THE ALARMING DECLINE in American drum sales in Europe has not only been to Japanese benefit. Britain's Premier is now back to its rightful status of a decade or two ago, and Germany's Sonor drum company (which has been around for quite a while — since 1875 in fact) is currently attracting a lot of admirers in Britain.

Somewhere over the past two years Sonor has emerged as... well, if not the Rolls Royce, shall we say the Mercedes of the drum world — a combination of elegance with rugged reliability, all brought about by typically German thoroughness and attention to detail. At a price.

The top-ranking Sonor Signature and Sonorlite ranges are just about the best looking and best made drums I've ever seen, and also the most expensive.

But are Sonor therefore losing sight of the real point of a drum kit — its sound and performance — in the quest to make it the most exclusive?

Let's pursue the Mercedes comparison here. You'd buy a Merc not just because it looks good; you'd also be buying performance and reliability. This is where the German penchant for science and engineering comes in: Sonor are not content to go by hearsay and opinion; they want, and have amassed, scientific facts.

Sonor therefore lure their devotees not only by offering them the most expensive drum, but also by "scientifically" proving to them that it's the best.

In the real world, however, even Sonor have to extend their range to include a "budget" range: the Performer, which has been available in Britain for about three months.

Sonor's intention with the Performer is to get brand loyalty early in a drummer's career. My intention is to see whether this maker of top-grade gear can produce "budget" drums without a serious lapse of principles. Straight away, my response is that they've done very well. But then "budget" by Sonor standards is middle to upper range by other makers' standards, and it's with such ranges that these drums should be compared. There are only two Performer kits available so the price is held down by opting for a small but realistic range (the seven-drum kit is £1000).

The shells are made from beech (as in the Phonic-plus range) which is exceptionally hard. The bass drum is a nine-ply 10mm shell, the toms six-ply 7mm — not many plies by Sonor standards, but above average for most others. All the wood plies are butt-jointed at a sloping angle across the drum for added strength. The joint is very smooth and particularly impressive as the interiors of the shells are not lacquered or polished. Any blemishes are therefore easily seen, and I could find none.

Something else you notice inside is the absence of washers from the bolts which hold the nut-boxes in place. A pfennig-pinching economy? Surely not. In fact the holes drilled for the bolts are counter-sunk so that the bolts sit snuggly, the stress therefore placed directly on the shell. A more dependable and quieter system, it's said.

One area where Sonor have definitely made a budget compromise is in the bearing edges of the shells. From their research they discovered that these should be as narrow as possible to minimise muffling of sound vibrations when the head is struck. Also, the vibrations are optimally transmitted when the bearing edge slopes away at 45°. Unfortunately this is a costly contour, and while the expensive Sonors have this feature the Performers make do with a more traditional (and acceptable) rounded edge.

Finally inside, the tom-mounting system involves a fairly massive intrusion into the centre of the drum in the shape of a steel tube into which the tom bracket rod is inserted. Sonor admit that intrusions into the shell do affect the sound, particularly near the heads. Nearer the centre of the shell, they say, it's less of a problem.

Everything about the hardware and fittings is simple and sturdy. The nutboxes are large and the bolts themselves have large slotted heads, turnable by a screwdriver or even a coin if you lose your key. All the stand legs are double-braced. The bass pedal has an easy-to-get-at screw-down clamping system (similar to that of the tom holders). It's cleverly designed so that the rake can be adjusted without altering the tension, and it comes with four different strengths of spring.

The hi-hat has a hexagonal pull-rod which helps to eliminate the problem of the top cymbal coming loose during playing, but is without the external adjustable spring of the dearer models.

The snare drum is a 6½in deep seamless, beaded metal-shell, very similar to the classic Ludwig 400. In fact it has a very similar sound, which is a strong recommendation. However, it has only eight tension rods, a feature normally associated with cheaper drums.

All the drums come with external clip-on dampers — different sizes for different drums, and a useful bonus. Also, decent heads are standard: Remo CS tops and Ambassador bottoms. This ensured the drums sounded good, even untuned. The toms were clean and deep with no tendency to cheap rattles and squeaks.

These drums are excellently made, benefiting directly from the thorough design and workmanship that has gone into their pricier relatives. They offer a serious alternative in the mid-price range to such rivals as Premier's Projector and Resonator, and the Pearl DX or MX. These are a little more expensive, in fact, than the Performer, but offer a wider range of sizes and ten-rather than eight-lug snares.

But the Sonor's standard of workmanship and quality of materials are very heard to beat. By sticking to the bare essentials of their philosophy, Sonor have been able to produce what is for them a budget kit, without compromising their standards.

Five-drum kit: 22x16, 12x10, 13x11, 16x16, 14x6½; seven-drum kit add: 10x9, 14x12.

SONOR Performer kit (5): £800

CONTACT: Sonor UK, (Contact Details).