It seems everyone who owns this kit has it in Black Ice. The Crystal Ice seems to be pretty rare. I've always drooled over the Starclassic mirage snare, but never thought I'd own the kit. When I decided I wanted an acrylic kit I went through all the options, to having one completely custom made to stripping my Renown Maple of all all the hardware and ordering some acrylic shells from RCI. I'm glad I ended up hunting down a Mirage. This thing is amazing. I pulled the story from my other forum to share with you guys.
"I don't know if you guys know the story behind this kit, but here it is. On my birthday, my friend Jamie ask me if I want to cone over and hang out, I head to her hometown of Commack (NY) and get picked up by her and my bassist, on the way my bassist needs to stop by sam ash. The Commack Sam Ash just happens to be one of 2 stores that have a Starclassic Mirage. It was right up on the wall and I noticed it immediately. But it was in Black Ice. I didn't want black ice. At all. After the guy trying to convince me a little bit to buy the black ice one and explaining the sam ash return policy and stuff to me, I basically told him that I was a former employee and was very familiar with the system and made it clear that I did not want a black acrylic kit I had him check the system for a Crystal Ice kit. There was one, In Texas. My reply? "I WANT IT." He called the Texas store and verified the kit was there and told them that they may be getting rid of it. I put up my renown maple on eBay along with some other gear. So when I'm ready to put down some money I go over to the Carl Place (NY) Sam Ash that I used to work at and put down some money with my friend Steve and we talk about getting the price down. Steve being a good friend of mine, he was pushing for the lowest price possible. He said he could probably get it to $1,400 out the door. Which was much better than $1,440+tax. I put down $200 and tell him to get on it. Maybe a week or so later I get a call from Steve. "I uh, got some bad news about your kit." They told him the kit was on closeout and the price could not go down. They wanted me to pay full price, tax, and apparently they had implemented a a new policy where the customer has to pay shipping. So full price of 1,440, plus over $100 tax, plus at least $100 (probably more) to ship it from Texas. I said "For like 1,700 I don't even want it." and that was that. I started combing eBay for high end Mapex kits.
At this point all my gear sold and I had around $1,300 specifically for drums. I almost bought a Saturn, but my friend had had this DW kit for years (which he actually bought from Andrew) that I'd always tried to get him to sell to
E. It had sort of become a running joke. With cash in hand and knowing that he doesn't play drums anymore I seriously asked him to sell it to me and he agreed. I gave him $800 for the kit and a lot of extas. Refurbed the crap out of it. And loved it. A little while later steve called me and told me they had shipped my kit to the store. No shipping bill, no communication. Just shipped it! At this point I almost wanted to buy it, but couldn't afford it. So a month ago, I go in to get my money back, and the guy there says he'll see what he can do to get me to take the kit. He gave me a number, I told him it was too high, gave me another number, again, too high. I gave him a number, and he said he could get close. We settled on 1420 out the door, I put down another $200 and told him I would pick it up in a month. 1 month later I payed the balance and picked up the kit
That makes 4 acoustic kits and one V-kit. Roland TD-6 Mesh, Pearl Reference with zildjian A Customs, Tama Granstar with mixed cymbals, DW Workshop series With Zildjian A's and now the Tama Starclassic Mirage with Sabian APX's. I did have 4 kits when I had my ECX, Granstar, CX, and Renown Maple but I didn't have the V-drums at that time. Right now I have my v drums and my DW set up in my drum room, The Starclassic Mirage set up in another area of my basement I'v commandeered for official percussion business, and my Granstar is stacked in my drum room. Iv gotten fed up with the 13" Tom over the 22" bass drum to a point that I set it up as a 4 piece with the 13" to the left of the hi hats. I cant wait to get a 10" for it so i can wrap it to match and have 2 rack toms on it again"
PROUD TO ENDORSE TRICK PERCUSSION AND SOULTONE CYMBALS
