Tama Cocktail Jam CJB46 4-piece Shell Pack with Snare Drum - Bright Orange Sparkle Reviews

With some coated heads, moon-gels, and a small thin blanket inside the bass drum, (along with the large bass mute pad that comes with it) you can really get a great tight sound with this thing! Works great with bundled dowel sticks too (hot rods). And the setup is soooo insanely dumb easy. It's become my go to for any small or street gigs, as you can pickup 80% of the drumset in ONE TRIP. Get it!

I've been playing drums for 30 years and hung up my sticks a few years back. But just recently, wanted to get back into it. One of the things that caused me to take a break was the thought of lugging and setting up drums at every practice and gig. There's a lot of small kits out there, but for portability and set up time, these take the cake. I would definitely get different heads, I recommend some double ply, Aquarian is what I got and they really sound great on this kit. My only complaint, and it's relatively minor for me, is that the snare release ends up being in between the snare and the rack tom, so not really convenient if you need to use it while playing. Other than that, great little kit!

My second drum set and after some time for adjustments has been a joy to play. I ended up putting rubber washers on everything, also my preferred drum heads, and some Canopus red locks on the snare and it now sounds just like I wanted it to. I had to pay extra to get Sound Focus pad and it was worth it (It is nice that it comes with the drum set now). I'm glad it has turned into my go to drums and I am very surprised by how good the snare works with the set.

I absolutely love this kit. The fit and finish is spot on, edges are perfect, and the orange sparkle wrap looks great! The bags are surprisingly high quality for being included. I have used this kit for home practice, rehearsal with a 7+ piece full volume band, and even mic'ed up live. This kit never fails to perform. With proper heads and tuning this set can be just as loud and full as "standard" sized drums. At first I thought I would have to adjust to the floor tom being above the bass drum but I took to it quickly and prefer it now. Brock, my sweetwater sales guy, was very helpful and friendly. I do not have enough great things to say about these drums and Sweetwater in general.

Great pickup for our acoustic band. Small, easy to set up yet still has great sound when mic'd. You'll need to put a towel or something to dampen the sound in the kick.

I love my cocktail kit, but it has a few quirks that buyers should recognize before purchasing it. The biggest issue is the bass drum: it can produce a satisfying thuddy or boomy tone, but it takes quite a bit of tinkering to get there. The head on the bass drum is fine, but my bass sounded much better after I changed to an Evans EMAD. (A word of caution: the hoop on the bass is a floor tom hoop, so the EMAD bass head won't fit properly. If you go this route, be sure to get the Evans #TT16EMAD head. It fits fine and sounds terrific.) The biggest issue with the kick, though, is how you adjust the pedal and beater. I never got a tone I liked with the felt beater that came with the kit, but I liked the sound a lot when I switched to a TAMA rubber beater. And it took lots of tinkering to get the length and balance on the beater right. I'm happy with how mine works now, but it took me about two weeks to get there. (If you're an old hand instead of a newbie like me, you might get there faster.)

Also worth noting: if you're used to playing a floor tom in the standard position, you'll need to adjust to the tom mounted over the bass. When I sit in a position that feels right for the bass, I have to reach a bit to play the floor tom. It's not a huge problem, but it's worth noting. (At some point I'll probably switch to a regular floor tom and use the tom mounting poles for effects cymbals.)

One last issue: it took me a bit of work to tune and position the kit so the toms and bass didn't make the snare buzz. I think the issue here might be that the toms don't have bottom heads. Anyway, I found a way to position the focus pad so that it cut lots of the buzz without muffling the bass too much. Eventually I got the tuning and positioning set so that I'm really happy with the sound.

Those issues noted, I want to add that there's lots to love about this kit. The construction is impeccable, even the small snare sounds sensational, and it's plenty loud enough to handle lots of situations. So yes, I'd recommend this kit. But be aware that you might have to work with it a bit to get the sound that you want.

I love Sweetwater. They take most of the risk out of buying instruments online. I've worked mostly with Kingsley Davis (on four purchases so far), and he has been terrific.

I've been playing drums for over 20yrs. As we get a bit of years on our bodies, we look to unload the load and eleviate multiple trips to our vehicles to get our equipment. I must admit, i was a bit skeptical on how this kit would sound? I' ve only had it 2 weeks, played one gig and i must say the quality is good and the kit for it's sizes sound really good! The foot print is amazing! I would recommend this kit and product brand. You will have to spend some time to tune it to your liking. Mobility is AWESOME. Thanks TAMA and sweetwater!

The drum set was very good quality. I absolutely loved the color scheme and the finish on everything was gorgeous. Just didn't really like the sound they produced. Everything I did to tweak my experience and improve the sound quality did not work. I wouldn't recommend buying this drum set.