Mapex Venus Drum Set Review

The Mapex Venus Series was a popular kit for beginners that many people played in the late 90s and early 2000s. You may still find some of those original kits around, but the line was discontinued.

Mapex recently reintroduced the line, and it’s marketed to be a good option for beginner drummers. It competes with the likes of the Pearl Roadshow drums and Ludwig Accent kits. 

One of the standout aspects of the Mapex Venus drums is that you can choose between rock and fusion sizes for the shells. The fusion configuration has a 14-inch floor tom and 20” kick drum, and the rock configuration has a 16-inch floor tom and 22-inch kick drum. 

The kit is made with poplar shells, and it includes all the necessary tools you need to start playing drums as soon as you unbox it, including all the mounting hardware and cymbals.

In this Mapex Venus review, we take a deeper look into every aspect of the kit to see if it’s worth buying. 

Mapex Venus Drum Set Gallery

Contents

Mapex Venus Drum Set Ratings

Sounds

4

4/5

Build Quality

4.5

4.5/5

Playability

4

4/5

Value

5

5/5

Finishes

4

4/5

Mapex Venus Drum Set Sound Quality

The Mapex Venus drum shells are made from poplar, which is a type of wood often used for more affordable drum sets. Each shell has nine plies, and the drums give you a decent amount of oomph from the low-end side of things. The tones are fairly balanced across the mids and highs. 

Mapex has included their SONIClear bearing edges in the design of these drums. These are bearing edges that are rounded in a way to allow better contact between the shell and the drumhead. The effect of this design is a wider tuning range and a stronger sound from the drums. 

The cymbals that come with the kit are brass cymbals with some hammering on them. They’re not from any major brands, and they just have Mapex’s badge on them. These cymbals are enough for beginners to get by. However, they’re nothing to write home about. 

Brass cymbals are never great, so you may find yourself upgrading these first before anything else when you get this kit. They’re good for beginners who are learning the ropes, though! Drummers in that phase won’t be too worried about sound quality. 

You’ll be able to get deeper sounds from the rock configuration of this Mapex Venus drum kit. The fusion configuration will sound a bit higher pitched with slightly less resonance from the floor tom and kick drum. 

The reason this kit would only work for beginners is that the drums lack a bit of tonal richness. Intermediate and professional drum kits have a lot more depth in their sound, and you’ll immediately hear the difference if that’s what you’re used to.

Mapex Venus Drum Set Build Quality

Apart from the SONIClear bearing edges, there are a few other interesting features to the Mapex Venus. The first one to note is that it comes with a full set of hardware. All the stands are double-braced at the legs, and you get a boom stand, hi-hat stand, drum throne, and kick drum pedal. 

The kick drum pedal is pretty amazing, as it has a solid base plate and an interchangeable beater with rubber on one side and felt on the other. You won’t find kick drum pedals like this on other entry-level sets, and you can easily use it on higher-end kits as well. 

The included drum throne is great for children and lighter drummers, but you may find it getting uncomfortable if you’re a bit on the heavier side. 

Interestingly, all the drum shells have the Mapex badge on either side of them. This means that the badge can still be displayed proudly on the toms if you decide to rotate and mount them to cymbal stands instead of to the bass drum. However, the bass drum mounting piece is quite thick and sturdy, making it easy to use. 

The build quality of the brass cymbals isn’t too great. They sound a lot better than they feel, and you may find their structure starting to shift after playing them hard. 

Apart from the cymbals, everything about the Mapex Venus feels durable. The original Mapex Venus kit proved to last decades in the right hands. This version will achieve the same. 

Mapex Venus Drum Set Playability

The Mapex Venus is a lot of fun to play. It’s been designed in a way that makes it feel comfortable, and even young children can play it due to the height adjustments being able to be set quite low.

In terms of spacing, the standard drum sizes make the kit feel the same as most other kits, but the hardware choices and sound qualities are uniquely Mapex. 

Something interesting to note is that the boom cymbal stand has a shorter adjustable arm than most other stands. This means that you won’t be able to get as much distance between the cymbal and the rotating point. 

However, this also makes it a lot easier to position the cymbal around the drums. This may only be a bad thing if you plan on mounting other arms to the stand. Otherwise, it’s actually quite ideal. 

With the included kick pedal having a solid base plate, it feels incredibly sturdy. More experienced drummers will feel right at home with it, and it has enough adjustment settings for drummers to dial in their most comfortable settings. 

All the drumheads that come with the kit are made by Remo, but they’re the thinner stock drumheads that come with most entry-level sets. You’ll find that you need to muffle the drums a bit to get a pleasant sound from the drums, but these heads still won’t bring out the greatest tone.

 Swapping them out with high-quality drumheads is recommended. Doing this will make the drum set feel and sound a lot better. It will also make tuning easier. 

Mapex Venus Drum Set Finishes

The Mapex Venus kit has four available finishes to pick from. The kit I have for review is called Aqua Blue Sparkle, which I think looks amazing.

It’s a beach blue color that I find quite resemblant the famous Yamaha Recording Custom Surf Green finish. It’s just a bit darker, and it has a sparkling gloss to it. 

The next available finish is called Black Galaxy Sparkle. The shells here are purely black with a hint of shininess. This is an excellent finish for drummers that want a kit that looks smart and will fit in any color scheme. 

The Blue Sky Sparkle finish is a lot darker than the Aqua Blue. It blends a bit more into the environment where the kit is sitting. 

Lastly, the Crimson Red Sparkle finish is quite striking. It has a dark red color that draws a bit of attention but won’t draw as much attention as the Aqua Blue finish. All the available finishes look incredible, and the choices here cater to a wide variety of drummers.

Mapex Venus Drum Set Value

The value of the Mapex Venus is what puts it in the spotlight. The best way to measure this is by comparing it to kits from other brands that also come with hardware and cymbals. Compared to all of those, the Venus comes out as the most affordable option. 

The only popular kit that costs slightly less is the PDP Complete Junior Set. However, that kit is specifically designed for children, and the tones aren’t as great as the ones from the Venus. 

The other two closely competing sets are the Pearl Roadshow and Ludwig Accent. The Accent costs a few dollars more than the Venus fusion configuration, but it costs a bit less than the Venus rock configuration. I’d say that the Venus is the winner here, considering that it has more setup options and a few higher-quality design features. 

The Pearl Roadshow costs around the same as the Venus, but only the version with a single rack tom. You’ll get more drums for a similar price when choosing the Mapex Venus. The 5-piece Roadshow costs $100 more, putting it into a whole different pricing category. 

You get excellent value for money with the Mapex Venus. The included hardware is good enough to use for future kits that you may buy, and the high-quality kick drum pedal is a standout feature.

Although the cymbals aren’t amazing, they’re decent enough for beginner drummers to learn with, so a new drummer won’t have to purchase any extras when buying the kit. The Mapex Venus even comes with a pair of drumsticks to get you started. 

Verdict

After checking out all that is offered, it seems as though the Mapex Venus drum kit is one of the top entry-level drum set options. The poplar drum shells are expected in a kit in this category, but it’s pleasantly surprising that Mapex has introduced their SONIClear bearing edges for a kit that is so affordable. 

The brass cymbals aren’t incredible, but at least they have a bit of hammering to produce acceptable tones. They sound a lot better than other brass cymbals that haven’t been hammered, giving them a bit of an edge over the cymbals included with the competing entry-level drum sets. 

The bass drum pedal is the best part of the included hardware, and the shorter boom arm from the cymbal stand is something that many drummers don’t realize the benefit of until they have one. 

Overall, it’s an amazing kit for new drummers. If you’re a bit more experienced and you get this kit, you’ll need to swap out the cymbals and upgrade the drumheads.