A little help, please? - Remo Coffee House Drum

[Reland]

A few years ago I saw a guy playing something similar to the cocktail drums I see on this site, but instead of looking like a part of a jazz/rock drum kit it looked like a shortened conga. So it was similar to the Remo Coffee House Drum, but the one I saw also had curved sides like a conga, but with a few inches cut off the bottom to make it shorter and wider. The guy played sitting, with brushes or bare hands.

So does anyone out there know what this thing is called or where I can get one? In my band one percussionist is attempting to do the job of two and it would be nice if he could put his feet to good use...

Thanks, guys.

[fw]

Sounds like a custom job to me. I don't know if your percussionist is into experimentation, but if there's a good drum shop in town, he could find a cheap tumba somewhere, chop it down, get the store to recut the bearing edges, and maybe fit a remo mondo head with hand-drum style claw and hook hardware to the bass side to both get a bass sound and compensate for the curvature of the drum shell. To mount it, he'd just need floor tom hardware, and a flat-base pedal with velcro on the bottom would eliminate the need for mounting the pedal.

I don't know if you run into issues with chopping down a stave construction shell. I do know it's way easier to find cheap congas now than it was when I was looking for a set, so experimentation isn't as costly these days.

You know, if he doesn't mind carrying around another drum, he could just convert a floor tom to a bass drum and play it the traditional way. Then the congas can just be the congas and the bass drum can be the bass drum, but he wouldn't have to lug a gigantic bass drum around. Or, there are always bass drum triggers, which take up almost no room in the van or on stage.

FW

[jmettam]

Hi Reland,

I remember a few years back (5-7) seeing at least one other Remo drum just like you are describing. It was a typical remo drum (non-wood shell with colorful ethno-covering) It had a slightly-larger-than-the-coffee-house hand percussion head on top and the shell flared out as it went down to an even larger bottom head (I would guess 15" - 16"). The drum itself was probably less than 3 feet tall and it sat on legs with an upward striking pedal. You would definitely need to sit down to play it.

Does anyone else remember seeing this drum and what it was called?

I also remember sitting down and playing it for a second in the store and not liking it the way it was tuned there. The "bass drum" really sounded horrible but perhaps with some tuning?

I like FW's idea for your percussionistof using a bass drum or converted tom as a bass drum. I know that it's not very "cocktail" of me but I have never been that impressed by the remo coffee house drums. Another great product is the gibraltar bass drum pedal/percusion mount:



it lets you mount cowbells, woodblocks, tamborines for use with a pedal. Works great and is relatively small to lug around. I'll add it to the Store under hardware when I have a chance:

http://www.cocktaildrum.com/shop.html

Also, check out Roberto Rodriguez. He is a great percussionist who also plays kit. He makes some cool setups that mix percussion and drum kit. In his current group, El Danzon de Moises, he has a setup with 2 cunga, timbale, bongos, guiro, cowbells, woodblocks, cymbal - plus bass drum, snare drum, and cowbell played with a pedal. He is the only percussion in the group and he covers it all!

http://www.robertojuanrodriguez.com/

Hope this helps!

John

[jmettam]

Ok, so I added the Pearl and Gibraltar percussion pedal brackets to the shop! Scroll to the bottom of the page:

http://www.cocktaildrum.com/shop/chardwr.html

There are also brackets made by Meinl and Latin Percussion. Just follow the links for Musicians Friend!

John

[fw]

I remember it now, from your description, John.

I believe it was designed by Trilok Gurtu for Remo, and it was just like you guys described--a conga top with a "bass drum" bottom. I think he also had a floor-mounted snare drum and some spring drums and a few other tricks one year when he was the new uberdrummer on the scene. Man that guy is amazing.

I never saw one in the stores, but I remember it in catalogs. I'm wondering if with those mondo heads on top if you end up with a really nasal overtone on the bass on that drum and the coffee house drum. It seems like you'd need to dampen the bass to reduce that effect. Of course, if it's played in conjunction with the conga part of the drum, the top head would never have any time to build up sustain, so maybe the bass wouldn't be an issue.

I used to own a Remo Legero set, and it's crazy how that acousticon material works. The snare drum was one of the best snares I've ever played (I sold it anyway because I don't like piccolo snares--they speak too fast for me) and the high tom was really cool. But most of the other drums were fair to worthless. Something about all the Remo drums I've heard--in the right sizes, they are world class. In the wrong sizes, they squawk. Jeff Hamilton's Remos sound amazing. In general, I like how innovative Remo is, and if once in a while the experiments fail, at least they tried to add something to the sound palate.

You know, another hand drum option might be to get a remo mondo floor tom. For a while, they made whole drumsets with synthetic hand drum heads. I never got to hear one, but I kind of dug the idea. Of course, very few drummers have a few grand to spend on a novelty drumset. But you can still track down NOS Mondo floor toms online for around $2-300.

FW

[jmettam]

Another cool trick that I've seen several drummers do, and I do as well, is to use a djembe instead of a snare. You can play it with blasticks and brushes and it sounds nice and tight (without the low end) with a cool crack to it. Then you can play it with your hands for a real hand drum part.

I sometimes use a kit for a balkan/macedonian modern jazz group "Paradox Trio" I sub for. The kit is usually:

16x16 floor tom/bass drum with cocktail pedal
12" tambora (with the big heavy jingles) as a mounted tom
djembe as snare/hand drum
hi hat and cymbals

This setup works great for any kind of ethno stuff. I also use it for some acoustic folk/singer songwriter stuff and it's really cool!

[Guest]

http://www.remo.com/portal/products/6/1 ... conga.html
Anyone use this or have any experience with it? I am very interested in trying one out, but can't find them anywhere . ..