Budget Micro Cocktail Kit

[Bruce (the K)]

I've been messing with my Peace Manhattan cocktail kit in order to pare it down and make it easier to carry and set up for our new unplugged format gigs. You might wonder how one could minimize a cocktail drum. Aren't they already minimized?

Turns out, I was able to shrink it down from 3 bags (cymbals, hardware, and 3 drums in a conga bag) to one conga bag. I left off my 10 inch tom and just went with my snare and bass drum clamped together as a single unit. I left off my regular cymbal holders and full-size cymbals in favor of homemade cymbal holders and mini cymbals.

After doing all this, I realized that a "regular" drummer with a few odds and ends lying around could follow my approach and construct a Peace Manhattan-style cocktail kit at a very low cost.

Here's what you need: an old 14 inch floor tom (with legs) and an old 14 inch wood snare drum, both of which you're not afraid to drill holes into. You also need 8 Gibraltar SC-TL2 tom brackets, a 7/16 inch by 36 inch threaded steel rod, two 5/16 inch by 48 inch plain steel rods, and some clamps, felts, and washers for your cymbals.

You mount 3 of the tom brackets, evenly spaced, around the top of the floor tom (in roughly the same fashion as the 3 around the bottom that hold the legs). You do the same with 3 more around the snare drum. (These 6 tom brackets have to line up with each other when the snare is sitting on top of the floor tom.) Now you cut the threaded rod into three 12 inch pieces with a hack saw and use those pieces to clamp the snare to the floor tom, leaving at least an inch or so of space in between. You mount the last two tom brackets on either side of the snare where you want to mount your cymbal holders.

Note: On a typical snare drum, you have 8 spaces between the tuning lugs. Two of them are taken up by the snare mounting point and snare throw-off mechanism. That leaves 6 spaces so you need to choose the spaces for your first 3 tom brackets carefully so 2 of your 3 remaining spaces are where you want to mount your cymbal holders.

I used two 10 inch Paiste splash cymbals (about $30 each) for my high hats and a 13 inch Sabian B8 Pro crash cymbal (about $60) for my crash/ride. I bent the 5/16 inch plain steel rods into Z-shaped cymbal holders and hacksawed off the extra length. I used my clamps, felts, and washers to mount the cymbals on the arms. I figure most of you "regular" drummers have a few small cymbals lying around that you can use for one or the other of these things.

So far, if you already had the old drums and cymbals, you are into this thing for less than $100. (Tom clamps are $10 each through Musicains Friend, plain and threaded rods are about $5 each at any hardware store). You will probably also need a Gladstone-style practice pad that fits 14" snare drums ($8 through Musicians Friend), if you don't still have one of these from your early drumming practice days. It goes on the top head of the floor tom to prevent it from interfering with the snare drum.

Now all you need is a pedal and mounting bracket, and you're good to go. Most folks probably have a reversable pedal lying around but mounting brackets are a little hard to come by. With a heavy enough pedal base, that may not be a huge issue. Remember that you want to raise the heel of your pedal so it's at the right angle for a standing player. It really makes a difference an hour into the gig!

Here's where it could get expensive. To correctly position yourself with the snare straight in front of you, you really should have your bass pedal to the side, not directly under the drum. The only non-vintage option I know of for this is the DW 5000S SideKick pedal. They cost (deep breath) around $200. But the rest of this thing only cost you 100 bucks and now you have separate bass and snare drums in a single unit that is easily transportable and totally cool. Where else can you get all that for $300?

I'll try to post some pictures soon so you can figure out what the heck I'm talking about.

Bruce (the K)

[bongojimi]

Sound very inventive...would love to se Pics
The beuty of Cocktail sets is their individuality....and all the stuff you can hang off of them

Keep up the good vibes


Peace

Bongo

[Spihunter]

i hate to say it but I'm going to see some pics as well. Sounds like a good idea though. I'm all about a buget drum kit.

[Bruce (the K)]

I realized that I left out a crucial bit of info. My Peace Manhattan has a 14 inch diameter x 18 inch length bass drum. When I attach the 14 x 5 1/2 snare to it, with about an inch in between, I have a typical 14 inch x 24 inch cocktail drum.

Since most 14 inch floor toms are 14 or 16 inches in length, you need to make the 7/16 inch threaded rods longer and leave much more space between the drums to make the overall assembly roughly 24 inches long. Then, with typical floor tom legs, the drum will be tall enough to play standing up without the bottom of the floor tom being so high that your beater can't reach it.

This may also mean that you don't need the Gladstone-style rubber practice pad on the top head of your floor tom, if it doesn't make the snares rattle when you hit it with your pedal. That would make your bass drum sound a bit louder, I guess.

Pictures are coming (honest!), just as soon as I pry my daughter's digital camera out of her hands!

Bruce (the K)



This is my stock Peace Manhattan, including the tom and the full-size cymbals on the large stock arms. My micro version has small pieces of threaded bar clamping the snare to the bass drum and home-made cymbal arms made from steel rod. I sent John some photos but I don't know if he'll be able to post them.

[boobus]

First post here, just got authorized. Thanks John!

I'm liking your design here, Bruce. I am about to build a cocktail drum kit for my son, who is just over 2 years old. He is already very interested in my electronic and acoustic drums ets, so I thought I'd make him his own. Hopefully he develops an interest.

Your design is exactly what I'm going for. Because he's only like 30" tall, the main drum I'm building will be around a 14x14" drum, with an additional shallow 14" snare that can mount off to the side. At some point, however, the snare could be mounted just as you have it here, to give the drum more height, and additional small toms, etc added to the side. This way, Dad can play around on it as well.

I decided on a cocktail kit because it's so difficult to build a small-form drum set (which I've done) for a kid. It's nearly impossible to find a bass pedal and throne that work for a little person, and kids that age don't sit still for long anyway.

Thanks for the model, and I'll post progress pics on another thread when I get started. I just got the lugs and wrap yesterday... now I'm needing cheap shells to get going!

[jim kooser]

Hey Boobus, welcome aboard. Can't wait to see how your's turns out.

Jim (JG) Kooser