1. Quick links
2. Editor's picks
3. Black Friday FAQ
4. Shopping tips
5. How we choose deals
6. Why trust us
If you're in the market for some new drum gear and you're planning on waiting until late-November to take advantage of this year's Black Friday drum deals then I have two pieces of advice for you: 1) you'll want to keep this page bookmarked so you can get straight to the best deals and; 2) I wouldn't wait until the end of November! In my experience the deals start dropping from mid-October and there are fantastic deals to find well in advance of the main event.
This page is your place to find all the latest information, shopping advice and early deals as they happen - all curated by myself and a team of drummers who have been covering Black Friday for years.
We know all the best places to look and which deals represent genuine value for money for drummers, whether you want to stock up on sticks, or invest in a full kit. We've also kept tabs on how prices have changed over the years so we can tell the good offers from the too good to be true ones.
For the uninitiated, Black Friday is an event where the biggest music shops and brands on the planet get busy dropping fantastic deals and discounts on drum gear, from accessories to acoustic drums and electronic kits. If there's something you've been lusting after all year, Black Friday is your best chance to grab it at a great price.
If it's an electronic drum set you're after, head on over t our dedicated Black Friday electronic drum set deals page.
Keep reading for all the latest info.
⏰ Black Friday drum deals: Quick links
Below you'll find all the latest percussion sales ahead of this year's official Black Friday drum deals:
- Amazon: Shop deals on drum gear
- Donner: Shop the flash sale
- Guitar Center: Today's best offers
- Musician's Friend: Celebrate Rocktober!
- Reverb: Beat the Rush sale
- Sweetwater: Nothing yet. Watch this space
- Andertons: Mega flash sale
- Gear4Music: Epic clearance deals
- PMT: Shop pre-loved gear
- Thomann: Massive 70th birthday offers
🥁 Black Friday drum deals: Editor's picks
There are many great drum deals about just year, but here's a few to sink your teeth into if you can't wait until Black Friday:
✍️ Black Friday drum deals FAQ
When do the Black Friday drum deals start?
2024's Black Friday drum deals will officially come to fruition on Friday November 29th - the day after Thanksgiving. With less than a month between Black Friday and Christmas, stocking up on Christmas presents is how most people utilise their Black Friday and Cyber Weekend - with Monday 2nd December seeing a slew of Cyber Monday drum deals for you tub thumpers out there. If you want more inspiration we have a drummers gift guide right here.
Last few years' festivities would imply that Friday 29th won't be the only time to pick up some killer deals on drum gear during this festive shopping season. in my experience, most of the best Black Friday drum deals will start popping up from around the middle of October, some even earlier. Many of the deals will remain valid until the end of the year, too.
Obviously, we all want bargains - so during this Black Friday/Cyber Monday period, I'd suggest you keep your eyes peeled, looking to strike on a great drum deal. It's worth noting that as Black Friday is now a global event, discounts and sales may start and end at random times of the day (or night) - so watch your favourite retailers and bookmark this page too. I'll be keeping you up to date with the cheapest prices on the gear you want!
What deals should I expect?
Throughout the next couple of months, I'll be keeping an eye on the biggest drum retailers. Last year we saw our Guitar Center Black Friday deals and Musician's Friend Black Friday deals hubs going wild, with a huge influx of drum gear bargains. This year, I'm expecting to see deals of equal measure on everything from cymbals and drum sets, to accessories, sticks, and more.
Black Friday is one of the best-ever opportunities in the year to grab a great drum bargain. Last year, I was blown away by the incredible savings at Guitar Center. On offer was massive savings on gear from Roland, Alesis, Tama, Gretsch & more as well as 15% off qualifying purchases with a discount code.
Musician's Friend were also slashing up to 15% off qualifying items with the discount code BLACK FRIDAY and Sweetwater were knocking an almighty 70% off select drum equipment. That should give you a good idea of why it's worthwhile saving your budget for this time of year.
Electronic drum kits are always hot ticket items on Black Friday too, and ourteam have compiled this feature covering 5 reasons to pick up an e-kit on Black Friday. We also have a dedicated Black Friday electronic drum set deals page for all things e-drums.
In terms of the types of deals to look out for, Black Friday bargains come in four main flavours:
- Single item - A single product with a great discount
- Site-wide discounts - A single discount percentage on a large range of products across a site
- Discount codes - Load your basket to a certain value and redeem a discount code for money off your basket contents
- Added value deals - These include multi-buy discounts, or additional products or software for free when you buy certain items
Are Black Friday deals worth it?
On the whole, my experience of covering deals year-round tells us that Black Friday is the best time of year to find genuinely good offers on the top drum brands and the widest range of discounted gear. It's a very lucrative time for the big online retailers, so they save their best deals for this time of year.
The MusicRadar team only cover deals that we know are decent and represent the best prices of the year, so if you're drowning in options and don't know which offers are genuinely worth your hard-earned cash, if we've not covered it on MusicRadar then it's probably a hard pass.
Do bricks and mortar shops have Black Friday sales?
Absolutely! The convenience and speed of online shopping means that often the best place to pick up great drum deal is by heading to your favourite retailer's website, but you will find great drum deals in physical stores too. Basically, everyone gets involved in Black Friday price cutting.
Buying in a physical store is particularly beneficial if you want to test a piece of gear before you buy - recommended when you're planning on spending a serious amount of cash. But don't forget that your chosen store might be limited to the stock they can fit in the building and may direct you online anyway if you miss the boat in-store.
Whether you buy online or in-store, you should always check the refund policy of the place you're shopping. This will give you extra peace of mind if you're making a big purchase, or something more impulsive that you may wish to return down the line.
🛍️ Shopping tips
Here's a few pointers - based on my personal experience of both working and shopping Black Friday - that will help you bag the best percussion bargains when the time comes.
1. Create a wishlist early - The most sensible way to take advantage of this year's Black Friday drum deals is to know in advance what you’re looking for. This will make searching much easier, rather than having to trawl through loads of deals you don’t want to find the ones you do, or pondering title you don't need.
2. Work out what you actually need - Check out your favourite brands, see what you need and will genuinely use - don’t waste your cash on features you'll never use. Has there been any new gear launched lately? If so, perhaps the old version will be massively discounted for Black Friday?
3. Consider your drumming goals - What do you want to achieve with your playing for the next 12 months? Do you want to record more? Practice more? Start a function band? Now could be the time to invest if the right gear comes up.
4. Streamline your current gear - Something else you should consider ahead of time is whether you have enough space in your collection for a new kit or set of cymbals. Could you offload some gear you don't use to make room and generate funds for some new gear?
5. Sign up to mailing lists - In addition to bookmarking this page, I'd recommend signing up to mailing lists of your favourite retailers now to get the jump on the best deals when they do come around.
🤔 How we choose the deals to cover
Here at MusicRadar, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything music-making, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products we recommend.
First and foremost, we are players and creators, and we want to match like-minded folk with the right products for them, at the best prices.
For us to recommend a deal on drum gear or anything else it has to be a product we rate that’s a genuinely great price or part of a truly fantastic bundle. It’s also important that we only recommend retailers where you will have a positive shopping experience.
🫡 Why you can trust us
We spend a lot of our time scouring retailers for fantastic deals on our favorite drum products. Not only is it our job to research and recommend the best gear in our buyer’s guides and reviews, but we’re also dedicated to helping musicians get the best deals on the stuff they need, too. After all, the only thing better than new gear day is a hearty discount.
We cover a lot of the big sales events throughout the year, including Memorial Day, 4th of July sales and Amazon Prime Day, and we have a good view on which products are likely to receive the biggest discounts and when, the prices they’ve been in the past and which deals are genuinely worth a look.
Black Friday drum deals: What happened last year?
Last year's Black Friday drum deals were nothing short of spectacular, with electronic drum sets especially doing a roaring trade. We saw some tasty discounts, with Sweetwater slashing hundreds off the excellent Roland TD-07KV and Guitar Center knocking a tasty amount off a Special Edition Alesis Nitro Mesh.
We're expecting to see many more drum deals like these come around for Black Friday 2024, as well as deals on drumsticks, accessories and more. Here are a few more offers from last year to give you some idea of what you can expect this time round.
