back after a two year absence

[ratatattat]

Hello Everybody,
Been some time since I have been here! I had a little accident that has changed the way I play now. I am back to a regular kit sitting down even. I took a forty foot fall off a billboard sign and crushed both of my heels and fractured every bone in my lumbar and fractured my sacrum in three places and broke three ribs. I was in the hospital for a month, then I was in a wheelchair for another two months. NO FUN!
I only missed a few of my band gigs thankfully. I was very lucky actually that I still have my life.
I miss this forum very much and am glad I remembered my password finally. Hopefully I will again be able to stand and play my cocktail drum once more soon. Just a matter of time I reckon.
I look forward to catching up and reading the posts I have missed.
Adios!
Mike

[ratatattat]

I guess nobody remembers me.
Or everybody is afraid to post a reply. I am not looking for sympathy or anything like that.
Maybe a "welcome back" would be nice.
I do miss this site and the interaction.

[robertm]

Greetings and welcome back. It sounds like you've had a really tough time of it! I'm glad you are still with us, and active.

There isn't much activity on the forum any more - the posts are few and far between, maybe one every week or two. It is really sad to see the "scene" kind of fade - this has been a great forum but for some reason there isn't much activity. Sad welcome but such is life, unfortunately.

Take care, man.

[ratatattat]

Thanks Robert! I appreciate that! I see that the site activity is a bit on the slow side.
Thanks again!
Mike

[MusicMan]

Hi,

Welcome back. Sorry to hear about your horrific accident. Glad you are OK and still able to play.

MM

[MusicMan]

Hi Robert,

Glad that you are still keeping this forum going (even with limited traffic). I still play my cocktail drums a few times a year (especially at church gigs). I think it's just that so few people have seen them (and so few drummers have played them). I find that people love cocktail kits when they get to know about them.

I'm putting the final touches on my custom build using all Pearl's new Reference Pure shells and hardware. I'm hoping to get some pictures up on here soon. I had to build several prototypes before I came up with the best design and was ready to take the risk with modifying the expensive shells.

MM

[robertm]

Hey MM. It's great to see some oeople still active here. Sounds like you are on the track to a dream kit - it'd be great to see pictures thereof. That's the cool thing about cocktail drummery (is that a word??) - DIY is not only encouraged, it's revered. Had to sell my kit - forcibly retired from my job. Even on a relatively small income I still will try top build a new cocktail kit - with no extra holes I drilled to experiment with lug placement!

[jmettam]

Hey Mike,

Great to see you back! Sorry I have been offline for a little bit here.

Really sorry to hear about your accident. So glad you are on the road to recovery! I am active on some other forums where there are a few members who have very difficult life situations going on. Always good to know what is happening and that everyone is ultimately OK.

Hang in there, we look forward to you being back on your feet, playing a cocktail kit!

I have a close drummer friend who went through massive foot and ankle reconstruction after his tour bus rolled and he was thrown out the window, up in the air about 30 feet and came down hard on his heel. It was a tough time but he came through it in the end and all was good so hang in there!

- John

[ratatattat]

Thanks John,
Been a long road to recovery.
Finally recovering from many surgeries and ready to try to stand and play once again.

I do like my old radio kings, but I do really miss playing my cocktail drum.
I have sold all but one cocktail set. I still have my slingerland cocktail drum that is a one piece shell
which is fairly unusual from what I understand.

I don't think I can make it through an entire gig yet though.
I don't want to carry a set and the cocktail drum, so I will have to bide my time and just wait until I
think I have the stamina to play an entire gig standing, maybe I will keep a stool handy, just in case I tire before the gig is over.

Workman's comp actually was very good as they paid almost 200K in medical bills etc. etc.
good thing my insurance was paid and up to date!

I hope your friend has a speedy recovery as well! I wish him luck!!
Adios,
Mike

[Baker]

I've been away a while too, but not for the very good reason you have. Good to see you, and good to be seen as well. Peace Brother, and good drumming to you (even if you are sitting)

Baker

[ratatattat]

Thanks Baker.
I love this site.
I love my cocktail drum and hope to be using it sometime in the not so distant future.
Adios,
Mike Long

[Bruce (the K)]

Mike,

I definitely recognize your screen name. I was a frequent poster back when I first discovered cocktail kits but I've been away for quite a while. I was born an exclusively stand-up, cocktail drummer at age 50, when I first laid eyes on one (a Yamaha Steve Jordan). Before that, I always played very rhythmic rhythm guitar, even though my favorite parts in all the records I loved were always drum fills. I just never realized I was a drummer until I found out there was a kit you could play standing up!

I've been gigging a couple times a month for the past 10 years using my Peace Manhattan cocktail kit and loving the vibe. I sing a lot of lead and background vocals (I was always basically a front man in my rhythm guitar-playing days) so I love being able to stand while I sing and play. I know a lot of folks are into stuff using brushes but I'm a classic rock/pop music guy so I do a lot of low volume folk-rock and country-rock stuff using Cool Rods or Blastics. I love the DIY vibe and creativity these kits seem to inspire.

Speaking of which, I recently took my stand-up drum thing to a whole new level. I bought a Ludwig Accent Fuse (or Fusion) set, a drum set in a box with (terrible) cymbals and (not bad) stands and hardware, for about $400. My idea was to make two cocktail sets out of it. One has the 20 inch conventional bass drum, using one of the tom risers to hold a second snare I bought so I can play standing up. The other set uses the 14x14 floor tom, the original snare drum, and the left-over 10x8 tom to make a vertical kit very much like my Peace Manhattan. I had to do a little drilling and mounting of clamps but both sets have come together pretty much as I had envisioned, which is very exciting. I'm going to post about them on this site once I figure out how to get pictures into my computer and uploaded to this site.

Anyway, long way of saying that I too love cocktail drums and I'm very glad to hear that you're still with us and on the mend. I have a colleague who took a serious fall off the roof of a college building (he was working on an antenna), broke numerous bones, and was in pretty bad shape but has recovered. I don't know what challenges you're facing at this point but he's another example of someone recovering and living their life again after a tragedy.

Best of luck.

Bruce (the K)

[robertm]

It's cool seeing there are still folks on this forum, and still playing the beloved style of drum.

Bruce - I'd be interested in seeing what you have done with the drumset - I've been interested in using "secondhand" parts and drums to come up with usable instruments.

Take care, all, and keep playing!

[Bruce (the K)]

I just posted some photos of my outdoor stand-up kit under the Your Cocktail Kit section of this forum. I'm also going to post some photos and some instructions on how I whipped up a Peace Manhattan-style cocktail kit with the left-overs from my new full-size kit. If you have a 14 inch diameter floor tom and a 14 inch diameter snare, you can McGyver a pretty decent cocktail kit with some threaded rod from a hardware store and some floor tom leg clamps. Make your own Z rods or buy some and you can definitely come up with a fun little minimalist cocktail drum set.

I like messing with these things almost as much as playing them!

Bruce (the K)

[robertm]

Very interesting, as Arte Johnson would say ... Shows that once you get infected by the desire to make what YOU want for percussion, ain't no stopping it!