good for starters of young age

As a musician for over twenty years (guitar, bass, piano, synth) I ordered this set after reading about SEVERAL Jr sets. I had looked at these for about 6 months and tried to order them from Toys R Us around Christmas but they "deleted" they item after they were ordered. That said, I ordered them here in May for my son's birthday. It seems they went through a manufacturing change in the time from when I decided to get them and when I ordered them. The look of the drum changed and I believe they started making them a bit differently. Here are some thoughts:

Good:
-It's much better than buying the $20-60 toy sets they sell at Wal Mart or other retailers.
-Toms are all tunable (drum key included)
-Perfect size for kids who really want to learn drums
-It sounds better from downstairs or even outside than it does when I'm in the room where they are being played. (not necessarily good or bad...but I think it's good that they sound like drums from the outside at least

Bad:
- Setup is a pain. My brother in law did it for me as he has been playing drums for years. Nothing was put together already...you are building from scratch and instructions are NOT included. You can probably find them online, but he knew what he was doing so he didn't need them.
-Crash cymbal sounds horrific. It's not much better than banging on a pot.
-Hi-hat is so-so.
-Snare doesn't have as much snap as you would expect
-Bass drum....ok. Here's the thing. The pedal is fabric driven instead of train driven. I am not sure this will hold up for a long time. We'll have to wait and see.
-Bass drum 2: Unless my brother in law and I are both just dumb, there isn't much free movement of the bass pedal. What I mean is once you hit the pedal the first time the part that hits the drum barely goes back so you don't get as good of a hit (kick) after that until you manually pull it back by hand. This is not practical.

Bottom line: this set is average. I don't know that you will find anything much better though as it seems like even the name brand Jr Sets are having the same kind of reviews as these. I guess just remember the target age of these things when buying them.

Thank you!

Make sure you buy it for the right age group. The seller would do well to list that in prominently in the title. I made this mistake but I assume fault on that. We're just going to work with it until my kids really can't use it.

For such a reasonable price this product is VERY fine quality. I'm no audio-file, but the sound is nice and resonant. The look and feel is excellent. The cymbals (hi-hat?) are a little awkward to work, but I don't have a sense of how higher quality cymbals are supposed to feel.

Bought this for my 7yr old son who's been taking drum lessons. It's very cute, doesn't take up too much space, and great for him to practice on. I did have some trouble putting it together, but that was because the wrong instructions were in the box (was given instructions for the 3 piece). Customer service was very quick and helpful, emailing me the correct instructions. Took about 3 hours for me (34yr old girly girl) to put it together solo.