Customer reviews:

Customer Rating:
Summary: Overated
Comment: I believe this is a good product but for the cost of add-ons is ridiculous. Another thing is that it is NOT 100 percent compatible with GH as one states. Other than those few set backs a quality product.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Great Birthday Gift
Comment: I was afraid to purchase a drum kit of this amount for the Rockband game. But it turned out to be a wonderful gift for my boyfriend. He is enjoying the game so much more and this set could lead into a true electronic drum set. Money well spent.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: ion drum kit for ps3
Comment: My original drums for rockband lasted all of 6 months. I researched the ion kit, and finally ordered it. It was easy to put together and adjust to my liking. It feels like real drums when you play it. There is a bit of a learning curve, but they are awesome!! I wish I would have bought them sooner! Well worth the money.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good but not without issues.
Comment: As many others have pointed out, this is a somewhat flawed product. The pads are excellent, good bounce and sensitivity and quite durable. However, the pedal is noisy and does not function well, and the cymbals are not great either.(Though cymbals not necessary for gameplay). These parts can be replaced with better pedals and cymbals made by other manufacturers, but it seems a shame that you should have to spend more to fix an already expensive investment.

Recommended for serious rock band drummers, casual ones won't need it. And if you don't care about cymbals, you can get the core (pads and pedal only) version for a fair amount less.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Believe it: Static issues are real
Comment: This drum set is great when it works (and when adding the additional cymbal - I'll get to that). I will be focusing my review on the problems I've had with the quality of the set and the difficulty in working with the Ion product support.

Guitar Hero Incompatibility

I bought this set to use with Guitar Hero World Tour, after lightly researching that it was compatible. I guess I needed to do more research. In Guitar Hero World Tour the game would not switch to 4 lanes (which in my opinion completely contradicts the purpose of having the cymbals) like it's supposed to, only the red and yellow cymbal/pads are mapped and there is no patch program to download off PSN. So, out of the box this set is incompatible with GHWT.

After researching more, you can purchase a MIDI drum module (such as the Alesis DM5) and run it through the GHWT drum set. But even then, supposedly, there's an issue with the Ion pedal so you'll need to purchase another pedal. So, no go on GHWT.

I purchased Rock Band 2. Great game, but 1 less lane and the difficulty isn't as good. I won't go into the specifics. I prefer GHWT, I just feel it has a better drumming experience.

Incomplete (No 3rd cymbal)

After playing on RB2, my friends and I got really confused as to when to hit the blue pad vs. blue cymbal and likewise with green pad vs. green cymbal. This premium set only includes one cymbal for either green or blue, and it is highly confusing. It is an absolute must to purchase the additional cymbal so you have 1:1 mapping between green and blue cymbals and pads. In my opinion, this set is incomplete without it and it feels Ion didn't include it to get the cost down. It's like playing a Dual Shock controller without one of the analogue sticks where you can 'map' one of the sticks to one of the... well.. you get it.

Static Disconnects

Ion replaces parts within 90 days of purchase, and it takes 4-6 weeks to receive replacements. When my drum set experienced disconnects on day 1, I spoke with tech support who said that the set is prone to disconnect from static electricity that builds up when the set is placed on carpet. Nowhere did I read in the product description, the manual or their website noting this. Further, they explained that it is highly likely that if the disconnects continue to happen it will damage the unit, if it isn't DAMAGED ALREADY. I immediately purchased interlocking mattes from costco and placed the drumset on it, solving the disconnect issue.

After under a week of playing an hour a day, the drums started disconnecting again during every song, and finally the pedal stopped responding (but the other cymbals and pads work fine). Ion will be replacing the pedal (which will take 4-6 weeks to receive). I asked if they would replace the module and they said that the pedal is probably the issue due to either disconnects or physical damage due to playing the pedal too hard. I hope my pedal didn't break with under 12 hours of use...

I recommend this product if you:

1. Do your research
2. Understand you will be spending more money to get this set to work as intended
3. Don't have GHWT

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Update July 22, 2010

It's been almost 3 months since I sent the pedal and module back for repair. I received the pedal 1 month after sending it, and still haven't received the module. 2 weeks ago I called and was promised a call back, but I haven't gotten one. Right now I have been on hold for an hour waiting to speak with someone in tech support. I expect to be transferred and put on further hold, as what happened last time.

I have changed the rating of this review from 2 to 1 stars. Over the course of purchasing 4 months ago I have had 5 days of use from it. The rest of the time I have been waiting for the product, stuck on hold with their tech support, or dealing with the unit disconnecting.

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