After two years of work, I finally finished my cocktail set! The irony is, I'm selling it this week, as I quit the band I was going to use it in and also Michigan's economy sucks on a variety of levels and I need the money more than a basement full of drums. Still, I have a few days to enjoy it. I'll try to get some pictures up to commemorate the occasion before it's gone.
It's a 15x24" main drum made from two 1960 Ludwig marching drums, finished in silver sparkle with a chrome strip covering the seam between the two drums. I used the left over hardware from the drum to make a 10x8" tom tom, also in silver sparkle, which I'm using now as the high tom on another Ludwig silver sparkle trap set I made out of old marching drums (10/15/15/26). The set has a baffle and two 2 1/2" vents, one in each chamber of the drum. I finished it off with a Pacific pedal and a spare GT logo from my old Mustang. I matched it with a set of 70's 12" A Zildjians and a 17" remix ride.
That's my story.
Will
I finally finished it!
Here you go!
I'll let Will add the commentary:
- John
- John
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mangorockfish
- Posts: 182
- Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2004 10:23 pm
- Location: arkansas
I finally finished it
That is a sweet looking kit. You did a helluv a job on it looks like. Hate for you to sell it after working on it so long, but you know best. 
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fw
Ok, here's the commentary. Thanks to John for posting my pictures and to Mango for the nice comments.
I thought I'd talk about the baffle and the snare fan and what I learned after two years of experimentation.
I would rate my snare sound as a 7/10 and my bass as a 9/10. I think snare sounds are really difficult to achieve on a cocktail set, and if you can get something that's close enough, take it. My snare sounds pretty good for hip hop, funk, drum and bass, or marching stuff. If I use brushes, it can fit in anywhere where brushes would. The bass drum is tight, punchy, and loud. The set over all sounds very tight and punchy--the hi hats are tight, the ride focused, the crash sound on the ride fast, and the tom tom a good mix of tones. So I like the balance.
The snare fan is about 3.5" long and I spread the wires out a bit like Peter does. I attached the wires to the ludwig snare muffler without the muffler pad. Originally I soldered the wires to the bracket, but the solder didn't hold as well as tape. I've found that my best snare tone comes from cranking the top head, which is weird for me, but with a 15" drum made for that low marching sound, it's the best I could do. I also keep the snare wires tensioned very tightly against the top head. The tight tension helps mute some of the ring of the top head and raises the pitch slightly from the pressure. I end up with the equivalent of a very tight birch sounding snare--very dry and cutting. Rim shots are great, and I get the effect of about a fifth pitch drop as I go from the edge of the drum to the center. The sound hole above the baffle helps dry out and open up the snare tone. With the snares off, the drums work nicely as a high and low timbale.
The baffle took some doing, but I think I came up with a system which eliminates snare rattle. If I get any, it's from the shell vibration, but I really can't hear any if the snares are tight. So here's my system--I cut a 15" disk out of thin masonite and used 3m contact cement to glue a 1" disc of craft foam to the bottom of it. Then I took a cue from the Peace Manhattan kit and screwed a Billy Gladstone rubber practice pad to the top of the baffle. The baffle stays secured through its own tight fit--it's just wedged into place. The vacuum practice pad almost completely deadens the baffle, and the screws keep it from falling off when I move the drum. The baffle is about 4.5" under the top head.
For the bass drum, I cut two 14" discs of 1" sound proofing foam and let them float on the bottom head. When I hit the bass drum, the foam bounces into the air to give me first decent attack, then open tone. When the foam falls, it mutes the overtones to keep the pitch low and punch. I found this system worked much better than wedging larger pieces of foam securely against the bottom head--the system ends up working like those Rem-O's that float above the head when the head is struck and mute when they fall. I have a 2 1/2" hole drilled about 4" underneath the baffle to open up the bass drum sound.
As far as refinishing the drum, I used a hair dryer to remove the original blue and gold sparkle wrap, sanded the African mahogany veneer and patched it where necessary with Elmer's wood filler, and used 3M 3NF contact cement and silver sparkle wrap from Precisiondrum.com to rewrap the set. I chose silver sparkle so I could match the tom tom to another set I built out of old marching drums. You can see that set here:
http://matthewcarlson.net/id395.htm
You can here me playing that set if you click on the Temple club links--anchored is pretty good.
I have to recommend precisiondrum.com for refinishing. They have an amazing selection of plastic, and even if they are slightly more expensive than some other places, they are amazing to work with. I botched the tom tom when I first covered it (it's a 6 ply Keller shell with Ludwig hardware leftover from the mahogany/poplar/maple Ludwigs I joined to make the main drum), and they sent me new material free. They are quick to send samples out (as I learned refinishing a slingerland floor tom and tried to find exactly the right white marine pearl), and Gary worked with me to find the right chrome strip to mask the seam where I joined the two drums AND gave it to me free. They also include gromets and inlay strips for free--their customer support is just outstanding. Plus, they helped design the star trek transporter deck back in the sixties--that's pretty cool.
Thanks to Keith, John, Peter, and Dinkus for giving me all sorts of ideas to steal, and everyone else on the sight for the inspiration and encouragement to make my drum sound like I knew it could.
By the way, Pearl has a new snare rake thing I saw in Modern drummer that lets you add an external snare like Dinkus' to congas, djembes, and other hand drums. I think you've started a trend here, John!
Take care.
Will
I thought I'd talk about the baffle and the snare fan and what I learned after two years of experimentation.
I would rate my snare sound as a 7/10 and my bass as a 9/10. I think snare sounds are really difficult to achieve on a cocktail set, and if you can get something that's close enough, take it. My snare sounds pretty good for hip hop, funk, drum and bass, or marching stuff. If I use brushes, it can fit in anywhere where brushes would. The bass drum is tight, punchy, and loud. The set over all sounds very tight and punchy--the hi hats are tight, the ride focused, the crash sound on the ride fast, and the tom tom a good mix of tones. So I like the balance.
The snare fan is about 3.5" long and I spread the wires out a bit like Peter does. I attached the wires to the ludwig snare muffler without the muffler pad. Originally I soldered the wires to the bracket, but the solder didn't hold as well as tape. I've found that my best snare tone comes from cranking the top head, which is weird for me, but with a 15" drum made for that low marching sound, it's the best I could do. I also keep the snare wires tensioned very tightly against the top head. The tight tension helps mute some of the ring of the top head and raises the pitch slightly from the pressure. I end up with the equivalent of a very tight birch sounding snare--very dry and cutting. Rim shots are great, and I get the effect of about a fifth pitch drop as I go from the edge of the drum to the center. The sound hole above the baffle helps dry out and open up the snare tone. With the snares off, the drums work nicely as a high and low timbale.
The baffle took some doing, but I think I came up with a system which eliminates snare rattle. If I get any, it's from the shell vibration, but I really can't hear any if the snares are tight. So here's my system--I cut a 15" disk out of thin masonite and used 3m contact cement to glue a 1" disc of craft foam to the bottom of it. Then I took a cue from the Peace Manhattan kit and screwed a Billy Gladstone rubber practice pad to the top of the baffle. The baffle stays secured through its own tight fit--it's just wedged into place. The vacuum practice pad almost completely deadens the baffle, and the screws keep it from falling off when I move the drum. The baffle is about 4.5" under the top head.
For the bass drum, I cut two 14" discs of 1" sound proofing foam and let them float on the bottom head. When I hit the bass drum, the foam bounces into the air to give me first decent attack, then open tone. When the foam falls, it mutes the overtones to keep the pitch low and punch. I found this system worked much better than wedging larger pieces of foam securely against the bottom head--the system ends up working like those Rem-O's that float above the head when the head is struck and mute when they fall. I have a 2 1/2" hole drilled about 4" underneath the baffle to open up the bass drum sound.
As far as refinishing the drum, I used a hair dryer to remove the original blue and gold sparkle wrap, sanded the African mahogany veneer and patched it where necessary with Elmer's wood filler, and used 3M 3NF contact cement and silver sparkle wrap from Precisiondrum.com to rewrap the set. I chose silver sparkle so I could match the tom tom to another set I built out of old marching drums. You can see that set here:
http://matthewcarlson.net/id395.htm
You can here me playing that set if you click on the Temple club links--anchored is pretty good.
I have to recommend precisiondrum.com for refinishing. They have an amazing selection of plastic, and even if they are slightly more expensive than some other places, they are amazing to work with. I botched the tom tom when I first covered it (it's a 6 ply Keller shell with Ludwig hardware leftover from the mahogany/poplar/maple Ludwigs I joined to make the main drum), and they sent me new material free. They are quick to send samples out (as I learned refinishing a slingerland floor tom and tried to find exactly the right white marine pearl), and Gary worked with me to find the right chrome strip to mask the seam where I joined the two drums AND gave it to me free. They also include gromets and inlay strips for free--their customer support is just outstanding. Plus, they helped design the star trek transporter deck back in the sixties--that's pretty cool.
Thanks to Keith, John, Peter, and Dinkus for giving me all sorts of ideas to steal, and everyone else on the sight for the inspiration and encouragement to make my drum sound like I knew it could.
By the way, Pearl has a new snare rake thing I saw in Modern drummer that lets you add an external snare like Dinkus' to congas, djembes, and other hand drums. I think you've started a trend here, John!
Take care.
Will
-
fw
oh, yeah, if you go the matthewcarlson.net webpage, click samples to hear songs. I said "anchored" was a cool song, but it's not on there. I play on "Cabin by the Lake", "Lost and Found", and "Cry at Angels" under the Temple Club shows, and "Anchored" under the Memory is All LP. The first three is the Ludwig marching set live, the last one is my old Slingerland set in the studio.
Will
Will
Actually Jay Bellerose (Paula Cole) has been using a custom made external snare mounted on a djembe for years! I have a feeling this may be where Pearl copped the idea. I have already been warned that if you come up with something good one of the big drum companies will just take your idea and make it available world-wide.fw wrote:By the way, Pearl has a new snare rake thing I saw in Modern drummer that lets you add an external snare like Dinkus' to congas, djembes, and other hand drums. I think you've started a trend here, John!
- John
paulacole.com wrote:Bellerose's signature sound comes from a combination drum that he built himself, because "it's what I needed at the time." He explains, "What I've been playing with Paula for years is ... this system I rigged up?I had this idea to put snares over the djembe, to make it a snare drum in addition to a hand drum." Played with either bare hands or with standard drumsticks, the combination is what can account for the subtle primal, tribal quality in Paula Cole's eclectic range of sound. When asked if he's worried about imitators taking credit for his design, the artist in him generously speaks out, "It's about sharing it all, and if someone is interested in it, they should just feel free to use it."