Test BeatIt: Dixon Spark PODSP 418 Drum Kit

A few days ago we received 2 small DIXON drum sets from our favorite drum store – Avant Drum Shop. One of them: BD 18 “, TT 12”, FT14 “+ 14” snare in Deep Blue finish, and the other one: BD 16 “, TT 10”, FT 13 “+ 14” snare drum in Wine Red finish.

To hit on those drums, we invited a representative of the new generation of Polish drummers, Jakub Martuzalski. He is drummer with the band RusT and he loves classical rock drumming and this is how he represents the style of playing drums. You can take our word for it that he thoroughly studied John Bonham’s drumming.

Dixon Spark PODSP 418 Drum Kit

1. The test

The test was carried out in our own recording facility. The kit is comprised of a rack tom, a floor tom, a kick drum and snare drum a. We left drumheads on all instruments, which we get with the purchase of the set. We tuned them with the Tune Bot, and put a blanket in the bass drum. Our guest played a few single beats on each instrument of our Dixon Spark set.

2. Basic specification of the drum kit tested here:

Manufacturer: Dixon
Model: Spark
Kit elements: BD 18″ x 16″ TT10 “x 8″, FT 14″x14″, snare 14″ x 5,5”
Finish: Deep Blue,
Character: Fast, tight
Material: 6-Ply Poplar Shell
tom holder: Ball & L-Rod Tom Holder

fot: en.beatit.tv
fot: en.beatit.tv
fot: en.beatit.tv

3. Product and sound

Dixon Spark makes a pretty positive impression at first glance. This little kit is very well crafted. They have very decent hardware. The Deep Blue finish behaves very interestingly in different lighting conditions. When there is less light, the drums are practically black, but when we treated them with our softboxes, they showed their real, pleasant to the eye blue color.

Let’s start with the kick drum, for its small size it really has a punch. A lot of the bottom for an 18 “drum, clear sound and very nice click, undamped, sounds a bit worse, so we used a small blanket to suppress unwanted overtones. Toms sound sharp and short. They are very easy to tune. All tones that they generate are nice and don’t sting your ears, you don’t need to use jells to get rid of them.

fot: en.beatit.tv
fot: en.beatit.tv
fot: en.beatit.tv

4. Summary

We think that this instrument is very good, we can safely say that for such money it is an perfect instrument not only for every beginner drummer, but for musicians playing in smaller clubs.

We think we should let Jakub Martuzalski himself sum up the whole experience: “Bass drum has a nice “punch” for such a small drum, with damping and stronger playing, it gave a nice click. It played very well with toms that had a nice, specific sustain. I’m not a fan of 12″ toms, but this one somehow suited me, it was quite easy to tune. It had a very nice sound and nothing was buzzing in it. The 14″ x14″ floor tom talked very well. Snare drum for an instrument of this class – sounded quite decent.

Manufacturer: DIXON

Distributor in Poland: Music Info sp. z o.o

OUR VERDICT: 5/5