OK, I'm new and I just bought my kit

[Captain Nemo]

I appeared here for the first time this morning asking some questions on the 'for sale' forum. Not exactly the right place to post for the first time.

Anyway, I checked out the links, the kits and some discussion and already purchased what I wanted. I went into my local music store and pieced together a kit. Here is my letter to my musician buddy who talked me into playing again:

My man,

I've already purchased my cocktail kit. And, is it fine. I thought
about it, and then went to American Music in Fremont. I had a good
talk with a young guy there, Sean, who was REALLY into my project and
was familiar with cocktail drums. What I did is piece together a kit
from stuff they had there. Amazing stuff that were odds and ends due to
returns and stuff.

I got top equipment. Just check out this snare: It is a Yamaha
Absolute maple Peter Erskine - retails for $679



Dude - I also got a matching Yamaha Absolute maple kick drum on its own
DW stand - 15 inch. The bass pedal is so sweet, too. It's blue but I never heard of the company. It is very smooth and cheap - but works...well.

The snare mounts on a stand with a tom and cymbals. I got a fine
Ludwig 8 inch tom with special 'RIMS' hardware and also cymbals I
picked out. I couldn't believe my ears, but I actually loved this
ride/crash cymbal I got made in China called 'STAGG.' But it is NICE. It is thin so that it will 'crash' without much effort and has a decent ride sound. I also got a set of hit-hats from the same company.
Sweet. Heavy duty Tama stand holds all this. The bass sits on the floor in
its own rack. The drums are all natural maple finish. Oh lord it's
sweet.

Set me back one grand. $1,000.

The nice thing about this set-up is that I can add to it and even sit
down if I wanted. I'm not committed to standing although I really like
the idea and will play it that way.

I think I did real well considering I got a bass pedal and cymbals for
under a grand. And especially because of that snare - concert quality.
Just great.

[mangorockfish]

Put the sticks down and pick up the camera. NOW!!! and post some pics. Oh BTW, welcome to the forum. Alot of info floating around here.
Mangorockfish

[Captain Nemo]

Thanks Mango, I'm just sitting around right now tripping on all the beautiful cocktail drums in that section of the forum. Wow, I love looking at these drums and hearing what guys are doing with them. Really great. Nice place to hang out.

Well, the pics will have to wait for a couple weeks because I had to order the DW bass drum stand. I don't want to take any pics till I have it all set up and ready to go. But you're gonna like it. I think they said my Ludwig 8" tom is birch. Sounds great too.

I have been wanting to get a nice snare anyway because I sort of miss playing concert snare music and wanted to take lessons again and read some music (I used to be in the Army band). So, here I ended up with a beautiful 10" snare (4 inches deep). It is large enough for brushes and sounds great with tons of sensitivity.

I guess I could still add a deep floor tom, but it would have to be REAL deep to reach me up here. I might end up getting something like a conga drum with a tom head - if that is possible. It's gonna be a little hard to not have a floor right there - that cuts into my triplet fills.......

[multiperc]

Yo Nemo.

Before I built my cocktail kit, I was using a very similar setup to what you describe (I think).

I had a 5x10 maple snare mounted from a sturdy cymbal stand which also held fixed hats and a couple of smallish stacked cymbals. I used a 12x14 tom which was mounted toward the bottom of the stand and a traditional pedal with a makeshift support so it would stay put under the tom. I also used a mambo bell and a jamblock (!) Tuning the tom to sound big was an interesting challenge but with some trial and error I got is sounding cool. I used this setup for a while and got comfortable standing and playing. Prior to that (decades ago) I played a few gigs standup as a novelty, with a kick and snare.

Give it a go, it's a freakin blast! You'll probably learn some things about your drumming that you didn't know before. If at some point down the road you want to go with a cocktail-style 'big' drum you can integrate some of this new gear, and ALL of your experience. Good luck and have fun.

[Captain Nemo]

Well, here's what I did today......I decided NOT to get the small 15 inch bass drum and DW cradle. That was gonna be $250 bucks. And that 15 would never have the proper bass sound I wanted.

Then it dawned on me.....why not get a regular kick drum since all my other stuff is hanging on a stand? So, I looked all over the web for a kick drum - used. Not really easy to find. So, I looked on the local Craig's list - no go. Just drum sets. Then I went out today to check out two or three local music shops.

In the first place, they showed me a stray Gretsch - $350 bucks!!!! What???? They had a real ratty looking 24 - about the same money. The guy said, "Hey, you might do better just buying a whole used kit." He showed me a real cheap kit with tinny hardware. That ain't gonna do. THEN he showed me a NICE kit - 22 inch bass, 2 toms and a 16 floor with LONG LEGS. Hummmmmmmmm.........

This thing was wine colored and in good shape AND they sounded GOOD! The bass was very deep, dead and sharp. Just what I wanted. And the floor tom is very loud and deep. It is made by a company called Verve. Not thick shells, but they looked alright. Have no idea what the wood is. Light colored. Ash? Maple? Swampwood? Would anybody know? Well, it sounded just fine. The price? $129!!!!!!!!!

SOLD.

I also bought a black Evans mic/ready bass head for the thing. It's gonna look great. Stand by for pics this weekend!!

I feel a little weird basically having a regular kit that I stand up to. Not exactly what I started out wanting. But anyway, i can always get a 'great drum' or buy a Peace Manhattan or something so that I can fit in here better. All the other stuff will be taken care of at that point.

[multiperc]

Just a thought for you...

Since you also have this floor tom (with long legs), you might want to try using it upright as a kick/tom. Several pkayers around here have done just that and have some slick kits as a result. In your case you'd have a couple setup options because you also have the traditional kick. Note, in order to do the vertical kick/tom, you'll need to reverse the cam on your pedal so that the beater strikes upward.

There's a good piece on how to modify your pedal at this site, and also look at some recent projects here that are similar to what I'm describing. On occasion I play (sitting) with a 16x16 as a kick/tom and it's a cool variation on the theme.

Check it out, it might float yer boat.

[Captain Nemo]

Great idea, but the floor tom is just not tall enough to be both a kick and a tom. But I didn't know you could convert a regular pedal. I was just assuming you guys were buying these upside down pedals somewhere. I could easily buy another pedal because I only paid $19!!! for my 'Big Dog.' A very nice pedal, by the way. By the looks of it and its smooth action, I thought it must be about $125. $19????????

So, what I will eventually do is get another pedal, reverse it and then buy an actual 'cocktail' drum with a tom tom on top - preferably separated from the bass. THEN I'd have a real cocktail. Well, almost - cause I think if your a purist you'd want all the extra cymbals and snare coming off of the one drum.

[multiperc]

Capn
Check out these links on this site...may shed some light on your questions/comments:

http://www.cocktaildrum.com/rap/viewtopic.php?t=489

http://www.cocktaildrum.com/learn/construct/pedal/

http://www.cocktaildrum.com/models/astoria/astoria.html

and on building a drum: http://www.cocktaildrum.com/learn/const ... nsdon.html

Also as John suggests, use the search function on the site (ie keywords sitting, standing, reverse pedal, floor tom, height.... )

[Captain Nemo]

Thanks for the links.