Yeah, the CB kits look decent.
The first kit I bought was a very cheap one and I replaced it after two weeks cos it was just
too cheap - (as with any instrument) below a certain standard the child will just get frustrated and not practise as much, or give up entirely much sooner... so there's usually a sort of acceptable minimum point it's not worth going below.
About £300 is a handy ballpark to start with; any higher and you can quite easily get a very decent kit; a bit lower and if you look carefully you could get or bargain but also you could end up with something a bit
ick...
Some of the better brands include
Premier
Pearl
Sonor
Mapex
Tama
Yamaha
and if you're going to look at second hand kits these are probably the best names to stick to and
this is an example of a good deal on ebay.
A word about sizes: in general there are two different approaches:
"Rock" kits usually have a 22 inch bass drum, 12 & 13 inch rack tom toms, and a 16 inch floor tom.
"Fusion" kits (more likely to be used every kind of music except rock!) usually have a 20 inch bass drum, 10 & 12 inch rack toms, and a 14 inch floor tom (which may well be hung from a cymbal stand rather than actually sitting 0n the floor on its own legs).
You should probably discuss with your daughter (and her teacher) whether there's any preference between these kinds. It needn't make that much difference to be honest and what kind of music she likes
listening to may well help with the decision.
Now onto what's included - many starter kits will include cymbals, many won't, but you will need some so if you look at kits that don't include them, figure that into your budget. (Most second hand kits probably
won't). You can get a pack that includes high hats, a crash, and a ride, for eg £89 from
drum central - i actually bought these for a friend a while ago and they're... okaaaay... but while in terms of the drums themselves you can get an decent sounding kit for £300, many of my cymbals were £300
each... but it doesn't make sense to spend thousands in that area at this stage, so sadly i think you have to accept mediocre cymbals for now. If you do end up buying seperately, I heartily recommend Stagg cymbals as the best of the cheaper ones.
You need to make sure you have enough hardware to get it all set up; again with new kits you'll almost certainly get everything you need (high hat stand, two (or more) cymbal stands, bass drum pedal...) kits sold without hardware are usually referred to as "shell packs". You'll need a stool too.
Anyhow, this post is getting too long, which probably just illustrates the sense in getting a starter kit that includes drums, cymbals, hardware and a stool
I do recommend going in person to one of Glasgow's great shops, they'll talk you through the differences between drum kits in person while pointing to the bits they mean, which'll help make sense of it all.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl...9&ie=UTF8&z=14
shows Drum Central, Rhythm Base and The Drum Shop, they're all very helpful.
Do ask anything else you think of here, we're all delighted to witter on about drums for hours
Oh, and about noise:
get
these
they're rubber pads that go on the drums and cymbals; she can do a lot of her practising with them fitted, making the drums a LOT quieter.