Drum Buying “CHECK LIST”

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Okay boys and girls…  here it is, the official How To Buy Drums “CHECK LIST”. I have used this with many of my students and everyone of them have found it a tremendous help when purchasing their latest and greatest piece of gear. Before you dive in, allow me a moment to explain how I have designed this to work…

The first thing I want you to do when you click on the pdf is print it out and at the top where it has a place for your budget, fill it in…

I want you to do it now, before you start looking at all the new goodies and convince yourself to increase your budget. After you have set a solid budget, begin to research each section to determine what will meet your needs and stay within that budget.

What do you mean by research? What I mean by research is to spend some time online to see what certain items are going for. You can look at national chains like Guitar Center or Sam Ash to get a target price. I would also recommend checking out ebay. Many of the people selling on ebay are companies that have opened online ebay stores.

With at least three sources you will have a firm grasp on what each item should go for. This way when you walk into your local music shop you will know instantly if you are getting a decent quote or if they are trying to make their monthly commission off of you in one shot.

After you have performed your due diligence with each item, use the boxes to the right of the page  under the heading “Your Notes” to write down information such as prices, sizes, product numbers, brand names, etc. This way when you get to the music shop, you can implement one of the most powerful tools you will have at your disposal… THE PRICE MATCH!

If the salesperson can see you have done your homework, he or she will have a hard time justifying trying to charge you a higher price. If he or she insists on trying to charge you the higher price… LEAVE! In my experience this means they are in no way interested in actually helping you enter the world of music.

Why pay higher prices when you could order anything from the national stores online. At this point you can use the local shop to give everything a test run, so go ahead and beat up on their stuff and then tell them you want to “think about it”! Then go home and order the cheaper one.

The whole point of the CHECK LIST is that you should be able to hand it to the salesman when you enter the store and tell him or her that this is what you want and this is the budget you are working with, can you make it happen? If he or she offers different equipment, you have more than enough information between the article and the CHECK LIST to determine if the suggested alternative is comparable to what you want.

Now, spend some time to really do your homework and I promise you will end up with a drum set that will stay in your budget and fulfill your needs when you are starting out. After you have gone through the process, I would love for you to send me a picture of your new set up and how the CHECK LIST worked for you.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon,

Chris

Click Here To Download The Checklist