a complete set of            individually engineered, incredible sounding drums!

The Review

When I first heard about Pearl’s Reference series drum kit, I could not wait to see it in real life! The more I read about it the more sense it made - one drum kit consisting of individual engineered drums, each made to sound incredible in it’s own capacity.

Since drums were made, they were made out of one composition of wood, and for decades many trees were the experiment in the search for the best tonal quality. Through the years three time proven woods:  Birch, Maple, and African Mahogany were chosen to be the DNA of the revolutionary Pearl Reference drum kit.

The vision

It makes sense that the tonal characteristics of a tom-tom are completely different than that of a bass drum. Therefore each drum needs to have a unique design in order to produce the desired tonal result. This is exactly what they accomplished – ‘A complete set of individually engineered, incredible sounding drums!’

A quick summary on the DNA

The 8” and 10“ tom-toms have 4 plies of Maple and 2 inner plies of Birch for more cut and attack. The 12” tom-tom is the perfect composition of 6 plies of Maple. All 13” toms and smaller has a rounded 45° bearing edge for cutting attack and projection. Beginning with the 13" tom and larger, Mahogany gets added to the recipe as inner plies to increase the lower frequencies. The 14" tom and larger has a rounded bearing edge for more shell contact. The 18" and 20" bass drums have 2 outer plies of Maple and 4 inner plies. All 22" and 24" bass drums have 6 inner plies of Mahogany and 2 outer plies of Maple for solid responsive bass frequencies.

The Snare Drum

With 14 plies of Maple and six inner plies of Birch you can only imagine the cut and crack of this snare. In terms of weight its heavy but worth every drop of sweat! The 45 degree bearing edge is the perfect ingredient to a well focused snare drum. 

Ideally for….

….everything! This kit was designed to accommodate all genres. I would say it is ideal for the bigger venue, not taking away its perfect sensitivity, articulation and focused cut. This kit is what you want it to be!

Tuning

The vintage bearing edge brings a new dynamic to tuning the kit. The bearing edge has much more contact with the head which results in more resonance and sustain. The hardware on the bass drum and toms are extraordinary. The tension rods align perfectly from the hoop into the lug which makes tuning a dream.

The configuration and color

There are 5 basic configurations selected from a wide range of perfect designed drums.
Nr 1:  10”/8”, 12”/9”, 14”/14”, 22”/18”
Nr 2:  10”/8”, 12”/9”, 14”/12”, 22”/18”
Nr 3: 10”/8”, 12”/9”, 14”/14”, 20”/16”
Nr 4: 10”/8”, 12”/9”, 16”/16”, 22”/18”
Nr 5: 12”/9”, 13”/10”, 16”/16”, 22”/18”
Extraordinary colors for an extraordinary kit. My favorite color is Arctic white with black hardware. Like everything in life, its either right or wrong, there’s no grey area….

Difference between the Pearl Reference and other top end brands

The composition of wood is one thing but thicknesses have been a debate since the first drum was made, which only make sense to do some research on. For a lower frequency or floor tom to project as much as a higher frequency or smaller tom-tom the floor tom needs to be thicker than the smaller diameter tom-tom. Pearl has found that recipe, with 6 plies on the rack toms and 8 plies on the floor toms and bass drums - which create an incredible balanced sound.

The Pearl reference is certainly the most acoustically advanced kits available. There is no other brand that caters more for the needs of a modern drummer. I’m sure it is a dream come true for all of us to have a team of engineers teaming up with some of today’s greats to design a drum kit for us to play and enjoy. If I can summarize this kit in a few words it would be; extremely focused, everything you want in every individual drum, ready to be played!

I dare you – play it!