Welcome to

Nottingham University Conference was the venue for this years Pearl day. I managed to get there on time, despite the highway maintenance service’s hard efforts to slow my journey to a near halt.

Greated by the warm welcoming staff of Pearl I marched myself straight to the main event; the products. Wall to wall of some of the most stunning kits available. A new era of Pearl drums is upon us.

Very, very soon all the new kits and configurations will be available from PlayRecord.Net so keep checking the site for updates. To keep you satisfied till then, let me tantalize you with a run-down of the Pearl range and their unique features.

Masterworks
With no assembly line boundaries and no mass production compromises, Masterworks offers all that is possible to the end user = You!
Every drum is designed by you, and hand built to your spec one drum at a time. Shell thickness and composition, to exterior finish and hardware plating. You can even choose a combination of woods for each individual hand crafted drum. Taking it that one step even farther, Pearl will even match and duplicate colours that you submit, so say you want your kit to match the colour of your favourite pair of trainers or maybe your Aston Martin…you can!

Reference
To fully understand the Reference series you need to accept that the desired tonal characteristics of a rack tom are completely different than that of a bass drum, and to make these drums with the same composition would result in compromise. The result of this knowledge is a perfect sounding drum set where every drum is optimally engineered to produce the best sound possible wihtin its tonal range and diameter. The Reference series ‘Recipe’ consists of optimised shell composition, optimised bearing edges and optimised thickness.

Masters Premium
Pearl Masters series like the Export series is another well know name and has been for years by all in the trade from roadies to uber-producers. The Masters sound is synonymous with legends like Dennis Chambvers and jeff Pocaro. Masters Premium offers the discerning player precission, beauty, innovation and options. This special order series is available in your choice of 4 ply or 6 ply 100% Maple or 100% Birch shells, top end features from the Masterworks/Reference series include bass drum spurs, claws, floor tom legs and brackets. All Masters Premium kits feature the new innovative ‘Golden-Ratio’ air vents for improved low end response on toms and bass drums and improved attack on snare drums. This is an idea not used before in the drum world.

Masters MCX
Featuring the same Masters quality drum hardware and 6 ply Maple shells as its big brother the Masters Premium (MRP). Thr MCX range offers a select number of UV lacquer finishes and one drum hardware option. Four lacquer finishes and three “glass glitter” wrapped finishes with real glass flakes!
Standard features include Masters optimounts, spurs, floor tom brackets and MaterCast Die-Cast hoops.

Vision / VMX / VBX / VSX & VX /
The legendary Export series spent 20 years as the the number one selling drum kit i the world. Now, we have Vision. Pearl have taken all the lessons learnt from the long success of the Export and brought out a kit that far exceeds it.
With the new Vision range you get more choice than ever. Starting with the Vision VMX you get 100% Maple shells with matching 6 ply 100% Maple snare drum. 9 standard shell configurations are on offer which is more than any other drum manufacturer has ever done. This is a shell pack only kit, no hardware is concluded. Available in 5 exclusive High-Gloss lacquer finishes.

Next up is the Vision VBX. Using 100% Birch shells this time for its focused naturally EQ’d sound. 9 standard configurations available like the VMX giving the modern drummer more choice than ever. VBX come with professional two-ply heads as standard and the muched-loved sensi-tone steel snare.

Last on this list are the VSX & VX sets. These feature blendid birch shells with 6/8 shell technology; using 6 plies on rack toms and 8 plies on floor toms and the bass drum to deliver a dynamically balanced sound. Both the VSX and VX come with a brushed Steel SensiTone snare and award winning 900 series hardware. VSX offers 6 ultra-high exotic wrapped coverings, the VX offers 6 solid colour wrap options.

I saw all of these kits up close and personal, and the qualtiy of each kit sets the bar for all the other brands out there. Never before has there been so much choice and personalization available. Even with the Vision series you now get 9 different configs, thats a lot to choose from. And don’t forget, from Masterworks to the Forum all the shells get built using the same advanced technology not used on any other kits….This is an exciting time for drummers, keep checking PlayRecord for new ranges of Pearl drums

……time to start saving them pennies me thinks.