It blows my mind that slingerlands seem to be cheaper in price to the other names. I have a few slingerland kits and they're every bit as quality as the others. In fact, I have a green sparkle 73ish slingerland kit I completely redid, and it's for the most part my main kit for shows. And I have a couple decent, really good ludwig kits. I had a smaller slingerland kit I sold to a friend that I thought embarrassed the clubdate ludwig I have in tone. The clubdate kit sounded like a toy compared to the that slingerland kit. They had better sustain and a lower register. Also, might I suggest trying remo's new "vintage A" heads. They were quite a surprise in tonal difference. Very warm and a great match to slingerlands round over bearing edge. I put them on my 62 set and couldn't believe the tone!Jason