My new "arena-rock" stand-up kit

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Bruce (the K)
Posts: 48
Joined: Sun Aug 27, 2006 12:06 pm

My new "arena-rock" stand-up kit

Post by Bruce (the K) »

:wink: I finally got a digital camera and figured out how to get pictures onto my computer. (Not sure when I turned into such a Luddite. I used to teach Electronic Technology!)

I wanted to post some pictures of my new stand-up kit. I've always been a cocktail drummer and I wanted to experience the big bass drum sound. I have a Peace Manhattan that I love with a 14 x 18 vertical kick drum. I really felt the lack of a true bass drum on outdoor gigs where we're playing at a little higher volume.

Anyway, I saw these 'drum-set in a box' kits and thought I might be able to have two drum sets, one indoor and one outdoor. I bought a Ludwig Fuse (or Fusion) set for $400 and a second (Pearl) wood snare for $100. I also bought about $100 worth of Gibraltar floor tom leg clamps (like the ones that hold my Peace Manhattan together). I already had a DW Sidekick foot pedal for my new cocktail kit so all I needed to buy was one more 14 inch crash cymbal and a boom-style cymbal stand ($100 for both) and I had two complete kits. (Of course, I already had good cymbals and lots of percussion toys that I could reuse. Still, I think $700 for two journeyman-quality drum kits is pretty decent.

Here's a couple photos of my outdoor kit. (I'll post some of my new cocktail kit later.) I really liked the black-on-white color scheme but I couldn't find a snare to match so I got the black Pearl 14 x 5.5 wood snare. I took the mounting bracket off my little 10 x 8 tom and mounted it on the snare and voila! I had a snare in the perfect place to play standing up. My right foot is right where I want it to be for the bass-drum pedal and everything else is in easy reach. I took the pedal off the hi hat stand, since I've always played passive hi hats and I didn't want to lug it around. I added an LP jam block, a Meinl Hi Hat tambourine, and an industrial-strength 8 inch Rhythm Tech cow bell on the back of the bass drum (facing me).

I've used it for a couple gigs so far and I really love playing it, although I haven't managed to tune the bass drum properly yet. (Pretty boomy.)

I will post photos and instructions on how to create a cocktail kit from the left-over pieces (14 x 14 floor tom for the kick, 14 x 5 snare drum, and 10 x 8 tom). The key is getting a drum set with a 14 inch floor tom so you can mount a standard 14 inch snare above it with clamps and threaded rod from a hardware store. The Ludwig Fuse set works but PDP has a drum-in-a-box set with a 14 x 12 inch floor tom that would probably also work and I've seen those online for $300. You've got to get a set with double tom risers so you can mount a snare on one and a tom on the other.

Let me know what you think, guys.

Bruce (the K)
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I've got my mutes installed. That was my wife's one condition for me getting this drum set.
I've got my mutes installed. That was my wife's one condition for me getting this drum set.
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