The Pearl Musical Instrument Company founded in 1952 predominately manufactures drums kits, shell packs, drum hardware and percussion instruments.  For more info on the Pearl brand see the Pearl Drums review.

While some drummers may debate upon the classification of drums as professional or intermediate, the drums kits below are lines produced by Pearl that meet their highest quality standards and are priced at the high end of the market.

If you think we are missing a Pearl Drum Set from this section please leave the drum series name and your thoughts in the comments below.

 

Reference & Reference Pure

The Pearl Reference Kit is a high end drum shell pack and hardware set that is produced with Pearl’s higher quality process and components.  This includes manufacturing the drum shells with Pearl’s Superior Shell Technology (SST) and utilizing high quality woods such as birch, maple and mahogany.

Quality bearing edges die cast hoops, and Remo heads are additional components that add to the excellence of these drums when they ship.  Reference snares are available in three (3) sizes and also come in brass and steel options on top birch and maple wood.

Reference drum kits come in three (3) predesigned configurations and are typically priced in the mid $3,000 dollar range depending on package and size of drums.

The differences with the Reference Pure is that it uses thicker (.9mm) plies throughout the construction of the drum shells and utilizes more lightweight lugs and hardware.

Click Here to see the Pearl Reference New Fusion Shell Pack on Amazon

 

Masterworks

Pearl Masterworks drum kits are Pearl’s top of the line custom handmade drums.  Crafting a set of Masterworks shells begins by selecting the wood and Pearl offers, 100% maple, birch and African mahogany as well as hybrid composite and carbon ply shells.  The shells are made with Pearl’s Superior Shell Technology (SST) which involves air tight fit with overlapping scarf joint seam and Pearl’s proprietary AcoustiGlue and high temp molds with 1000 PSI hydraulic pressure.

The bearing edge on the shell is also hand selected can be tweaked to a 45 degree , 45 round and full round bearing edge.  Shell thickness is also customized offering the drummer with thin shell (4ply), medium shell (6-ply) and thick shell (8 or 10 ply) options.

Masterworks snares see further custom options with solid ply shells all the way up to 20 ply.  Drum shell hardware also features many customization options including color option of chrome, gold or black chrome.  The drummer also gets to choose which hoops as well lugs or mounting brackets that go on the shells.

As Masterworks shell packs are widely diverse, pricing them can be fairly difficult.  Additionally depending on the order Masterworks kits can take 6 months or a year to be complete.  While some Masterworks shell packs can be found for as little as $2,000 used, it is not uncommon to find packs at $7,000 and up.

See our full review of Pearl’s custom sets on our Masterworks Drums page.