written by MessiahYoung on 27/11/2016
I have been playing drums for 35 years in working bands. I have had several brands of drums. Premier, Ludwig, Sonar, and a few others. My Males 6 piece Pro M series has been my favorite. I've had them 16 years and they have seen many miles and lots of barrooms and I still get complements on them. My band opened for, Highway 101, John Michael Montgomery, Trenny Trent, and some others. It was at a large festival and all the other bands drummers asked to play my Mapex kit. The sound man said it was easy to set them and they sounded great. If I wasn't getting to the age where I'm about to retire, I would get another set of Mapex!
written by on 10/12/2010
It has been two years since my wife bought me a Mapex Pro M maple as a gift (isn't she awesome?!?!). Mine is a Fusionease 5-piece in natural finish plus an extra black panther snare. I absolutely love it! It looks great, sounds great, and even the hardware is better than I expected.
I did a lot of shopping around before deciding on this model, and I'm glad I did. I could have settled on something cheaper, but the investment was well worth it. Having a better kit just makes me want to play it more - and playing more made me a better drummer.
I think the new version of this model is the Meridian Maple. If it is anything like the Pro M, you won't be disappointed. As another reviewer commented, there simply isn't a better kit in its range.
written by on 20/10/2010
I got my mapex m pro classic in feb.2008
could not be happier.
great sound and high quallity.
could not have spent my money any wiser.
very happy with mapex drums.
cant say enough.
written by on 17/11/2009
This is by far one of the best kits in its range; it is steady as a rock, looks damn sturdy and if you take the time to put the right heads on it it sound thunderous. You can also adjust anything to it like Octobans & concert toms, extra floor: you can do anything with it! Great, great drumkit. Koen, The Netherlands
written by on 04/09/2009
It's interesting, one of my kits is a huge canary yellow Mapex Mars series with the vintage style tube lugs... the kit has always been a big favorite because of the low/warm tone and resonance it has being a maple and mahogany mix. I decided to replace that one with a brand new Pro-M 4-piece kit to save some room as things are getting crowded in the studio.
I was both concerned and curious about the tonal difference I could expect moving to the all maple Pro-M shells from the Mars... so I decided to test some shells side by side when the new kit arrived just to satisfy my curiosity.
I have a good ear, a tuning gauge and some extra Mapex UT Remo imported heads so that the test would be 'apples to apples'. I tested a 12 and 14 inch tom as those are the sizes that come on the 4-piece Pro-M kit. Both shells have vinyl wrap in this case. The results sort of surprised me.
Tuning the resonance heads slight tighter, and the batter heads to mid-range... The Mars shells sounded about one octave lower. The sustain on the Pro-M shells was only slightly longer, but not enough to really make an impact. Then I tuned the Pro-M one octave lower... I swear the shells than sounded almost identical! I could barely tell any difference at all, except the Pro-M still had just a slightly discernible longer sustain.
I've always wondered just how much of a difference it really made when Mapex decided to take the 'M' series to an all maple shell, and I can honestly tell you; not much. Both the mahogany laced maple Mars, and the North American rock-hard all maple Pro-M (and now Meridian) are nearly identical and both sound better than their intermediate classification would imply. However, Mapex does state that this series has the exact same shells that the flagship Orion series has, which makes this arguably the best value for money within the Mapex line of drums.
written by on 11/08/2009
The Mapex Pro M is a realy good set,this is the first accustic set i have gotten,in 30 years.the wood snare has a realy different sound will take a while to get used to.need to send cymble stands or somthing whith this set, william
written by drumstruktor on 15/03/2009
I'll put my Pro M kit against damn near any kit. As a matter of fact, I recently did a double-drum gig with a drummer playing dw drums. My kit was the only one that was heard. the guy with the dw kit was pretty pissed that he wasn't heard! I was crusin' not bustin a sweat and he was pounding the daylights out of his (good thing this gig was outdoors!)
written by on 08/03/2009
Mapex Pro M sounds fantastic when tuned mid to high. It doesn't sound too stellar when I tune it low for a fat sound A really nice midrange snare.
written by bigdrummin on 25/02/2009
I see tons of comments from people who obviously have no clue about drums, even though they claim to be players for many years. I'm a teacher and professional player for over 18 years and I say if you can't make these drums sound like a mill or two, you might want to hang it up and find something else. These drums are great. If you got the dough though, go for the bigger ticket items like the saturn or orion series.
If you're not into mapex looks, then hit up a Gretsch renown maple or USA Custom and see what it's like to play on a real mans drumkit.
If you're a true percussionist and you have mastered the craft of tuning, you can make any kit sound good. These drums, with a little bit of preparing out of the box, sound like a million bucks. And that's with the stock heads. Not sure why everyone downplays the stock heads. They are the same heads a lot of you would buy at the store, you just don't know that's what it is because the labels are different.
The kit looks beautiful, I got the redwood fade. Hands down, for the price, they beat any other line out there when it comes to mid level kits.
written by on 29/10/2008
I like these Pro M kits because i played one in a studio a little while ago and now i own one of my own. I think there very reasonably priced and sound and look absolutely fantastic. Thanks again for the opportunity you have given me to express my opinion.
written by John Thompson on 08/10/2008
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...
written by welshwarrior on 25/02/2008
GET THE SATURN SERIES INSTEAD! I know the saturn series are a bit more expensive but believe me..they are amazing! I have just spent £2000 on a pearl masterworks shell pack and I'm gutted! My old Saturn kit which cost less than half of that absolutely blows it away! The Saturn kits also come with over £100 quids worth of heads, so its not really that much more than the pro m's at all.
written by DougieS on 24/02/2008
I picked up a Pro M snare drum on ebay recently for ..well..silly money!! I've been a semi pro player for many years and I have to say that this drum really delivers in every department. I've played some pretty damn good snare drums over the years including a Black Panther and a Sonor Designer (before they were called that) and I have to say this drum could hold it's own against any of them. I would have no qualms in recommending this snare to anybody at any level
written by DruMelchior on 04/11/2007
Apart from the bad point the Mapex Pro M is a fantastic drum kit!! You will become another drummer using this kit!! This kit will give you the looks, the power and the Gigs!! You will not want to stop playing this kit and this will give you the full pleasure of being a drummer!! This kit can be used for all styles especially Jazz, Fusion, Funk, Swing, Blues, Rock!! THIS IS ONE HELL OF A KIT!!!!
written by OpethRammstein66 on 24/10/2006
The Mapex Pro-M drum kit series is great value for money, offering professional quality all-maple thin shells and lacquered finishes for the same sort of money as a top model Pearl Export. The hardware is sturdy, and the kit comes with a very decent pedal. The toms have a nice rounded sound, and they are loud, and have great projection, and the bass drum is about the best out there for the price - I have the "Stomp" kit, which has all big sized drums, and the 24x18" is awesome. The snare is a bit bland sounding, and lacks the sensitivity I like, and it isn't as loud as a 14x6.5" ought to be. The chrome is OK, but regular cleaning is a must. The hardware is decent and chunky, but I prefer Tama's Roadpro series, and I still use them (I sold the Mapex stuff on).
Overall, I'd highly recommend these kits, especially the Stomp series, which offer huge Bonham-esque drums with volume to match, but without wallet-wilting expenditure.
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Ironman54's Response to bigdrummin's Review
Written on: 01/05/2010
You are correct about the stock heads. These drums are soooo thunderous that theres an immediate temptation to try other heads. A friend of mine was with me when I bought my maple kit. He had a 24" Super Kick II with him and so we went right to changing out the heads. Also, had Aquarian 'Response 2' for the toms. Yes, it warmed them up but, as I just found out, also got rid of what they do best: BOOM !! I found a used Remo Amb. reso lying around and so I put the stock batter back on and the Remo as reso on my 24" bass drum. It is so powerful, you tend to back off on it. Then it occurred to me "Hell, this is what I paid for !". Why tone 'em down ? The 24" kick is a freakin' cannon ! These things literally sing - they have a clear note with plenty of sustain. I guess what I'm trying to say is, yes, they sound overwhelming when practicing solo.You hammer the kick and worry that the neighbors will complain.I'm getting acquainted with my set, after owning them for 2 years now, for the 1st time - using the stock heads. Experiment with the tuning using the stock and you will be surprised. Just remember - you bought a monster of a kit. They ain't geared for light jazz.I do like the Remo Amb. 'clear' as reso on the smaller (10 + 12) toms. The coated for the 14,16 & 18. I just tried a coated Emp. batter on my 16 to compare with the stock and the Aquarian Response 2. The Emp batter with coated Amb reso is nice sounding though - more open than the Aquarian. Now - clear stock or Emp. on FT's ? I'll get back to ya...But DON'T throw out the stock heads !!