STEVE ARMSTRONG: I’m Steve Armstrong with Pearl. Today we’re going to talk about Pearl’s new reference series drums.

Individually, each one of these drums was engineered to be the best sounding drum it can possibly be. One of the things that make the Reference Series different are the blended shells. The 12” tom is the only drum in the series that’s made from one specific wood. As the drums get smaller than the 12”, birch is added to brighten and increase the cut and clarity of the drum. As the drums get larger than the 12” tom, 14”, 16”, 18”, African Mahogany is added to the inner plies of the drum.

What birch does is it gives you that added cut and clarity, so if you built a drum set out of all birch, what you wanted to get in the small toms would be that added cut and clarity but it would be the exact opposite effect for what you get on the smaller toom -- or for the larger toms and your kick drum. If you built a kit out of all mahogany, what you gained on the low end would be the complete opposite of what you wanted out of the small toms.

So, what we’ve done is added the correct wood to each drum to enhance the sound. So, when you have a 12” tom in the middle with all maple, it’s a very smooth, even tone.

[STEVE ARMSTRONG PERFORMING A DEMONSTRATION OF THE PEARL REERENCE SERIES DRUMS]

When you go to the smaller toms....

[STEVE ARMSTRONG PERFORMING A DEMONSTRATION OF THE PEARL REERENCE SERIES DRUMS]

To make a snare drum that would hang with this kit, it’s actually a 20-play shell. There are 14 plies of maple over 6 inner plies of birch. It gives you the characteristics of a metal drum, very loud, but the warmth of wood.

The snare also feature the SR-1000 throw-off, which is a patent pending system with a glide-lock snare, locks into place so that there’s absolutely no way, no matter how hard you play, you’re going to disengage the snare. You also adjust the snare tension on the butt side. It’s also a locking knob. Depress the knob and spin it to adjust, to tighten or loosen the snare tension.

The snares in the Reference Series also feature a graduated tension level. The D shape actually creates tighter snares at the center and looser snares on the outside, so at a lighter playing level the looser snares come into play and the tighter snares are impacted on a more louder dynamic.

Reference is available in six stock colors. This is purple craze. We also have granite sparkle and copper fire sparkle which is similar to the old champagne sparkle. There are three lacquer finishes: a root beer fade, a twilight fade, and a scarlet fade.