Pearl Reference RF924XS Midnight Fade Drum Set

The mission behind Pearl Reference Series drums is to produce a complete set of individually engineered, incredible sounding drums. Each shell in the Reference Standard 4 piece drum shell pack is composed of a blend of woods totaling an incredible 20 plies. This extra thick drum shell ensures that no energy is lost through shell vibration and all energy is focused on moving sound waves. The shell’s bearing edge is 45ŒÁ to promote a focused contact area with the head for response and crack. Six inner plies of birch provide cut and attack while the outer 14 plies of maple provide warmth and solid midrange punch.

In 1999, Pearl began its most ambitious undertaking, The Masterworks Series, the world’s first truly custom drums. Designed for the player by the player. Every aspect of the manufacturing process was custom made, from the number of wood plies, to the wood selection, to the final finish. Over the last five years, through arduous listening tests, Masterworks taught Pearl drum makers a great deal about drums and what makes the perfect shell. So forget what you think you know about drums and take a close look at Reference Series, the most acoustically advanced drums in the world. To fully understand the Reference Series you must understand that the desired tonal characteristics of a 10″ tom are completely different than that of a 22″ bass drum. Thus to use the same material in both drums would result in a compromise.Reference Series drums use a combination of task-specific bearing edges and three time-proven woods: birch, maple, and African mahogany. Using maple as a sole material has long been the traditional choice for shells and for good reason. Maple provides smooth, well-balanced tone that is perfect for a 12″ tom. Subsequently, all Reference Series 12″ toms are composed of six plies of maple; this is the only single wood shell in the series. And for maximum response, all 13″ diameter and smaller toms have a rounded 45ŒÁ bearing edge, and a more focused area for head-to-shell contact to boost mid- to higher-range frequencies. Beginning with Pearl’s 13″ tom and larger, mahogany is added to the inner plies to increase the lower frequencies and accentuate the warmth of the maple. The 14″-diameter toms and larger begin using Pearl’s fully-rounded bearing edge for even more shell contact for a boost in mid- to low- range frequencies.As the sizes of the bass drums increase, so do the amounts of mahogany. Pearl’s 22″ Reference bass drums incorporate an amazing six inner plies of mahogany surrounded by two outer plies of maple for the ultimate in solid responsive bass frequencies.