Underrated: Paiste Dimensions. Not all, but many in the line sound awesome regardless of their bargain price.

Since the DW bashers are out, I'll say there are quite a few shells that are comparable with DW. But the hardware... IMHO, you can't overrate it.

i'm pretty overrated, tho i see myself as rather underrated...

speakin' of under- rated and over-weight...what ever happened to Buddy Miles?  Is he still with us?

I agree. One of the nicest rides I ever heard was a Dimension, but my local shop wanted an astronomical price for it for some reason.

Charlie Watts........definitly overrated,stops playing the cymbal on "2" and "4".........timing is questionable. Does he fit the band?..sure

Richard Starkey.....decidely underrated.........you could set a metronome to him........I think MD mag actually did to the recordings a few years back. I could mention his drum sound...grreat

   I have to say in general you r right that yamahas are underated but hey... Im only 16 and am obsessed with Yamahas high end drums though i own a pacific.  Heck ill never be able to afford the maple absolutes but i stil think theyre the most badass drums around.

    As for overated; hi end snare drums in general.  I own a black panther maple and have to say i find it hard to tune for sure , though im a terrible tuner.  Because of this i can actually get much better sounds out of a low/middle end drum like my pacific cx.  Then again i shouldnt be so quick to talk because once again i am a terrible tuner.  Should i invest in a drum dial? and if so what kind?

Invest in a drum tuning dvd like bob gatzens, then invest in a drum dial. I got my piglite snare by pork pie, I HATED that thing i was so mad I spent 250 on it, then i actually sat down with multiple head types and practice different type of tunning i learned to tune on that thing. I also learned i got my favorite sound with 2 ply heads and a 45 strand snare wire with medium tunning on top and a higher pitch on the bottom. It takes time, my snare also uses absolutley no dampening whatsoever. Its all about the time you put into your sound, a drum isn't hi end because somone says its high end its high end because its a fine insturment that people have grown to value and it has prooved itself. Blackpanthers are nice, i'd say go out, get the bob gatzen dvd watch it, take everything with a grain of salt and question it. Come on here ask questions on what you have learned. Really focuss on pitch and try and give some education on pitch recognition, if this dosn't improove your tunning get a drum dial, and just go the mechanical way and use the drum dial to evaluate your mistakes. The drum dial won't give you an automatically great pitch from your drum all it will do is put the heads in tune with themselves. You still have to get the heads to the right tension to make the sound you want. Even DW's sound like @$%# when they're out of tune plain and simple. The head and the bearing edge and how happy their relationship is FAR out weighs the name on the drum, the plys of the snare, how much you paid, or what type of wood it is. I see you have a PDP kit, ill tell you something, my friends drummer has a DW 4 peice HAS NO clue how to tune, they were recording and he was just putting tons of duct tape on the toms because they were buzzing, i walked over said "can i do somethign?" he said " sure man just stop that fuckin buzzing" I just tightened the bottom head an octave or so higher than the top head and DING he was shocked omg they sound like they did when i got them. I ended up doing his whole kit and he was just shocked. I told him get some new @$%# heads, learn how to tune or give me your kit! Now another band I know their drummer has a 4 peice pacific. The two bands played together and no doubt, the drummer with the pdp who was also a much better drummer, his drums sounded way better than the dw. I live next to DW's factory and my drum teacher is endorsed by DW and he brought the PDPs he uses for practice to the dw factory to get cleaned up and they put new heads on they sound great! Spend a couple of free hours a day messing with tuning on your snare you'll go through a bunch of heads but you'll end up loving that snare guarenteed. I might be speculating but are you one of those people who just like guitar center cranks your snare head down really tight? If you are give it a shot loosing your heads and playing them not cranked down, it'l be weird at first but i promiss you fall love with it. Also if you end up buying diff heads to practice tunning with i'd recomend remos, they meatier heads and can usually take more abuse than evans, but once you get better try evans i find they are more precise and tune up better as long as they're not cranked down and choked.

Overrated:

Roland V-Drums, Lars Ulrich

Underrated:

Kat electonics, Sabian Pro Cymbals.
I bought a Sabian Pro 16" crash eight years ago for $60, and I love the way that thing sounds.

O and by the way Pirate Pig, my neighbor is a middle age guy thats been playing drums for about 35 years.  Me and him are constantly chatting about drums.  Last year he bought a gorgeus collectors series 7 piece DW.  Now im a terrible tuner, but he must be worse becuase somehow ive got my PDPs sounding ALOT better than his gorgeus DWs.  Just shows that decent tuning beats a name anyday.

I totally agree!I'm an Ayotte player and am still stoked after 15 years. Still playing my Ayotte Custom Jazz Kit made by Ray & his boyz circa 1990.  Finishes are stunning - mine are cherry red stain fade.

Tayes sound great!No big surprise as Ray knows his stuff. I don't think I could be happier with my kit. I sometimes wonder if a thinner shell might be rad tho. Cool that Ray took the time to come up with stuff for all budgets too. Wonder if Taye budget stuff would be nice for casuals.

Sonors Designer Bird's Eye Kits always appealed to me but I'll have to win a lottery first.