Mapex Pro M Review

Overall Rating

Unbeatable value for money, as far as hand finished Maple shells go, and the fittings are of adequate quality and appearance too.

Is 'Made in China' a bad thing? Only time will tell, but long term reports among Drummers are good.
Some finishes take weeks to arrive.

Available in most popular configurations, the M Pro range, despite the name, are mid range Drums, but certainly compare rather surprisingly well to more expensive brands and models.

The M Pro 'Limited Edition' set I have is constructed from North American maple, in 6 plies, with an outer skin of exotic Zebra wood (Mercedes Benz cars of the '80's used to boast this, and called it 'Zebrano) which offers a most exciting and rather tropical appearance.

Remo heads are used throughout the range, and although the less expensive (Chinese made) UT series, are made from the same stuff as the originals, so quality sounds are assured.

The fittings, and claws are all Chrome plated, so mucho pretty to look at, and appear to be of both heavy duty construction, and unless you look very closely, very nice finish too.
I say this because on a few items, you can see the machining marks, but this is certainly not obvious unless you're polishing up your kit.

Assembly is a doddle (NB a DVD is included too!) and everything screws in perfectly, with no sign of iffy welds or dodgy threads. Most items are finished to a really superb degree in fact, with smooth edges and a glossy chrome sheen all over.

The Tom mounts have a hexagonal section, and are well constructed, with a good range of adjustment, and seem stable once screwed up tight, which is a pleasure seeing as the thumbscrews are so chunky and pleasurable to use!

They tune up easily, which is nice, and the free drum key is as good as I have seen. Fair play to Mapex for the presentation, they obviously care about their reputation.

The 750 series hardware that comes with this particular kit is double braced, and very sturdy indeed, whilst boasting an exquisite finish. The HiHat pedal is already greased from the factory (!!!) and very smooth, with plenty of little adjustments so you can choose your own sounds, and once fitted with Cymbals (Not included!) works perfectly with no faffing around.

The ever important Snare drum is also Maple/ Zebrano, and has a nice smooth polished snare lever which flicks out to disable the snare, and has a thumwheel for slight adjustments. It's not outstanding in terms of 'Snariness' but I'm working on that! The Snare stand is impressive though, very solid and grips like a limpet.

Other hardware is similarly impressive, and belies the modest relative price of this kit.
Once assembled and tuned (2 hours) you have a lush looking kit, mine was a 22" Fusion set, with 22" Kick, 10/12" Kick mounted Toms, and 14/16" Floor Toms, and with additional Zildjian cymbals offers a versatile set for most genres of music.

All the drums are a little over resonant, and will probably end up being damped by one of the usual methods, I used a little Blue-tac to great effect, leaving a really nice deep woody tone which should play well with Jazz.

So far, so good! Thanks for reading...