Naugahyde my friends - kit update

[Captain Nemo]

Well, still exploring my new 'stand up' world and trying to get good sounds and positions right now.

I've tuned my Peter Erskine 10" picolino DOWN quite a bit. I am amazed to find a deep snare sound of all things. Then, I decided I didn't like the ringy toms anymore. This comes from my years playing digital sampled triggers. Seems I have to have a studio dead sound or I'm not happy. Too much ringing seems loud and disturbing to me. So what did I do? I covered my toms and kick in NAUGAHYDE! - more precisely, vinyl.

Wow, does this sound better. Red vinyl sounds good. I got this idea from the Brazilian drums I saw at a drum shop. They call it Napa and it is made by a company by the name of Contemporare. You can get a 16" head in naugahyde from them for about $40 bucks. I did my whole set for $6. This vinyl has a thin pad behind it. It seems to take a beating so far and it sounds good.

The other thing I like to do is tune the top head high and the bottom head low. This gives the pitch a dive sound. I like that.

Still experimenting with my new hand/hihat technique where I use my hand to get a closed sound and open for an open sound. Takes some coordination, but it reminds me of Buddy Rich.

Everything is different now, this is really opening up my playing, but giving me new challenges to figure out as well. I'm hooked.