Monster Tiki Rocktail Kit

[murph]

After about 2 months of reading, scheming and planning, the pieces have come together for a kit I'll be playing with The Straight 8s, a 3-piece rock-a-billy band based near Chapel Hill, NC. The Straight 8s play high-energy, traditional rock-a-billy, with elements of surf and swing. Their departing drummer (helluva player and nice guy) plays a trad kit standing up. I've always dug the cocktail kits, but never had a real reason to play one... until now.

The music of the Straight 8s is loud and raucous. Most of the work is on the bass, snare, and ride, and I wanted those voices to be powerful. So, I am using a full size snare in a concert stand, and a 20" ride with 16" crash sharing a stand. The cocktail drum is used for bass and floor tom, and does not have any other mounts for auxiliary percussion. Aside from the cocktail drum and DW 5000S, I'm using snare drum(s), stands, and cymbals that I already use for my other gig.

Dennis Stauffer built me one of his 24" x 16" cocktail drums and painted it flat black with a few coats of low-luster clear over the top. The drum has four leg mounts, and Remo Power Stroke 4 heads (top and bottom - for now anyway). While three legs might have been fine (since I'm not using any drum mounted accessories or hardware), I wanted the fourth leg, since the DW 5000S uses one of those to mount the cam/beater assembly. The resulting setup is very stable, and VERY flexible, in terms of position the drum and pedal any number of ways, to work with the rest of the kit.

The masterful pin-striping that really brings the drum to life, was done by the incredibly talented and creative artist named Igor (based out of Virginia Beach, VA). I just gave Igor a few ideas for color (so both my blue Phattie and green Radio King snare would look good with it), and must have mentioned "tiki", "monster" and "pinstripe" in the same sentence. He had carte blanche on the design, and I told him that it was important that he had a good time painting the drum and doing whatever hit him. Dennis drop-shipped the drum right to Igor's shop, and about a week later, I met him in Norfolk to pick it up. Needless to say I was absolutely floored.






















So, first gig with this kit will be Friday... an outdoor show that draws about 400 people from local neighborhoods in downtown Raleigh. We'll have a small PA for vocals, so I plan to mic the kick, just to help compensate for the smaller diameter drum and the fact that it is vertical (not projecting out towards the audience). I'll let you know how it goes!

Many thanks to Dennis and Igor for their talent and professionalism... you guys rock!! Most folks know that Dennis can be found at http://www.phattiedrums.com

Igor's art and contact info can be found at http://www.igorscustom.com

-murph

[robertm]

Man, that IS a work of art! Excellent work on the painting. Bet it's a real comment-grabber.

[zorf]

" it floored me"

pun intended?

That is one nice looking drum!

[tikifreak]

That is one killer paint job! I love the way the tikis are integrated between the lugs. Versatile color scheme, too.

Yes, I'm jealous.

tikifreak
Dallas, TX

[murph]

Thanks for the kinda words, guys! I take no credit other than knowing the right two guys to talk to, to make the drum a reality.

Had a first gig with it on Friday... definitely got some great response. One guy came up with his niece (a drummer in her school band) and they were both fascinated with the cocktail drum. It was fun to share what I knew about the history of these type drums.

So what about the sound, playability, and any issues?

Sound:
I had the kick side head mic'd, which I have learned is MANDATORY, especially for outdoor venues. Un-mic'd would probably be okay in smaller/indoor situations, but competing against amplified guitar, upright bass, and vocals? Definitely needs to be mic'd. I did not have an overhead mic, and the snare, tom, ride, and crash all projected just fine. We had a wall behind us, which probably helped. I think it's more the vertical nature of the drum (and lower frequencies of the bass head tuning) than anything else that prevents it from projecting.

The drum itself is plenty loud. Matter of fact, the floor tom sound is THUNDEROUS! It does feel/sound very primal when pounding on the drum... especially for driving eighth notes (like one might normally play on a hi-hat or ride cymbal). Playing "Wipeout" style rhythms on the tom is also a blast.

Playability:
For my first gig with this band and on this kit, we played two, 45-50 minute sets. I was pretty spent afterwards, but that was due in large part to the swamp-like humidty, high-temps, and very little in the way of a breeze. My left glute was a little sore towards the end of the second set, but other than that, no real physiological or "body mechanics" type issues with playing standing up.

I will say that it was a helluva lot of fun to be standing and lined-up with the other two guys in the band and not sitting, buried behind musicians and gear (as is usually the case for most gigs). Because I was still a little unsure of the kit, I probably looked down more than scanning the audience, but I'm guessing that will change with time.

Issues:
I had two issues during the gig. One minor and one major.

1) Halfway through the second song, the cocktail drum started leaning away from me. LOL It never fell over, and I was able to make it through the song. When I set the drum up, I basically tightened the floor tom leg mounts about as tight as I usually do for my regular kit's floor tom. Well, the big difference there is that on a regular FT, it only gets subjected to movement/vibration when you hit it. For the cocktail drum, the bass drum pedal is constantly wailing on it, so the lesson learned is to really tighten those FT mounts.

2) I am not completely sold on the DW 5000S pedal. The way the cam/beater assembly mounts to the DW-provided floor tom leg just isn't sturdy enough to keep it from twisting, working loose, and eventually sliding down the leg. On two songs, I lost bass drum all together. The floor tom leg was secured in the FT mount just fine, but the bracket for the cam/beater assembly just doesn't mount securely enough to stay in place. I already positioned the pedal assembly to "pull down" on the beater arm as perpendicular with the ground and the end of the arm as possible (to avoid lateral forces on the cam/beater assembly). It still worked loose. This isn't completely surprising, since it's just a single wing-nut style fastener that is supposed to hold the bracket on the leg. The design is very good, and looks like it should work like a champ, but durnit, it just kept coming loose. I had to check/adjust every few songs to avoid losing the bass drum.

One solution might be to sink a few pins from the bracket into the FT leg, so prevent it from twisting and working itself loose. My fear though is that the rotational force will then transfer to the FT mounting bracket (where the leg attaches to the drum). Machining pins into the assembly will also limit adjustability, but if it solves the problem, might be the way to go. I went with the DW pedal because it would allow me to set up the kit as pictured above. But, I need the pedal/setup to be reliable, even if it's at the expense of optimal drum placement.

We have another gig on Friday, so I'll see if a few tweaks can resolve the issue. If not, I'll probably be offering the pedal for sale in the classifieds section. To be fair, the style of music we're playing is very high-energy... I'm not just "tapping" my toes on this thing. I'm not exactly "going John Bonham" on it either, but the standing position may be putting more force on the pedal than even the heaviest right foot while seated.

Stay tuned!

-murph