ILOVEDRUMS... It Begins.

[ShaolinLambKiller]

Awesome you ended up with cool neighbors and not dickheads.

[AxAxSxS]

How am I just now hearing that story! 2 words bro.
Block Party.
Would be epic.

[Road Bull]

My old Big Kit. Tama Granstar ~1990 vintage. I played it a little bit ago. OMG that is A LOT of toms to work with.

[Ancient Astronaught]

I would not want to have to tune that kit...... and my OCD forces me to tune every time I get behind the kit.....

[Vuvuzela]

Got the old Tama Grandstars set up in the new place. It feels good to have a place to play. So good.

I played for a half hour or so, and no cops... so far...

My neighbor is cool. I introduced myself to him when I moved in. I was trying to get a bead on how cool he was going to be with my playing drums next door. He said, "I hope you don't mind loud motorcycles." I said, :"No." with a grin. He told me he rode Harley Davidsons. I said that that was cool and that I hoped he didn't mind some drums now and again. He said that was no big deal and that he just had a pretty big party for his and his wife's 40th anniversary. He said a live band came out, they had kegs of bear and all that. So THAT started off on the right foot. I am super stoked!

loving the drums.
pumped that you have awesome neighbors.

BUT THEY HAD KEGS OF BEAR?! how does one get bear into a keg?!

[ShaolinLambKiller]

My old Big Kit. Tama Granstar ~1990 vintage. I played it a little bit ago. OMG that is A LOT of toms to work with.

beautiful. reminds me of my old kit that was that size plus an extra floor tom. I've scaled down since then meaning dropped the extra floor tom and the highest tom.

[Iommic Pope]

Hey guys, quick question.
Funds permitting, I was thinking about getting my brother a snare for Christmas. What would get him into that Joey Lacaze Eyehategod territory?
His tastes in toanz are irrelevant at this point as he just needs something that wont fall to pieces every time he hits it.
And no. Not kidding.
We had a jam about a week and a half ago and spent most of the night either putting bits of his kit back together or trying to deal with my amp attempting to commit audio suicide.
So the few bits we did get to jam on sounded a little bit like Pod People meets EHG, which we were both pleasd with.
Also to consider is that we are a two piece, so maybe that will have some weigh on what sort of sound to aim fo drum wise?
As you can tell, I know butt fuck nothing about drums.
Tell me, skin lords, what should I be looking at?

Love,
Clueless Pope.

[ShaolinLambKiller]

Joey really didn't use anything special. Tama kits, steel snare. his tone is all in how he tuned and how he played. He made every and any drum kit he used sound like him.

[Iommic Pope]

That's pretty much what I suspected.
I saw the price of some of those TAMA snares as well.
Even used that shit is rough.
I might just be getting him a voucher to go towards something.

I will never complain about guitar gear prices ever again.

[Road Bull]

That's pretty much what I suspected.
I saw the price of some of those TAMA snares as well.
Even used that shit is rough.
I might just be getting him a voucher to go towards something.

I will never complain about guitar gear prices ever again.

Yeah, It depends what you want, how much you are willing to spend, but in the end. You can get a fairly crappy kit to sound good with new heads and proper tuning. The conventional wisdom would put your money into the best cymbals, (read pro-level used) you can afford with solid drums that can be tuned with some new heads and you should be good to go.

This is a great time to be a drummer, or to take up drums. There is SO much good gear out there. Keep your eyes open on CL and Guitar Center Used. You can score some awesome deals on used gear. I know a fair amount about Tama gear and can vouch that it is pretty rock solid. I am using some big Ludwigs now and couldn't be happier. There are tons of good snares out there. I would go with something 14x6.5" or deeper, although 5" depth has its place for snares. It is kind of rough buying a lot of gear at once. I would say, pace yourself. Learn to acquire gear when a great deal is presented. Save some money, then do it again till you get most of the stuff you need, in the order that will benefit you the most.

Good luck and let us know if you have any questions or need some further guidance.

[Iommic Pope]

Thanks RBull!

Yeah, I actually bought him the kit he's using now for like $300AU used. Which is a fucking steal down here. I think its a fairly old (maybe from somewhere in the 90s), fairly so-so not-quite-entry-level Tama (can't remember the series), and it is fucking solid and does sound decent. He just bought some new heads for it as well, so that'll help.
The biggest issues are the snare, kick pedals and his cymbals and stands. Roughly in that order.
He wants a double kick just so he can do those rolling/gallopy kinda fills, but I don't think he's gonna be on em all the time. I don't mind a bit of double kick and nor does he, but we won't be blast beating our way into the apocalypse any time soon.
The actual snare is kind of MacGuyvered together with cable ties and shit and is a real fucking mess and the double kick he has now that keeps exploding was some nameless Chinese shit I bought him for Christmas one year because we were still unsure whether or not he'd commit to drumming.
So he's kind of ready for some reliable gear now.
Its sort of weird for me because I'd consider myself to be (fairly) gear-savvy with guitar and bass stuff, but drums just totally elude me.
Don't be surprised if I check in here more often from now on

You guys are solid and give good advice, so I plan on abusing that.

[ShaolinLambKiller]

I use I think it's Pacific for double kick pedals. it was 100 bucks brand new.

I like Iron Cobras I think when this pedal breaks I'll get another iron cobra set.

for when I was playing on my double bass kicks all the time I used Iron Cobra and I tried Axis for awhile.. I don't like how light and flutterly they are. they also fell to pieces after a year cause they can't handle how much use they got with my heavy feet.

my swingstar Tama was 500 used.

my Snare is some cheap small steel thing that's rigged as well.

my cymbals are whatever I can get for cheap off ebay used. the only thing that I bought brand new and still have is my zildjin mega bell ride. I already went through program of buying great cymbals and cheap cymbals. they all break the same to me. at least now I'm only out 50 bucks instead of 500. even with the insurance they offer at guitar center.. they only replace em twice.

stands are whatever works I just buy em cheap. I have a rack mount system I got used for 70 bucks., it's a gilbralter.


as much as I love playing drums and what I'm mainly good at and get asked to do mainly in bands and in session work... I really don't care much for drum gear. it all breaks and doesn't last. I like guitar gear.

[Road Bull]

Hey Pope,

I think you are on the right track then. Sounds like the Tama kit is holding up fine. Even their lower level kits are pretty friggin solid these days. I am not sure what your used market is there, or what things look like new, but some of this stuff you can find used for good deals.

As far as double pedals go, there are a lot of great ones out now. But again, even some lower level stuff is solid compared to years past. Hard to go wrong with DW 5000, or Tama Iron Cobra. I recently picked up some new DW 5002s (that's the double pedal version of the DW 5000 family) and I really like them. Great thing about DW 5000s are that it is easy to get replacement parts for just about everything. Bearings, hinges, screws, bolts, u-joints, cams, bla, bla, bla. So you could get a used one, and if it had a problem, you can simply replace the component.

Tama Iron Cobras are pretty bombproof too. In fact I have a 20 year old HPT45 Tama single pedal that still works fine. It could use a new spring, but HEY! Those are cheap, and.... TWENTY YEAR OLD DRUM STUFF STILL WORKS! Value!

Yamaha makes some great pedals and hardware too.

For sanres, many can sound great, but, how awesome did your first guitar sound before you knew how to tune it? Same goes with snares. Top and bottom heads get tuned. That doesn't mean crank it down as tight as humanly possible. Sometimes that just chokes the life and sound out of a drum that would sound better if you just eased off a bit. Good snare wires, even placement, and tension are also important. Tons of youtube videos can help here quite a bit till you get the gist of what is going on.

I have been digging metal snares as of late. There are a ton out there. Best thing to do is go somewhere where you can play as many as you can in your price range and see what you like. Both Ludwig and Tama make very reasonably priced snares that can sound awesome. But that's not to exclude other drum companies. I keep mentioning them because I am familiar with both brands. Neither one of which pay me. But I also have a DW snare that sounds fantastic. It is some sort of 14x5" Nickle finish over brass snare. Their snare hardware, like Tama's is SOLID. Ludwig stuff works just fine, but it is old-school and not worried about making any fancy refinements to some known deficiencies. LOL. It works just fine for the most part.

Cymbal stands and such. I have been a fan of Tama hardware for a long time. I still use it today. I have some old as fuck Tama gear that works just fine. I got new RoadPro series stuff for my main kit that I dig a lot. Good value for the money. Remember, just because it looks beefy doesn't mean that it IS beefy. Double braced hardware has its place but there are some bad stands out there too. Most will work just fine. If buying new, I would consider Tama, or Yamaha. Yamaha makes FANTASTIC hardware that will out last just about everything out there. But... it is usually more expense. Even there single braced hardware is far stronger than most companies double braced hardware.

DW is too complicated and expensive for your average stand. The more moderately priced Pacific, or PDP brand, (same family of design as DW) is far less expensive and is pretty good from what I hear from other's on drum forums.

If you find a listing for something that you want to ask about, don't be shy. Pictures and details help a lot to figure out what we are looking at.

Talk to you soon.
-RB

[Ancient Astronaught]

So this is what has me mainly considering sell alot of my guitar gear:



http://www.ebay.com/itm/121500103399?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Dark Horse Drum Kit

I am selling my dark horse custom drum kit.

This kit has been absolutely incredible to me. I've take it on 3 separate tours across the United States and it's still a work of art.

The sizes are

26x16

18x16

14x9

These drums are huge and you'll know the first time you play them.

The floor Tom has memory locks to help keep that constant position you find perfect.

It's maple with a dark oak stain.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He keeps dropping the price every other day so he obviously wants to move it, as mucha s I would not want to I could put it on credit and pay it off as stuff sells.... guh...

[conky]

You better jump on that shit before I do.