Pearl Export Select 2000 Reviews 
5 / 5 based on 1 reviewsI bought this kit early in 2001 from The Drum Shop in Perth, WA (that's Australia). It was the remaining 2000 kit in the store, and cost $1500/1600 (AUS) for the shells (along with pearl usuals (stands).
I chose this kit particularly because of
the 5" steel snare, which is a personal choice, the 2001 selects have a 5 1/2" wood.
The Snare. I know that there is always comparison between wood/steel snares, but personally I love the steel snare. It tunes very very easily, and sounds unreal. I have used Evans PowerCenter and Remo CS's on it so far, and both sound great. It's fairly easy to get both a good crack and fatness out of the snare, with little buzzing, and when played live, doesn't sound wet, as most snares do in a large room / at a distance.
The pearl hardware is also fantastic, very solid, very stable, and very very reliable.
The shells as a whole are great also, I have managed to get a good, well balanced (and thickly tonal) sound out of the kit, using Evans G2's on the 12/13/16 toms.
I am STILL using the standard Pearl Bass Drum skin, and to my surprise, all i hear is great things from other drummers about how nice the bass drum sounds. I can't wait to put a decent skin on it and see how it sounds.
While i haven't used them, the Tama or for that matter, just about every other kit in this price range, seem to have a better mounting system. While it's great that there is a floating system on a kit this cheap, it can get awkward to position, and it feels a off balanced having two lug-like rods attached to the rim keeping the mounting system on.
Another review mentioned the tom sizes, I too would like to see a 12/14/16 option available, as it gives much better flexibility.
The construction is good. When looking at my shells though, it appears that the inner of the shell in the floor tom isn't smoothed/consistent, but the sound out of it, is still great.
However, the snare construction is great, and seems to be able to withstand a beating.
The hardware is very sturdy, as mentioned above, and also mentioned above, is the mounting system. However, it's still a decent mounting system, (optimounts can easily be put on if that's a problem).
The lacquered finish looks great (the 2001 look fantastic with a wood shell), with the snare looking sturdy and impressive.
Obviously, so far i've said pretty much only good things about the kit, but with good reason. I played a gig a few weeks ago in a pub, and the sound tech asked me how much i paid for the kit, when i said about 1500, he said that he had tech'd on kits that cost thousands more, and that mine sounded just as good. A great compliment.
Overall, for it's price, it's bloody good. The direct competition would be the Tama Rockstar Custom/Deluxe, though i know there are Pacific's for around the price.
I use it for Alt/Post Rock in one band and a Funk/Rock/Hip Hop band as well as others previously, and it has always sounded exactly how i needed it to sound.
Ant Erickson rated this unit
on
2002-10-28.
