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Today I’m going to review the The Ludwig Breakbeats drum-set. I’ve been playing this set for several years now so I have quite a bit to say about these drums.
The Ludwig Breakbeats drum-set was designed by Questlove. Questlove is the drummer for the Roots band. They are the house band for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
He designed this set to be very portable but yet high quality. That’s exactly the reason I bought the set. Prior to purchasing the Breakbeats set I played a classic Ludwig set with a standard 22” bass drum.
The set comes with Remo pinstripe heads. These are thick heads and are great for most styles of music including rock and funk. They give you a very warm and controlled sound.
For the last few years I’ve played nothing but acoustic jazz. For that genre of music you usually want thin heads which are very sensitive to the touch. So I actually replaced the pinstriped heads with Evans 1 ply heads. As you can tell by watching the video, these heads sound great on the Breakbeats set for this style of music.
When my group plays something more contemporary, like a funky jazz piece, I sometimes use zero ring mufflers to give the toms and snare a more controlled sound. Again as you can tell by the video the toms sound great.
I’m using an Omar Hakim signature snare rather than the one that came with the kit. The snare that comes with the kit is ok but not great, at least not for acoustic jazz. For other styles like rock you might like it just fine. Check out the video to hear what it sounds like.
The bass drum is 16” x 14” which isn’t unusual for a small acoustic jazz kit, but is quite small compared with a standard 22” bass found on most rock sets. Again I’ve changed the head on mine so it sounds more like a jazz bass drum, but it’s quite punchy with the Pinstripe head it came with. The size works fine for situations when you don’t need or want a lot of volume. If you’re playing a community festival, or in any situation where it’s a bit louder you will want to mic the bass drum, because it is quite a bit quieter than a standard 22” bass drum.
The ludwig breakbeats kit is a great choice for any beginning drummer whether an adult or child. They’re not too small for an adult and they’re not to big a set for a little kid. They are much better quality than all the junior drum-sets they sell for little kids.
The disadvantage for a beginner is the price. At the time of this video they sell for about $469. That doesn’t include any cymbals, stands or other hardware. That’s just for the drums themselves. So they’re very high quality but not the cheapest way for a beginner to get started.
They are a great choice for professional drummers who want something versatile and compact. They are good enough quality to record with and still very affordable.
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