I review products independently and only recommend products I would use myself. If you purchase through a link, I may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.
If you’ve never heard of DrumCraft, you should definitely check the brand out. They offer a decent range of drum kits for drummers of different levels, with the Drumcraft Series 6 being the top-line set.
While it’s not as well-known as kits from major brands, the DrumCraft Series 6 easily competes with them. In this review, I’ll explain all the features of this kit that make it great. I’ll also compare it to a few kits from other brands to give you a better idea of how it squares up.
DrumCraft Series 6 Drum Set
Key Features
- Hybrid maple/walnut shells
- Brushed nickel hardware
- Slim ZGM zero-gravity tom mounts
- Standard 5-piece setup
- Satin Natural finish
92/100
DrumCraft Series 6 Drum Set Gallery
Sound Quality
The DrumCraft Series 6 has hybrid shells that mix maple and walnut. Each shell has four walnut exterior plies and four interior maple plies, giving you strong 8-ply drum shells that demonstrate an intensely rich tone.
Another drum kit line that immediately comes to mind is the Mapex Saturn, and I’d say that these drums resemble those quite closely in how they sound.
There’s something special about hybrid shells, as you get unique sounds that can’t be replicated by drums that only use a single shell material.
The fundamental tones of each drum are quite warm and resonant. The sounds are balanced, and they sing beautifully when you strike the drums in the center.
However, the walnut plies tend to add a bit of punch, making the toms sound slightly livelier than drums that purely have maple shells. Each drum shell’s incredible attack adds a lot of excitement to the setup.
They record well under microphones, but the boosted punchiness leads them to sound really effective on a live stage too.
When trying this kit out, I was very impressed with how easy the drums were to tune. Middle rack toms are often quite tricky to get right, but this one just sang so nicely without much effort. The rest of the drums were even easier to make sound good.
Build Quality
The first thing that most drummers notice about the hardware of this kit is how good the brushed nickel looks. All the mounts, rims, rods, and lugs are brushed nickel, and it makes the kit look incredibly pristine.
All of these components also work really well together to give you excellent performance from the shells.
DrumCraft has tom mounts called the Slim ZGM zero gravity mounts. These look very similar to the YESS mounts that you’ll find on Yamaha drum kits.
For the DrumCraft Series 6 kit, these mounts attach to cymbal stands, giving you a virgin bass drum that you can move freely. The mounts have brackets that attach to the toms, and then you have ball-and-socket joints to angle them in different positions.
I’m a huge fan of these tom mounts, as they feel both sturdy and highly maneuverable. You get a bit of wobbling from the toms, but not so much that it feels irritating. The YESS mounts still seem to be the gold standard for stopping tom wobble, but these come pretty close.
The lug design is another thing worth mentioning here. Drumcraft shells have large rectangular lugs that look very bold. It’s the one feature that lets you see straight away that you’re looking at a DrumCraft kit.
You get split lugs on the toms and bass drum, while the tension rods connect to single lugs on the snare drum.
Overall, I love the build quality of this kit, and I think it easily competes with the hardware designs from competing kits from other brands.
Versatility
With the drums being so easy to tune, I can see how they could be quite versatile. They’ll sound fantastic when you need low and booming tones for styles like rock and worship. They’ll sound just as good when you tune them high and resonating for a jazzy vibe.
I was highly impressed with the tuning range from the snare drum. Typically, drum kits in this price range don’t come with snare drums. If they do, they’re really not the greatest options out there.
The included Series 6 snare drum had amazing crack to it when tuned high. It sounded bright and powerful when playing rimshots, and the overtones were easily controllable.
It sounds relatively decent when tuned low. You just need to put a bit of dampening on it to lower a few unwanted tones.
Finish
The kit that I played on had the Satin Natural finish. I really love this finish, and I think it makes the drum kit look a lot pricier than it actually is.
Natural wood satin finishes are usually a lot lighter on mid-priced kits. You’ll find darker options on high-end kits like the Tama Star and DW Collector’s Series.
So, the fact that the natural finish has a dark color means that this kit is a lot more enticing than many others if you’re purely looking at aesthetics.
The other finish options are Satin Black to Vivid Blue Fade, Satin Black to Red Fade, Black to Purple Sparkle, Satin Black, and Scottish White Burst.
Those finishes look great, but I’ll firmly say that the Satin Natural finish looks the best. If you’re looking to buy this kit, that’s the finish I recommend getting.
Value
I’m really impressed with the value that this drum kit offers. It’s slightly more affordable than kits like the Mapex Saturn and Pearl Masters, but it offers very similar features and build quality.
It also sounds just as good as those drum kits when you tune it well. So, it’s arguably a better option if you’re not someone that likes to stick with big brand names.
I appreciate how the kit comes with a snare drum, while most other kits in this price range don’t.
The version of the DrumCraft Series 6 we’re looking at is the standard version, meaning it has a 22” bass drum. You can get the 20” bass drum studio version for a slightly lower price, or the 18” bass drum jazz version for a much lower price.
You get incredible German engineering here, and I think these drums are well worth every cent you pay for them. I’d still think that they’re worth it if they cost a bit more.
Verdict
The only downside of the DrumCraft Series 6 kit is that it comes from a relatively unknown drum brand. It means that the kit may not be readily available if you live somewhere outside of Europe.
However, I highly recommend making a plan to ship it over to you if you love how it looks and sounds. This is truly an amazing drum set, and it’s one that will sound fantastic in recording studios and on live stages.
It’s a working drummer’s kit, but it costs a bit less than other popular options like the Pearl Masters. The fact that it has a beautiful Satin Natural finish is another reason to get it!
What Comes In The DrumCraft Series 6 Drum Set Box?
- 14” x 6.5” snare
- 10” x 7” rack tom
- 12” x 8” rack tom
- 16” x 14” floor tom
- 22” x 18” kick
- Tom Mounts
DrumCraft Series 6 Drum Set At A Glance
Pros
- Impressive visual quality from the brushed nickel hardware and satin finish shells
- Hybrid walnut/maple drum shells offer warm and resonant tones with a good amount of punch
- Hardware is very easy to adjust
- Excellent value for money
Cons
- DrumCraft drums are lesser-known, so it may be hard to buy this kit in certain parts of the world