Hi Seany

To jump in with my pennyworth, if your going to buy a drum buy a good one the first time out and learn on it. It will last a long time and be broken by in by you as you are learning. I have to back what Alison said earlier in this thread as over the years I have ended up with three of Eamon Maguires drums (two tunable of different sizes). I did buy others and sold them on. Eamon ships anywhere in the world. You can contact him by email and his tuning system with the wedges is unique, its simply the best and easist to use I've seen. The Kearns is also a good drum but any I've seen have had a slightly thinner skin than a Maguire, the tuning system is also more fiddly.

Good luck

Mike