Dude, that is too cool. Congrats!

Not clear on whether the set you got has rubber pads or natural pads? From inference, I'm assuming rubber.

And yes, of course, the hi-hat is the most important part next to the snare. Kick drum is third in line. All proper drumming revolves around those three, you could play for years with just those three and still learn new tricks.

Yeah the V-Club set comes with all rubber pads. The first thing I'll probably do is find a PD-120 12" mesh snare. I think I can live with rubber toms for at least a little while.

I just got outbid on EBay for a PD-120 mesh snare, but I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for good prices. I was willing to go up to $300 since the lowest retail price online seems to be $320. I think for a bass kick I'll probably go with a Pintech Concertcast mesh kick for about half the price of Roland's comparable product. I mean I can see the advantages of V-drum technology on the other drums, but a bass drum isn't all that complicated, it's pretty much always going to hit the same spot and make the same sound. I'd rather put the extra money into other mesh heads or maybe a better controller eventually.