Ludwig LC2791 Breakbeats by Questlove 4-Piece Drum Set Shell Pack, Black Sparkle

I've been drumming for very many years and I have always loved the sound that can be attained with Ludwig drum kits. Unlike other kits and this particular size configurations and price range this kit is NOT designed for the simple kids jamming. This kit does very well for any type jamming that you might want to do. It has all of the attributes that Ludwig drums are famous for. I've been using this kit for 2 years now and I find no weaknesses at all with it. I am a terror for tone and playability considerations. This kit fits the bill.

I purchased the Ludwig Breakbeats kit in beutiful black sparkle. All three wraps look nice, but the black is subtle and classy. Great look under stage lights.The small size of this kit makes it easy to move to/from gigs. Small size does not mean small sound! The bass has a huge sound for a 16 Inch drum. The toms are fitted with remo pinstripes and sing with nice fat tone. Ludwig supplied a full sized 14 inch snare which is warm, "woody" and versatile. The tom mount is placed a little far forward for my taste. It does have an aux mount that saves hauling a cymbal stand for the ride cymbal. That's a very nice touch.@$400 this kit is a great value. My only complaint is that the finish work was sloppy and I had to clean glue residue off the small tom left by the assembly workers. That was a disappointment but Goo Gone saved the day. All in all though this kit is a great value and perfect for those hauling their own gear to small and medium sized venues.

These are way better than expectations. I am surprised. I upgraded the stock heads and put them with some top quality cymbals and it's a great kit.

Not happy with the Black Sparkle not as nice as expected color cheap looking wish I had gotten the blue or white sparkle. My Granddaughter wanted some drums so bad that I can't send them back now, it's like trying take a meaty beef bone from a big hungry dog. She won't realize the black sparkle flake is bogus for a few years to come...

I'd give it 4.5 stars for what Ludwig set out to accomplish & they did a damn fine job.

Excellent, versatile kit. Great sound all around.

I own this in Azure Sparkle, but fell totally in love with this black sparkle finish. This one looks beautiful under lights and the finish looks like a starry night in the southern latitudes.Looks, though are not only subjective, but not as important as sound and this kit is surprisingly big sounding for its size. It has a wider tuning range than I expected - you can tune it bebop high to a lower end thump.The toms and bass drum have a wonderful lower fundamental that is partly from the basswood from which the shells are made and partly from the roundover on the bearing edges. Ludwig uses 45 degree edges, but have rounded them to limit attack and provide a lower pitch sound. However, you can tune the bass and toms from bebop high to super low. I was surprised by the wide tuning range. More importantly the 13x13 floor tom is super easy to dial in. It's one of the few square drums I have come across that is not a chore to tune. By square I mean that the depth and diameter are the same.The snare drum is better than I expected from a drum kit priced at about what one would pay for a semi-pro snare drum along. Not horrible, not great. I tweaked mine with a few tricks and can live with it. I can provide instructions to anyone who is interested (my contact info is in my profile.)I do not use the included riser because it changes the relative geometry of your beater to bass drum head. Frankly I think risers are a waste of time anyway. Just attach your pedal directly to the hoop and use the riset for a paperweight. The center post tom mount is not only very functional, but it has a clamp opposite the tom mount that allows you to mount a ride cymbal directly off your bass drum. This eliminates a stand, lightening your load and reducing the footprint of the kit. I am using a Tama Cymbal Holder 12 Inch that allows me to mount a 22" ride.I did not like the batter beads at all, but the music I play is best with heads that resonate. If you use moongel or other dampening techniques then you may find them to be adequate. For me the set came alive using Remo coated ambassadors on both the batter and resonant sides of the toms and the bass drum. Heads are a personal choice, so experiment.Overall this is a wonderful drum kit that is priced incredibly low. The size may put some folks off, but it sounds great and you can always mic them if you do not think you are high enough in the mix.

This is an excellent sounding kit, especially considering the price and the overall size. And it is very easy to setup and transport.You may not be happy with how it sounds when you first take it out of the package and assemble. The shells and the factory heads are not decent, but they do require some effort to achieve good quality sound. I planned to use this as a bop kit for jazz gigs, so my plan was to change the snare head as well as the tom heads anyway. After replacing the heads with textured ones and spending some time on tuning, the toms sound great, certainly good enough for use as a bop kit for jazz gigs. I even used this kit for recording and the results were surprisingly good. When tuned up, the little you can almost get that conga sound from the little tom.I was thinking of replacing the snare, but after putting an Aquarian TC14 head on it, it does sound very good and it has excellent dynamics. You may want to replace the snare wires depending on your taste, but the factory wires work OK for me.Even for a bop kit, I was not able to tune the bass drum to achieve the tone I prefer with the factory heads. I replaced the batter head with an Evans EMAD and the resonant head with an Aquarian Regulator with a port and now it has as good a tone and dynamics. I can't imagine you could get any more from a 16" bass drum.The entire kit (plus my two hardware bags containing cymbal stands, throne, etc.) fits on a micro Rock-n-Roller cart, so the whole kit is very transportable. The setup is quick and requires a very small footprint (in terms of both width and depth) so it's perfect for gigs where stage space is limited. It is also a perfect practice kit if you have a small space.