Whether you own or are planning to buy a single drum or an entire drum kit,you need to properly check them out. The obvoius is are all the parts there? Are there any non-factory parts? Are there any extra holes? Were any modifications done? Was this a factory drum kit or pieced together by an individual or company? Do all the badges match? Do all the drums match? What is the condition of the finish?

The MOST important thing on a drum is the bearing edge. The bearing edge is where the drum head actually touches the drum shell. And the MOST important thing about a bearing edge is the drum being flat (some call it being "square"). You can check the drums yourself:

Take all the heads & hoops off--place the drum an a good countertop--make the room dark--place a flashlight inside-if you can see any light escaping,then the bearing edge on your drum is not flat. How can you place a flat piece of plastic (a drumhead) on something that is not flat and hope to tune it well?

If you determine that your drum has bad bearing edges,you need to find a good drum repair technician (myself included) to recut your edges. When the edges are true,the drum can produce all the sound that is in it.It will be louder,fuller and have more resonance. The sound of a drum can be altered my changing the bearing edge.                  NOTE---The angle of a bearing edge DOES NOT MATTER!  The 2 things that do matter is the drum being flat and how much wood touches the drumhead. If you are playing in a church or a low volume setting and your drums are too loud, they can be made to be quieter by cutting the edge so that more wood is touching the head. Once you head the difference that a good bearing edge makes, you will have a hard time playing any drum kit that has bad edges. A drum or drum kit with good edges has more projection-more resonance-a fuller sound-is easier to tune-heads last longer and they record and mic up better.

A drums sound can also be altered by what is on the shell on the interior.Is there any type of sealer-paint-polyurethane or oil? All of these can affect the sound in different ways.

It does not matter what brand or price range or if the drum came from a major company or a custom drum shop or if the drum is 5 days old-5 years old or 50 years old--it can still have bad bearing edges. Check your drums and see if YOU have any bad edges. Have one drum recut and hear the difference.