Fun article. My brother is a drummer; when he was a teen in the 70's, the new Pearl sets came out, from Japan. Heavy duty, you could hit them all day and they would take a beating.. and the hardware what just so strong! No more worries about stripped clamps, etc.

Just sizing drums alone, takes some experience. Most Jazz players like smaller drums? Maybe rockers like bigger, and more toms?

Part of it is how loud do you want to be. If you need to keep the din down; you can work towards that.. and do you need to carry it easily for gigs? (go for lighter drums)

For me, natural maple. You will never improve on the look of lacquer over maple. It's classic and goes back hundreds of years.