Thoughts on Purchasing a Drum Kit

[drum4fun]

I am hoping to purchase a bebop drum set by the end of the year. (Unfortunately, I was not able to go to the NAMM show this year.) I am looking into Yamaha's New Absolute Maple drums. What are your thoughts and opinions on these drums? How would you compare them to say Pearl's Masters Series and/or Tama's Starclassic Maples? Any thoughts, opinions, and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your help.

[Dazzler]

I can't comment on the kits you've mentioned, but check out this shop. My friend went to New York, found it and bought his 'custom' kit. You can get and drum, in any size, in any ply, with any finish. He designed his own jazz or bebop kit as you would say and it sounded beautiful, I was very impressed. So if you have an idea of the sizes you want, you can specifically make your own kit to order.
Have a look at the site and see what you think... good luck!

http://www.themoderndrumshop.com/index.html

[palmerlouie]

Yamaha drums are very nice indeed. they seem to have a very metallic sound to them which is great for anything loud or funky but im not sure for be-bop. and it depends on ur set-up because for me the fittings and hardware (u may be buying hardware seperatly) is just as important. when u get to top of the range drums the diffence in sound is not going to be overwhealmingly noticable.....they are all goin to sound nice! pearl drums have always been my fav....they sound gorgeous, look gorgeous and IMO the fittings and
hardware is superb. very very ajustable and easy to use and very well made. also alot of drum manufacturers (perhaps up until now) did not address the tom mounting system on the bass drum. it did not allow u movement back and forth......pearl has always coped with this due to their long arms.....however Tama have a great new system with a small bit on the bass drum that slides back and forth and is not like sonor or DW where the sliding mechanism weighs just as much as the bass drum!

u will have to go do some research.....listen to the drums and check out fittings etc!!

[palmerlouie]

one question while we are on the topic of be-bop or jazz kits. why is it that all the "jazz drummers" i have seen all have shitty sounding kits. obviously one has to fit in and get into the character of the music......turning up to a diana krall gig with a 22" bass drum and rock'n'roll cymbals aint gonna work......but why cant these guys have melodic nice sounding drums.....jeff hamilton for example.....lovely player but he has a little remo that he tightens till the heads nearly pop and has old cymbals.......peter erskine doesnt use shite stuff......?????

[Dazzler]

Louie, may I suggest that you go and check out more jazz drummers as I would say that most decent and conscience 'jazz' drummers have decent sounding kits. They choose good drums, heads that are sensitive and allows them to play textures, and they tune the drums to sound like drums! By that I mean, they produce notes and are allowed to ring and retain their unique 'drum sound'.
By contrast, I would say the opposite... a lot of so-called 'rock' drummers don't have a clue about drums sounds. They use shitty plastic heads, cover them in gaffer tape and put half their bedroom inside the bass drum, so that the natural drum sound is lost, one kit sounds like another kit and they might as well be playing cardboard boxes, for the amount of drum sound that is retained after all that dampening.... jsut a thought! [img]wink.gif[/img]

[Dazzler]

........also I would definitely disagree about Jeff Hamilton. He uses fibreskin heads to get a warm, vintage sound and feel and he doesn't choke them in the way you described. Go to
http://www.drummerworld.com/drummervideo.html and check him out. Also notice the most melodic and MUSICAL solo he does, quoting a TUNE and using the natural sound and pitch of his kit, bending the toms to get different pitches. Where would you hear a rock drummer playing in that way?

[Dazzler]

Oh dear Louie mate!!! I never went to the Barbican gig, but quite a lot of my friends did. They ALL said, without question that it was try amazing. Brian Blade apparently shone and proved himself the music was incredible. Proper improvising. How can you possibly judge a tune or concert if you walk out after an hour? It says more about you than it does the music. Also, who says that music HAS to have a pulse? It has never been written in stone that music (no matter where it originates or how it has progressed) has to make you tap your feet. It's called IMPROVISING, If you listened to more jazz and maybe had a more open mind, you would forget your preconceptions about what jazz SHOULD be and embrace it, for what it is and CAN be.
I'm not having a go at you personally Louie, it just upsets me somewhat when people tend to close their ears to what is so obviously amazing, creative, genuine music. Incidently, have you read any reviews of the gig? The Guardian loved it.
Please feel free to come back and disagree, these are just my opinions and unlike other people on this forum, I won't cry if you contradict me!! [img]wink.gif[/img]

[palmerlouie]

fair enough......but i went to see a drummer with michael brecker and herbie hancock and he has nastly sounding drums......and about 2 days ago i went to see wayne shorter and it was brian blade on drums and he too had ringy, tight drums.

anyway.....i wanted to start a whole nother post on the wayne shorter gig. i walked out it was sooooooooo shite. now i have ben to many many gigs, latin, fusion, rock, jazz.....and i did understand that this gig was not a fusion gig full of chops, but that it was probably a straight ahead jazz gig.....not normally my thing....but hey its good to check all thses different cats out.

they played one tune (alhought thats not what i would call it) for 1 hr straight and then i walked out but apparantly they kept going. now i hae heard free jazz before but this was taking the piss.........there was NO pulse at all and u may as well have put them in totally different rooms and said" just play man....".........thats what they did. mind fuck! it was shite on a stick.

but what really, really, really fustrates me is that it brought the house down and everyone seemed to love it and his album was at the top of the jazz chart when i walked into tower records before the gig..........now how can that poo be on at the barbican (massive theatre in London) while chick corea and he elektric band cannot get a gig here in england because they dont think enough people will turn out!!!! WHAT!!

there must have been many people who were taken to that gig by friends or partners who were not jazz fans......and they certainly wouldnt become fans after seeing that concert...........no wonder jazz gets a bad name.......put mike stern on that stage and i would not understand why anyone there wouldnt have liked it........his ballards are beautiful and his tunes and so exiting live........i rekon these bands are just poorly promoted cause they dont have the funds to do so and its a never ending cycle of touring small places and getting screwed by places like Jax where CAB played!

it really pissed me off.......how can people like and listen that stuff......it should be used as torture for criminals to get the to confess...........they would be in there for like 2 mins and then just scream!!! "LET ME OUT!!!"

[drum4fun]

Thanks Dazzler & palmerlouie for the helpful comments. I will be sure and check out the Modern Drum Shop in New York.

[palmerlouie]

LOL....cheers dazzler. i just didnt like it.....and probably didnt understand it. someone told me that if i knew wayne and his compositions then i would have seen them pop up in the continuous playing. so i supose as i am not up on that genre of music very much....to go to one gig out of the blue and not like or understand it is probably the most likely outcome. it was just dissapointing to be going to see the "sax player from weather report" and get that.

and the comments about music is that lots of people say jazz or "improvised music" is weird and no wonder its not mainstream.....and the music i listen to isnt weird.....but that gig was and thats whats reaching the mainstream market and to me thats a shame.

when dave weckl came over to ronnies last year......the gig list said...."dave weckl and his band plus support from gerard precenser (spelt wrong)" and then it said "if weckls fusion chops leave u cold, then check out the support"..... and then there was a whole fuckoing article on the support act which on the nite was poo!!!! weckls chops and music is far from cold....its full of emotion and feel and seeing as it was the headline act should not have been talked about like that!!!