For a few years now, I’ve been back into drumming pretty regularly, and have been getting by with a modestly upgraded old Tama Rockstar DX kit. While I really liked the look of the old Tama power toms, the more I played, the more I realized that getting them into a configuration that was comfortable for little 5’8” me was pretty close to impossible, at least without resorting to the old-school ‘toms at 45 degrees’ look popularized in the 80’s. I like my toms a little more vertical, and the only way that was going to work was if I got a much more compact kit, with shorter toms and a smaller bass drum. So I’ve been on the lookout for a while now, and while there are great deals to be had buying used, nothing had yet really caught my eye. I really like the 7 piece, 3 up/2 down tom arrangement, and those don’t come up for sale very often.

Anyhow, while looking through r/drummit one day, I saw a Mapex MyDentity kit, and it immediately captured my imagination. Here was a series by a major manufacturer that I could configure how I liked, including choosing the square 20×20 bass drum size I wanted, at a reasonable price. Additionally, you can specify the wrap and finish on the drums, which is a pretty cool touch.

Anyhow, long story short, I ordered a kit in the following sizes:

• 8”x6”, 10”x7”, 12”x8” mounted toms
• 14”x14” and 16”x16” floor toms
• 20”x20” bass drum

I didn’t get a snare, as I already have a Tama MetalWorks 12×4 Piccolo that I am pretty happy with. All shells are maple (birch is also available).

Total price for the kit was around $1,300, including taxes and shipping.

The kit arrived at the Guitar Center I ordered it from a month after ordering as promised, in six large boxes. Inside each box was a drum covered in ample quantities of bubble wrap. All drums arrived in perfect condition.

The first thing I noticed about this kit is that all of the drums are super light. The bass drum is roughly as heavy as the floor tom in my Tama kit. Next, the kit is gorgeous. I love powder coating, and the finish on the hardware is flawless.

I’m not a huge fan of wraps, so I tried to get the most inconspicuous wrap I could. The black wood-grain wrap I got works well, as it’s mostly just flat black, so you can’t see the wrap seam. I’ve seen some of the sparkle wraps, and while the wraps look good, they are very thick and the seam is very obvious, which just bugs me.

The drums shipped with Remo heads, but they are Remo UX heads, which are basically cheap Chinese heads with a Remo logo. The hoops were roughly half the thickness of the Aquarians I replaced them with, and they are overall pretty flimsy. However, they tuned up easily, and actually sound decent. Tuned high, the mounted toms sound very much like marching quads,  and tuned low, they sound very contemporary (check the clip below). While I was underwhelmed with the heads (even my $125 Tama snare came with an Evans G1 batter), I was quite pleased with the overall sound.

Demo – Stock Heads

Luckily, I already had a full set of Aquarian Classic Clear (in black, of course) that I had purchased in expectation of the heads sounding awful. I left the UX resonant heads and the Bass drum heads, however (though I did add an Aquarian kick pad). You can hear a clip of these below.

Demo–Aquarian Heads

Honestly, I think I will end up gravitating towards some coated heads on this kit. I think I prefer the dryer sound on these drums, but I’m pretty happy overall with the sound with both styles of heads.

I want to wrap up with a few things about the MyDentity series that I would like to mention that stuck out to me:

• The tom mounting arms are hexagonal, which is actually a very nice feature. The old Tama arms (circular) tended to be difficult when the toms were at odd angles, as the clamp would slide along the arm under vibration. These eliminate that problem.
• All of the drum hardware, including the floor tom legs and bass drum spurs are powder coated, which is really nice.
• However, the tom mounting arms are not, which is kind of a bummer.
• The double tom mount has a center section where you can mount a cymbal arm, which is cool, but none of the 20 or so cymbal arms I have actually fit it.
• The isolation mounts make it fairly difficult to mount rim-clip mics.
• Resale value of these are pretty much destined to be very low. After all, it’s a budget ‘custom’ kit. No one else is likely to like the color combo you pick half as well as you do, or would probably prefer to get their favorite for a few hundred more.
• It didn’t come with a drum key. I’ve got plenty, but this is a bummer if it’s your first kit and you don’t have one. Cheap on Mapex’s part too, as even my $125 Tama snare came with a nice Tama key.

Anyhow, I’ll leave you with a bunch of pics of the kit, all taken by my lovely wife, Beth Hill.