PEARL MASTERS SERIES BCX DRUM KIT

ROCK STAR LOOKS

The new BCX fea­tures the ever present Pearl 6ply, 7.5 mm shell in a Birch tim­ber – offer­ing a great alter­na­tive to the reg­u­lar maple. The fun doesn’t stop there though. You get the choice of three strik­ing fin­ishes includ­ing a Golden Bronze Glit­ter (which I sam­pled), Sil­ver Glit­ter and a frankly cool, Lava Bub­inga. Other fea­tures include Mas­ter­Cast die-cast hoops, Opti­Mount Sus­pen­sion Sys­tem, 100% Birch Bass drum hoops, moulded rub­ber gas­kets and Remo heads as stan­dard. There are three basic con­fig­u­ra­tions avail­able includ­ing 20”/10”/12”/14” or 22”/10”/12”/16” Fusion/Fusion+ packs and a 22”/12”/13”/16” Rock pack. Fur­ther­more, besides choos­ing either a 14×5.5” or 14×6.5” snare drum, there are loads of other sizes avail­able for all drums. The kit I tried fea­tures some truly gob-smacking sizes for some seri­ous pres­ence – try a 24×18” Bass Drum, 13×9” Rack Tom, 16×16” and 18×18” Floor Toms with a 14×6.5” snare drum.

Does the BCX look the biz? Hell yes.

Did I feel like a rock star? You bet.

WHO NEEDS MICS?

I’m not going to beat around the bush. This kit was epic. It could just be the sizes I tried that com­pletely floored me, but this kit sounded mic’d up. The bass drum had instant response and more vol­ume than I ever imag­ined it could, just enor­mous and very full, with heaps of low-end. You can feel it in your chest. The toms, too, were ridicu­lous. It took me a bit to tune these big­ger drums but when I found a sweet spot, there was loads of pro­jec­tion and so much pres­ence. They just smack you in the face. The snare too, was super cool – the 6.5” depth allow­ing for some low-end to come through at any tun­ing range. This kit had Remo Clear Emper­ors on the toms and an ambas­sador on the snare. I loved the snare, but would prob­a­bly look at either some damp­en­ing or thicker heads for the toms. That said; if you’re good at tun­ing, you’ll be fine with these drums. Big­ger is phatter!

There’s an over­whelm­ing sense of qual­ity about this BCX. From the fin­ish to the hard­ware and fit­tings, it looks and feels expen­sive, and this is per­haps the sur­prise about this kit. It’s actu­ally not that expen­sive for a kit in this cat­e­gory. In fact it’s great value. To get in the game you’re look­ing at a smidge over $2000. I think this is a great kit but for that price it’s actu­ally slam­ming. This could be a seri­ous work­horse for some drum­mers. I like the warmth and depth the Birch gives and (par­tic­u­larly in big­ger sizes) how punchy the drums are. If you like drums, you’ll dig the BCX unques­tion­ably. If you’re a real fan of Pearl drums, you’ll love the BCX.