Summer Drummin'

Greetings Earthlings!

Hola from Hotlanta.

Well this summer has been quite great to me in all aspects really, I went on a vacation to Crested Butte, Colorado which must be the MOST beautiful place in America and I have also been working hard on my drums, and making a lot of friends along the way.

The spark of all of this drum madness was me searching on eBay when I was bored one day, when I wondered upon a bass drum and tom shell that matched by drum set exactly. This normally wouldn't be an exciting feat for most people, but mine are discontinued and have a distinct fade design so this was a rare find. I've always wanted a double bass kit, even though I have a double bass pedal, it's just not quite the same. Now was my chance, so I jumped on it.

The price was really the most influential factor, the seller only wanted 90 bucks for both shells, although neither of them had any hardware on them besides the factory badge. So I was in for a project, but I knew it would be worth it. And about $200 and a few laboring hours later, it was! So now I introduce you to my new kit setup (I'm new to this blog thing so bear with me as I try to post this picture)

Ah! There we go. Well this is a loose translation of the setup using DW's Kitbuilder so ignore the DW hardware (even though it is very pretty). So here's what you're looking at:

1 22" x 18" bass drum

1 22" x 16" bass drum *yes it turns out the new one is deeper but no biggy*

10" tom

12" tom

12" tom (this one is an inch deeper but I don't know the original sizes)

16" x 16" floor tom

16" x 14" floor tom

13" suspended tom on the left side tuned low being used as a sort of mini floor tom

14" snare

I use Tama Iron Cobra pedals, with a Jr. IC for the hihats.

Cymbals (from left to right)

14" Agazarian China

18" Paiste 2002 crash

10" Agazarian Splash

14" Paiste 2002 sound edge hihats (primary)

16" Paiste 2002 crash

17" Paiste 2002 crash (yes they make 17 inch crashes)

6" Sabian AA Splash

20" Paiste 2002 ride

14" Paiste PST5 hihats (auxiliary hats)

18" Wuhan China w/ rivets (fun sizzly sound)

16" Paiste PST5 Crash (I call it my hidden crash because it is covered by the mass of other cymbals and it's in the very back hehe)

And not pictured are the electronics. Lots of news in this department. Well as of right now I currently have a Roland SPD-S sampling pad hooked up to a Simmons 200W drum amp. However, that will soon be expanding. I am using a (cheap) Ion Alesis drum set and basically dismantling it to scatter the pads around my set (between the toms, above floor toms, etc) for miscellaneous shenanigans and such. It will be run by a Roland brain which I am acquiring tomorrow for $20 (I don't know what model it is yet, but for 20 bucks I don't care).

More on that later. Now back to you, Johnny.