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[Maple v.s. Birch]


Lockjaw

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I'm with 88fingers on this one. In the instances when I can tell the difference, I simply liked the sound of birch better than I did maple for most drum applications.

 

Granted, I've heard a few maple kits that had me think hard about it, but it wasn't quite enough to switch.

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First of all, it all depends. So many factors influence a drums sound: thickness of shells, heads, tuning, depths of shells, covered/laquered, mounting system, etc. I could answer this question if I played two sets that were identical in terms of all those factors except for that one is birch and one is maple, but I have not. And I'm sure that many people in this forum have not either. Therefore I cant say that birch is better just because I hear people say it is "naturally EQ'd", and I also cant say that maple is better just because people say that it is the standard for top of the line sets. All I know is that I play a maple kit right now and I love it.

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Some mounts like the Star-Cast mounts, hold the shell by the rim and not by the shell itself.. It lets the drum move freely and resonate better. If its mounted by the shell itself, it stops it from letting out its full potential tone in a way. So in the end, some mounts make drums sound better or worse.

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Not really played much in the way of maple , but I've played my yamaha 9000 birch kit for years, and I couldn't want for a warmer more gorgeous tone. Having said that, David garibaldi's maple yamaha kit on one of his videos sounded really nice too and I was hard pushed to hear much difference.

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Well, my kit is called the recording custom, so it appears to be designed for the studio. However, it sounds good to me both live and in the studio. Personally, I would say take it all with a pinch of salt. You buy a kit for the sound you want, and that's the sound you take into the studio.

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I have two maple and two birch kits each of thicker and thinner shell design. Both birch kits project more low end and both maple kits project more of the mid range and lower mid range frequencies. Both have nearly the same high end attack and clarity. I think the biggest differences are the aforementioned attributes.

 

I like them both for different reasons too, but if I had to choose one over the other it would be the birch sound because it sounds deeper through mics and tends to have a little more clarity in its tone. (read: is not as muddy sounding as maple is at times)

 

As far as versatility, I can make both birch and maple sound like each other with certain tunings and head changes however the birch kits are the most chameleon-like.

 

Lastly, either wood type can cover any type of playing situation but I dare say birch again seems to be better at masquerading.

 

This is why both of my main giging/touring kits are the birch and the other two maples are at home.

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No disrespect, just a question, but what's the actual point of having 2 maple kits at home, if the only one's you gig are the birch? Why not have another birch kit at home and sell the maples? Just seems odd to me to have not one, but two maple kits, neither of which are suitable to you for gigging. Sorry, I guess I'm missing something here :)

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