My 13yo has been playing drums for a few years and started on one of those cheap kiddie electric drum pad things. When he started band in middle school he got a snare drum/bell set thing for beginners. He's been playing set in the school jazz band this year among other things and I think he's going to stick with it. He stays after school a few days a week to practice on the school's set. He also tried out for and made an all-county performance thing as well. Anyway I'm not ready to commit to an acoustic set in our house just yet. I'm not sure we could handle that. I've poked around at amazon and costco. I don't think we're going to go with anything over $500 at this point.