This may sound retarded because I have not played a Kent drum set -but from what I have read about of others raving about them I would buy the Kent set. You can ALWAYS buy a nice MIJ anytime day or night. You do need both you knowSumo Dude

Kent are the same type of shells as Gretsch, better made right there than any Japan kit...

I have seen two kent kits,got to play one,bdp ,wrap looked good.lugs looked good,they did not sound like mij,the shells were three ply maple no rerings.they had clear pinstripes on them,the bearing edge was wide and very rounded,kind of dead, could have been bad edges,but the heads looked beat and I don't think they were tuned well,seemed like there was good tone trying to get out.I saw an article in nsmd where a guy had bought a kit and re wrapped them,the stripped shells looked great, nice figured maple,I would have sealed them.He said the drums had just about no bearing edge on them but after he cut them they sounded great.From what I have heard the shells and lugs are good,but the tom mounts and such were pretty low grade and would fail in a short amount of time,but all in all a good players type kit.I think for 200.00 in ex condition is a really good deal.

I agree with eamesuser-alot of bad factory quality control and poorly designed hardware,but sometimes beautiful shells and lugs.I had a 9X13 which I repainted to match a put together set,and used a clip style Ludwig mount on it.It sang....excellent resonance.

Are they? I was not aware of that. I was under the impression they were two ply maple. I did not realize Kent used gum as the middle ply of a three ply shell. Do they work the edges to the same degree? This is interesting.

My bad, they were made by guys who left Gretsch, they are maple, still a bit better than most stencil kits using luan mahogany

Nothing wrong with that old mahogany either.That is some sweet sounding drums :)

I collect Kents and have 2 sets plus a bunch of snares. Snares and rack toms are 2 ply maple and the kicks and FT's are 3 ply maple. No gum.

It's a 50/50 chance on the edges being good, but that's a fairly easy fix. If you're handy, you can do it yourself with a table router and some sandpaper. If not, a furniture maker would likely do it cheap enough.

I wouldn't use pinstripes on a Kent drum - I'm currently using Aquarian Studio-X batters and Evans clear on one kit. Allows for a deeper tuning. And Remo coated ambassadors top and bottom on the other. Higher jazz tuning. Both kits sound good but I prefer the lower tuned kit (just what I'm used to). Also, the Remo kit is the smaller 20", 12" 14" sizes and sounds great for that bop jazz sound.

Be sure these are US made maple and not the later import luan shells. The ludwig style rail tom mount is as good as any ludwig I've seen, but the adjust-o-matic style can be flimsy. Also, the ludwig clip style mount *can* sometimes choke the sound of the tom. Be prepared to use a RIMS, Optimount or snare stand if that's the case.

Other than that, these drums have a lot of potential and can reward you with a funky, old school sound.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out either way.

Thanks for this informative post. I`d like to own a Kent someday and this gave me perspective.