name, but that review is sure to come soon.

OVERALL: Peace Drums are highly underrated, almost to the point where it makes me sick. Peace does make a large quantity of beginner drums, but their high-end drums (DNA Standard and Ravenplate, Paragon Stage 1 and Stage 2) haven't been given the chance the deserve to compete with higher line models. Their hardware is also highly underrated...they have a signature pedal line (Peace Velocity and Velocity Nitro-Kick), just like Pearl Eliminator and Tama Iron Cobra. Honestly, give these guys a chance, and check out more on what Peace Drums and Percussion has to offer. I tried them out and love what I heard, and maybe you should, too. Rock on!

Cam rated this unit 5 on 2005-07-23.

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