HISTORY TELLS US that the end of the '60s and the beginning of the '70s ushered in a great many changes. Fashion entered its worst phase in living memory with trousers, shirt sleeves and shoes assuming ever more dizzy heights of preposterousness as the decade progressed. Music also took a nose-dive that it was not to pull out of for nearly eight years, and the "peace and love" ethos of the previous generation was stamped on once and for all at the Altamont festival.

Something else that took a bit of a beating as the decade changed was the pre-eminence of British and American drums. The violence of the onslaught may have been slightly more metaphoric, but the damage done by the increase of top-quality Japanese imports was no less harmful. Chief among those inflicting the bludgeoning were undoubtedly Yamaha, whose steadily increasing army of world-class endorsees soon showed that they didn't just piss on the Americans when it came to making motorbikes...

I don't think many people would argue that this is still substantially the case; and in the realms of droolworthy drums, Yamaha's professional series hold a more than enviable position. But times change, and over the last half-decade or so it's become increasingly obvious that capturing the attention of the John Smiths and the Kevin Browns of this world is just as important as snatching the allegiance of pro heroes like Steve Gadd and Dave Weckl - probably more so.

In the face of this potential "yoof" market becoming the sole domain of their rivals, Yamaha have been forced to come up with a drum kit that costs less than the average family car. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Power V. (The name, incidentally, is pronounced "vee" and does not indicate a Roman numeral "five" as I first thought. Then again, I thought the sequel to 'Rocky' was 'Rocky Eleven'.)

Now, several factors led me to have high expectations of this kit - not least being the fact that it emanates from the same factory as the excellent Premier APK, on which I passed gushingly favourable judgement last month. And bearing in mind Yamaha's reputation at the other end of the market and the tortuously stiff competition this kit already faces, I couldn't envisage them putting their name to anything less than a highly commendable product. In some areas, the kit fully vindicated my optimism. In others, it was a bit of a let-down.

The first thing that struck me about the test kit was the horrendous colour. It's referred to in the catalogue as Italian Red, but my previous encounters with Italian Red have usually been with the stuff in a bottle off a Sainsbury's shelf, which is a damn sight more appealing than this: it looks like regurgitated tomato soup.

That apart, the kit looks solid and dependable enough, with plenty of "beef" in all the right places. All the drums, with the exception of the metal snare, are constructed of nine-ply Philippine mahogany, a very credible hard wood that ensures the drums have a reassuring weight. For the record, the individual sizes of the drums follow what is now a fairly standard pattern for off-the-shelf five-pieces: 22" bass drum, 12 X 10", 13 X 11" and 16 X 16" toms and a 14 X 6½" snare.

The mahogany has quite a coarse grain and all interior plys are finished with black lacquer. This looks tidy enough, but I'd have preferred to see the natural wood. As anyone who's bought any furniture at Habitat will testify, cloaking something in black does not inspire confidence - you never know what's going on underneath. Nevertheless, the test kit's inner ply was admirably blemish-free.

On the subject of sounds, I must admit to being a little disappointed with the toms and the bass drum. To begin with, they're fitted with Yamaha's own CL heads both top and bottom, something I find decidedly odd. These are relatively thin single-ply heads which, judging by their logo, have been specifically designed to accompany the Power V. They are opaque in appearance and bear a passing resemblance to the material ice-cream cartons are made from. Far be it from me to suggest that they also sound similar to the stuff but... well, to be honest, I did manage to get a fairly respectable Stewart Copeland-like clatter out of the toms, but I didn't find anything like the depth or warmth I'd have expected from a set of Yamaha drums. There just doesn't seem to be the spectrum of tuning options there should be.

Actually, I'm not at all sure that the heads should bear 100 per cent of the responsibility here. The toms are distinctly wanting in terms of projection and volume, while the bass drum has an unimpressive quota of "thump".

So all in all, I have to say that among the budget kits I've played over the last few months - and they have been many - the Power V, in terms of tom and bass drum sounds, is not my favourite.

Of course that's not the whole story: toms and bass drum alone do not a drum kit make. In my experience, the snare drum of a slightly below-par budget kit is often its saving grace, and this turns out to be emphatically the case with the Power V. The snare not only looks by far the most professional aspect of the kit - a double-beaded chrome shell sees to that - it also sounds as though it's in a different class to the toms and bass drum. Where they have a slightly bland and unfocused sound, the snare, tuned good and tight, is full of bite and character. With no damping and very little fine-tuning, you can get a good fat "pop" out of the thing to rival drums three times its price. Responsive, articulate, bright, loud... something of an instant classic among budget snare drums, and an illustration of what Yamaha are capable of at this end of the price range.

Something else that raises the Power V well above the level of most cheapies is its hardware. As far as I can tell, the stands and pedals are in effect exactly the same as those supplied with the Premier APK, and as such, are again likely to make a good impression - especially the hi-hat stand and bass pedal with their exceptionally light and responsive action. The bass pedal is pleasantly fast, and certainly capable of powerful strokes at high speed. It has a simple, effective design that looks elegant, performs well and doesn't sacrifice anything in the way of strength or efficiency.

The same goes for the cymbal stands and snare stand too, which for their asking price are among the most attractive I've seen.

The tom holders follow Yamaha's tried and tested ball-and-socket system, although in a much more basic form than on the company's top-range kits. They are solid and flexible, with large wing nuts, memory locks and a wide-based pipe clamp. Unfortunately they look a touch lumpy, and have some nasty "space age" plastic bits on the mounting block which look plain silly.

The only other constituents of the hardware package are the floor tom legs (about which you need to know nothing) and the fold-back bass drum spurs, about which you need to know only that they are very sturdy and very efficient.

The Power V is Yamaha's most committed entry into the world of budget drums to date, and for my money is only a partial success. Nine months ago this kit would have been the dog's proverbials. As it is, the Power V fails to be entirely satisfying.

It has a lot to commend it: the snare certainly takes some (ahem!) beating, and the kit will undoubtedly make a dent in the sales of Exports, APKs and all the rest. The construction is at least as good as any other drums in this price range, and the quality of the materials used is almost certainly higher. Bearing that in mind, it probably all comes down to that old bug-bear "personal taste". You know what to do.

YAMAHA POWER V DRUMS: £499 inc VAT

INFO: Yamaha Kemble, (Contact Details).