Cheap Cocktail Kits on e-bay

[Chris Gravestock]

Cocktail kits going cheap

Here in UK cocktail kits are as rare as hen?s teeth. I have never seen an old one. Ever. I did see a Club Jordan second hand. I was intrigued. But not enough to pay ?500 for a kit I would not use very often. Then I saw this ?powerful sound frontstage drum kit? on e-bay UK and bid. I won it for ?102! At that price (two restaurant meals for two) I figured I could not only justify it, but also perhaps modify it. I tried to get the other one but someone outbid me and got it for ?127.

Three stages to a cocktail kit.

First stage: ?buy now? for ? 259 or wait for it to be offered as an auction item and bid at the last minute.

Second stage: unpack cymbals and throw them away. Remove drum heads and throw these away too. Replace drum heads with something sensible (emperor on bottom, ambassador on top and 10? tom and maybe diplomat on snare) and set kit up. Put real cymbals on cymbal holder and attach cowbell (this is actually reasonable). Attach bass drum pedal bracket to legs and attach pedal. This is a double chain drive with base plate. It?s brilliant and must be worth about ?90 minimum.

Third stage: try and work out how to play what is now a usable ?Club Jordan? copy.

In the future it could do with an underhead snare on the 15? cocktail drum, and maybe a groove wedge. The holders for the tom and snare could do with replacing too as they offer no ?tilt? facility, but then I guess they probably didn?t in the 1950s either.

Chris Gravestock, England.

[Bruce (the K)]

Hey Chris,

Welcome to the wonderful world of do-it-yourself modified cocktail drums. I saw these same kits on the US version of Ebay. The pictures looked a little scary and I assumed the cymbals were scrap metal from the git-go but I wondered whether the drums and other hardware were even worth bothering with.

I guess for the price you paid, it's worth a gamble. How is the quality of the finish, the shells themselves, and the bearing edges? And how does the kit sound, now that you have decent heads on it?

Bruce (the K)

[Chris Gravestock]

Hey Chris,

Welcome to the wonderful world of do-it-yourself modified cocktail drums. I saw these same kits on the US version of Ebay. The pictures looked a little scary and I assumed the cymbals were scrap metal from the git-go but I wondered whether the drums and other hardware were even worth bothering with.

I guess for the price you paid, it's worth a gamble. How is the quality of the finish, the shells themselves, and the bearing edges? And how does the kit sound, now that you have decent heads on it?

Bruce (the K)

Hi Bruce,

I'm not sure that these are the same - those on US ebay seemed to be called Empire and the lugs look slightly different - but I guess they are all made in the same factory in China.

The finish is ok - cheap red laquer over bass wood shell, but it does show the grain and looks ok, if not as cool as Yamaha's pink sparkle. The hardware varies. The legs, tom bracket and, up to a point, cymbal holder are fine, the pedal is great and the tom/snare holders suck - they are bent metal rods and allow no tilt facilty - ok if you want a totally flat setup but...I might have to do something about them. The bearing edges seem to vary - fine on the 15 cocktail drum, iffy on the others. They could all do with a light rub down with emory paper.

I now have coated emperor on bottom, coated ambassador on tops and fyberskin 3 on snare and they sound good. The cocktail drum's bass response is really good, but I still can't decide whether to keep the felt strip I installed or not. The top is fine as a floor tom and the 10" sounds great. even the snare sound ok - for an 8" snare.

They aren't Club Jordans, but for a first cocktail kit at about 1/10th the price it's fine.
Chris