New Empire cocktail kit arrived: the skinny

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 11:51 am

Hi all, Jeff the Guest here.

I got my new Empire cocktail kit delivered yesterday and it's about what I expected. The hardware is pretty low tech and would probably have been "high" tech about 35 years ago. The heads that came with it are junk, but I had some Remo heads around that fit the 8 and 10 inch toms and after tuning them up, the sound pretty darn good! Kind of like a mellow timbale.

The biggest gripes are of course the "floppy' bass drum pedal that's pretty cheap and noisy. Also it REALLY IS tough to get your balance and play standing up. The second biggest gripe is getting the bass and snare on the same drum to sound good. But I really need some MUCH better heads on this drum to even begin to peck at this problem. I'm thinking Powerstroke 4 on the bottom and a coated Ambassador or even Diplomat, as suggested on the snare batter head. I'm also thinking about getting an external muffler than clamps on the top of the snare batter head.

Well, I'll probably order all this from a catalog because I don't see too many stores carrying 15 inch heads, especially a coated Diplomat

fw · Post by fw » Tue Jan 18, 2005 5:24 pm

I know this is usually bad form, but I had some luck the other day cranking the top head, then detuning the two lugs near the snare fan. I still need the baffle to eliminate snare rattle from the bass drum, but it kind of dechoked the snares while keeping the rest of the head high enough to sound like a snare instead of a field drum.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 5:32 pm

Does anyone use the Remo Muff'lrs? You know, those big foam circles attached to the plastic hoop deal...? I'm thinking about plunking one of those on top of the bottom skin and just keep the stock skin for now. Or should I just buy a good head instead?

mangorockfish · Post by **mangorockfish** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 9:28 pm

Congrats Jeff on the new drum and welcome to the Cocktail Kit family. Yeah, I use a Remo Mufl ring with an Evans Hydraulic head on the bottom of my 14" drum and it sounds pretty darn good. I do have a seperate snare though and use the top of the main drum as a floor tom.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 1:40 am

Well, this is going to be a project from hell. First of all, I was tuning the bottom skin and one of the swivel nuts busted. Cheap Taiwanese crap! Luckily they included an extra swivel nut... probably had this happen MANY times before. Also, I scored a slightly used Aquarian clear head from the bargain bin at the Guitar Center and it only cost me $2.50. However... the size of the drum, it turns out is NOT 15 inches as the seller said, but actually 16 inches.

I have the original heads on there (again... cheap Taiwanese crap) and a small throw pillow inside that rests against the bottom head. But I'm so far off from getting any decent sound out of this thing. I'll try the Remo Muff'lr on the bottom and a coated Diplomat on top.

Jeff

Post by **jmettam** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 10:05 pm

Hey Jeff,

Just hang in there and you'll get it...

In case you decide to (or need to) replace some of the hardware there are a few places around that sell parts pretty cheap. The one I hear a lot of people using is American Music Drumparts:

http://www.amdrumparts.com/

They have lug casings for around $3 a pop so with your 12 lugs you'e talking a $36 additional investment for trouble free tuning! Of course then you're going to be tempted to do the leg clamps and tom arms too!

One step at a time...

John

mangorockfish · Post by **mangorockfish** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:04 pm

Jeff, These Cocktail Drums are an entirely different animal. Even the more expensive ones take a lot of tweaking to get them the way you want them and are comfortable with. Like John said, "Hang in there". We're all here for you if you need support, moral or otherwise.
Also try: drummaker.com. They have a lot of good stuff.
Mangorockfish

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 3:56 pm

Well, I ordered some heads, a Remo coated Ambassador for the top (they were out of Ambassador Diplomats and didn't expect to get an order for a couple of months) and a Powerstroke 4 for the kick side. I went with that Tone Foam long strip stuff that I can cut and add or take away from the bass drum.

I was messing around with the kit yesterday with the stock heads and playing with some brushes and got a kind of jazzy/rockabilly groove going. I'm really starting to dig this kit. It was cheap but it's fun to play and I LOVE the little tom toms!

Jeff

palacki808 · Post by **palacki808** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 3:48 pm

He's right, it does take time. I took two years getting a decent cocktail drum. I bought one that was just falling after the first month, a second drum that did the same thing and finally found a nice one that's reliable for weekly gigging.
I've been playing my new cocktail set for several months now and I'm having no problem playing gigs. It will be a long time before I am going to be completely comfortable on it however.
On a side note, if you need 15 inch heads go though the shop here on the forum to musicians friend. They have 15 inch remo heads in a few varieties. If they give you trouble, there's also drumworld in castleshannon and Volkwein's music in pittsburgh. Look those places up as a last resort because their shipping costs are a little high.

-Joe

cocktaildrum.com