Hello,

A church wants to buy drums and a bass guitar. Something decent but not that expensive. The drummer thinks that real set is the real deal. However, I was thinking of electronic set. It might be more versatile and portable. I do not know anything about bass guitars. Any recommendation or advice will be greatly appreciated. thanks.

If the church is on a budget, I would suggest a Yamaha DP series set (around $600) or a Yamaha Stage Custom (around $900) set. A good Roland V drum set costs thousands of dollars and you need a good sound system.
If they want to spend around $400.00 for a bass, the fender standard Jazz or Precision are always a good choice. You get an American made body and neck and it is assembled in Mexico. It saves a lot of money but you get good quality. Yamaha also makes fine basses. When you have unlimited budget, there are many over $1000.00 instruments, but these are good general choices.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

sk880user,
George knows what is best to buy and he won't
do you wrong!
But speaking from experence if your putting these drums in a church! Get the electronic
ones. If you use regular drums you have to mute them some way! With the electronic drums
you have complete control of the sound level.
The drummer can really get with it at times without getting to loud!
When you play soft worship music he can blend
right in! Electronic! Much better choice!
My Opinion!
All The Best,
Nobby

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Our church just recently went through the same experience with the drums. Acoustic or electronic drums ?

From technical standpoint, it is an easier decision.
1) If you got large areas and lots of people (>100) then the acoustic is acceptable. Although I'm not saying that electric is not acceptable. I personally prefer electric drums over acoustic because of versality and control. You can change the sounds for various styles and not have to worry about hitting them too hard for certain fast styles.

2) If you have small space or less people then electronic drums is the only choice that makes sense. You can easily control the volume. One can argue that the he/she can control how loud they hit the acoustic drums. But when they got excited, the volume will be unbearable and drown out everything else. It is a sound system nightmare. The electronic drums excel in the cymbal dept. because it will produce a nice crash even at lower volumes. With the real cymbals, that is almost impossible. The only acceptable crash sound can only be produced by hitting the cymbals at a certain power level.

However, there are human factors to consider. Sometimes, you got players who will not play if you ask them to play electronic drums.
1) Player feel: acoustic is clearly superior. Almost all the players prefer acoustic over electronic.
2) Player morale: they may not enjoy playing electronic drums especially one with small pads. The V-drums are nice though.

At our church, we started out with electric drum since we only had 20-30 people at the most at our service. Then someone donated an acoustic drum. Our drummer was so excited and immediately switch. It turned out that the drums sound overpowered the keyboard player and the singers. It really distracted us. But he wouldn't switch back to electric after enjoying the acoustic feel and we have a problem. After some time of enduring the acoustic drum, somehow the situation changed and forced the drummer to use the electronic drums. What a relief that was for many of us !! Now everything is nice and balance.

Thank you all for the comments.

Funny I guess it's going around. My church recently switched to electonic drums also. I forget what the name is. Even though they aren't awesome sounds, they are decent and made running the sound a whole lot easier for our crew.

Before that they tried all kinds of things with the acoustics. An elaborate drum shield was built around the drums that kept getting bigger and bigger. Without it everything was drowned out and even with it the cymbals would feed right into the singer's mics. The result was drums that were never the right level and impossible to control. It was also deafening for the drummers behind the shield. As a keyboard player I don't miss it.

Electronics are also better I think because they are more versatile and we do a lot of different styles.

You have to face it! In a church you have to control the level of the drums.
It's not easy for a drummer to hold back!
If he does he's not as sharp & right on the beat! It's really just a feel you have when every thing is right! I can't explain it, but all of you who have played music much, know what I mean! I don't care what instrument you play, if you have to hold back your not playing your best! And your hearts not in it!!
Just my Opinion,
Nobby

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[This message has been edited by Nobby (edited 05-16-2002).]

I hate to see someone else having to go through the same thing as we did in our church. This acoustic vs electronic drums can potentially be a BIG issue from our recent experience at the church.

Some of the negative effects:
-It can drive people out of the church since the acoustic volume level can become too loud for some to stand. However, there will be some who like the drums sound so much that will try to keep the acoustics.
-Disharmony: because the acoustic volume level is difficult to control, the other members such as instrument players or singers can become frustrated and even leave the group. Or the sound man will get harrased a lot by others for failing to balance the sounds and gets frustrated.
-Not sounding good: the drummer may get intimidated or afraid from playing too loud and become timid in their playing style. The result: BAD drum playing. You can't have a good expressive drum playing when the drummer is afraid to hit too loud or hesitate.

Also, it is important to note that several sessions are needed to judge whether the acoustic drums can work. Sometimes, if everything is just right, the acoustics will sound great. But then at other times, I feel I just want to get out of the room. However, with the electric drums, it was never a big issue. If it's too big, the sound man can just turn it down. Easy !

It is very important that the pastor or the person in charge of the music or the decision makers knows and aware of these issues before making the big investment that they will regret later.

I recommend to buy the equipment that has 30 day money back guarantee. You can then try them out without risk. Or borrow from someone to try them out. For electric drums: you can spend below $1000 (Multipad unit) and get a good sounding system although they are not as good of a feel as the system with individual drum pads. I bought a cheap YAMAHA DD50 for $99.00 and it sounds OK.

This is interesting. It's a very common problem evidently. And it's another reason for the increasing number of Arranger-type pianos in churchs. With something like a Clavinova, or a true arranger, the keyboard player controls the drums. An added advantage is that ALL parts can be sequenced ahead of time in case one or more band members can't be present every time. The drummer can then be in charge of passing the collection plate. He can use a tamborine.
Please forgive me, I know not what I say.
DonM

All of this is very interesting,

what electronic drum set is recommended then. I am looking for something decent but affordable. Something on a budget...