mr dave

no idea on the black no-name. either way, your sound comes from your hands more than the brand of instrument being used.

as for the guitar thing, generally speaking most people upgrade from what they learned on unless they're in situations like yours where they start on quality gear they didn't have to pay for.

as for the fork - mashed potato thing. it was a description used in an article on theonion.com in regards to matchbox20. they compared their safe, bland, ineffectual sound to slapping a fork into potatoes. if a kit has bad skins it's going to sound similar. there won't be any lasting definition in the hit, the sound will warble, and the skins won't stay in tune.

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