adding wood hoops

[palacki808]

A friend of mine sent me this link:
http://www.precisiondrum.com/html/maple_hoops.html

He ordered maple rims or hoops (whatever you call them) for his entire set. Its not a cocktail set, but I don't see any reason why you couldn't use them on cocktail drums. I'm guessing that these could really give any drum a solid sounding rim click.

He still hasn't told me what it has done for his snare, but I'll post what he has to say when I hear from him.

-Joe

P.S. even though my friend hardly ever plays a cocktail set, he still agrees that cocktail drums are awesome

[Dinkus]

oops

[Dinkus]

Here's my wood hoop set up. The tom hoops were from Precision and the Cocktail hoops from Anderson. I've been playing a full kit for years with the wood hoops. Love em.
http://www.angelfire.com/music6/drums1/newdrum.html
Dinkus

[fw]

Dinkus, that set is gorgeous!

Did you do the finish yourself? Can you describe it? How difficult was it?

Thanks!

Will

[Dinkus]

Thanks for the compl. on the kit. I get quite a lot of them for this and my sit down kit of the same color. I actually use the toms for both setups. It was really easy to do. These aren't blemish free finishes but it looks pretty damn good from 2 feet away. I was gonna take lots of pics for this build but due to time, I just didn't. The steps I take in the finishing is to do a light sanding on the shells. I use a powdered wood stain that mixes with water. I apply it with a rag, two coats on the shells. I do another light sanding then I applied a light layer of clear coat. This came from a spray can. It wasn't the best but with some patients and light sandings in between coats you get an ok turnout. I applied about 6 coats total. The only downside is that both clear and stain are water saluable so Stay Out Of The Rain!!!! The great thing about this is that I can and have during the years added more shells or wood rims. Over time the stain darkens a bit but still looks good. In the pics I have the toms have toured 5 years in clubs mostly 6 nights a week in smoke and booze. The cocktail was fresh painted. They match not too bad. I hope this helps

Dinkus

[fw]

Definitely--except for one sort of unrelated thing. In the picture of your club jordan, it looks like you have a timeless timber DW set in the background! As someone who has narrowed his dream drumset down to a Gretsch, Premier, or DW, I was just curious why, if that DW kit was yours, you opted to make your own drums (you mentioned that the toms on your cocktail set are from a conventional set you built). Is it that you don't want to tour with the DW's? Or are you dissatisfied with them?

Congratulations on a great drum project. Oh, and I re-listened to your club jordan sounds again and think you get an amazing tone out of your drum. I'd love to hear some samples of the new set.

Will

[Dinkus]

Hey Will, that DW kit is a 25th Anniversary kit. The reason I built a kit was that after a year in the road with it I was getting a little pissed at club owners and managers who thought it was fine that anyone (headliner, opener or jammers) could play my very expensive kit without even buyng me a beer. I used to say give me your keys to your car or let me sleep with your wife. Eventually I just did the best thing and pulled them off the road. I was used to playing birch kits so this kit sounded a little off to me. Now when I play the DW's (about once a year) I love them. On stage the kick feels a little weak but out front we get a pretty good sound. The toms are awesome and the snare it pretty good too. The DW's are like a punch in the face from the old Tyson and the yellow kit is like hanging with your best friend drinking your favourite drink. Anyway I wanted to build a world class sounding kit on a budget of $2000.00. And a 4 piece yellow kit is what I built. They have been one of the best kits overall I've ever heard and played. I've owned about 11 kits mostly top of the line stuff. The great thing is you get to order what you want and build pretty much to your own specs. If they get trashed or god forbid stolen, I can hopefully replace them.
It will be awhile until I can get some samples of the Yellow Cocktail kit. I had a flood in our studio and lost some gear. This happened last year at the same time due to a broken nut on the hotwater valve. Should be about Feb. until I see the gear again.

Dinkus

[fw]

I know the feeling in regards to gear loaning--it's one thing when you know the guys using your stuff, but it's really unnerving when strangers in really heavy bands use your stuff. One of the things that led to my quitting my last band was that our singer always told other bands they could use my drums without checking with me first. So punk drummers used to bashing away on duct-taped, pinstriped Pearl Export kits with cheap cymbals would use the same technique on my '62 Slingerland Gene Krupa kit with a bass drum-mounted ride and mostly hand-hammered or vintage cymbals. Even when I started using my goofy Ludwig kit with a homemade tom and a bunch of marching drums for the bass and floor toms, I still was nervous about people destroying my cymbals and coated ambassadors. We had a lot of financial problems in my band, and I didn't like the idea that I'd lose money playing in the band every time I needed to replace heads. I do like that my Ludwigs aren't really worth much and can be replaced easily. The 10" is a Keller shell, the floor toms are converted marching snares, and the bass drum is a 10x26" scotch bass drum. So I ended up with a really nice looking and sounding maple drumset for about $250 in parts. I had to buy the shell and hoops, and silver sparkle material for the high tom (it was my cocktail set tom), a couple 15" hoops, legs for the bass drum, and a few heads. I still have to upgrade my mounts for the floor toms eventually--I figure by the end I'll still be under $250. All the marching drums were given to me by my schoo's band director in return for helping with some spring cleaning. Silver sparkle is a nice material, because once I cleaned the shells and took off all the snare strainers and unnecessary hardware, I just plugged the holes with mashed up tin foil. I cleaned up all the chips on the bass drum hoops with a black sharpie--you can't notice they haven't been repainted from two feet away. 15x12 is a surprisingly good floor tom size.

Anyway, two more questions--what sort of bearing edges did you go with on your cocktail set? I'm wondering if razor sharp double 45s are the way to go to enhance resonance off the top head, since the snares always seem to choke cocktail drums.

Also, could you see a DW set in jazz sizes (12/14/20) actually sounding right for jazz? I like DW for their amazing quality and finishes, Gretsch for their jazziness, and Premier for their toms--the undersized shells make the toms sound like tympani to me. I figure I'll only own one pro, top of the line set in my life, so I want to make a good choice. I've already got top of the line DW hardware, so I'm set there. My style is sort of a funk/jazz/rock hybrid--kind of Mitch Mitchellish, and I like vintage sizes and the look of vintage drums. I play single bass, but if I ever start playing double, I'll use two bass drums. I'd probably get more drums than I need in my ideal set so I could swap them out according to the gig, like I do with cymbals. But I probably couldn't afford two bass drums, so I'd want something that works across the board--probably a 14x20" or 16x20". Tom wise, I'd go 7x10" (maybe), 8x12", 14x14", and probably 16x16". If I did get two bass drums, I'd probably go 18x16" and 26 or 28" by something--I'm not sure. I'm tired of 22" bass drums, and I've always loved 20's. I think 18's are cool but don't work well for rock. My 26x10 is really cool, and has a nice boom to it but enough speed and presence to make it versatile--the sound doesn't get lost like it might if it were 18" deep.

Anyway, do you think a 10/12/14/16/20 DW set in jazz sizes would be too heavy sounding for jazz? I doubt it would be too light for rock. How do DW's react at low volumes?

Thanks!

Will

[Dinkus]

On my cocktail kit I have the 45's for an edge as well as reinforced bering edge. I just perfer the tone. It is a little less noticable on my cocktail kit due to dampening. I wouldn't hesitate going with a rounded edge though. I guess it's all preferance. As for DW jazz kits they would probably be just fine. I've seen some small jazz kits that sounded great on the drum shop floor but they do have their own tone. DW's are very sensitive so they would be fine at low volumes and very articulate. You wouldn't have a problem with them. Gretsch are still one of the kits I'm searching for. I'm on the hunt for nice old wine colored kit. I don't think you'll go wrong with any of the kits you've mensioned. I love the sound of Primier snares. I've yet to hear a bad one. I just talked to a fellow today and may be picking up a 60's ludwig kit with gold sparkle next weekend for cheap. I love the hunt for a kit. You can never have too many drums. I'll be back up to 3 full kits and 2 cocktails. We have a bigger house now so there's more room. I still have about 3 kits left to get before I catch up to my girlfriends bass collection.

Dinkus
PS stick to one kick drum, buy a double pedal, less gear, one mic and less tuning problems between the two kicks.