A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO DRUMS

A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO DRUMS

FEATURES

SKIN TIGHT '83

CReem

Dave Patrick

Skin Tight ’83 is our annual salute to drummers and their equipment. Perhaps at no time since we began our annual drum guide has so much diversified equipment been available to the drummer as in this year’s review. Names and addresses of companies have been provided with each piece of equipment reviewed, and we invite you to contact the manufacturers for more detailed information regarding their equipment.

GRETSCH (P.O. Box 1250, Gallatin, TN 37066) Gretsch is celebrating its centennial this year, and, as part of the celebration, they have introduced a limited Centennial Series of outfits which claim to be the “Rolls Royce” of the natural wood finish. Regular six-ply shells are enhanced with centennial finishes, birdseye maple, Car pathian elm, and burl walnut. The series comes with triple-brass plated hardware plus hoops on the shells and tom holders as standard equipment. Reflective gold mylar heads are also standard. This “collector series” will be limited to 100 outfits, regardless of finish or outfit configuration. Each drum is numbered with a commemorative brass plaque and an embroidered Gretsch Centennial satin jacket comes with each outfit.

In addition to the Centennial drum set, Gretsch has also introduced completely brass plated or a combination brass/chrome plated metal shell snare drums. They have previously offered a solid one-piece brass shell, but this was always chrome plated.

The new “Techware” series from Gretsch features a series of wide-angle, double-braced stands. An extra-low sitting snare stand is also available along with three thrones, one a hydraulic. Four new brass drum pedals, an addon cymbal adapter and clamps as well as a variety of cymbal boom stands make up the “Techware” series.

Gretsch has long been known for their top quality wood shell finishes and they’ve added three new finishes this year that are available in any configuration—burnt orange, plum and “hot” pink. The hot pink is the choice of Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom. There is no extra charge for these new finishes. PREMIER DRUMS (c/o: Music Technology Inc., 105 5th Ave., Garden City Park, NY 11040) Premier, the only major English drum company in the American drum market, has always made good drums with amazing quality control and chromework.

Premier’s Royale line is a good quality student drum line featuring a basic three-piece outfit which can be added to, and a basic five-piece set that’s all any young drummer would need. The Royale drums are very reasonably priced and have features offered on many more expensive drumsets. Premier’s Soundwave drums feature birch shells that are slightly undersized in diameter, so that there’s a very noticeable space between the rim of the drumhead and the actual drumshell. This design, similar to a tympani head, enables the drumhead to be tuned tighter for response and still get a low pitched tone. The Soundwave drums are available in regular and power-toms lengths.

Premier Resonator drums are unique from all other drum designs, featuring a twin-shell design that uses a shell within a shell. Resonators have a birch shell with beech reinforcing hoops inside. The shell is lined with another extra-thin shell which forms a tone chamber air pocket. This does two things. It creates a resonating cavity between the two shells for projection, and it leaves the inside shell free of screw holes and tom brackets that inhibit resonance and makes a very eventoned drum.

Premier Black Shadow drums were their first effort at the rock specialty market and have met with widespread acceptance in a very short time. The Black Shadow series features all resonator shells, a custom black wood stain and all power drum sizes with custom name tags. These drums are beautiful and sound as good as they look. Premier prides themselves in the fact that their drums are three-ply lightweight shells that sound as powerful as many super-thick, heavy shelled drums. All resonator drumsets feature die-cast hoops and 2000 series snare drufns.

Premier Snare drums range from student models to drum corps models and everything in between. Premier snares are offered in birch, steel, bell brass and aluminum shells with snares of gut, wire, nylon or a combination.

ROGERS DRUMS (1300 East Valencia Dr., Fullerton, CA 92631) The Rogers drums recently revealed at the Chicago NAMM Show displayed the most progressive ideas from their camp in awhile. Rogers introduced the XL series drums in power sizes (extended length shells) made of eight-ply American maple with memri-loc hardware. Rogers went deep on drum sizes with 18” x 22” and 18” x 24” bass drums and “square” tom sizes. They also showed 10-ply Woodshell Dyna-sonic and Super-Ten snare drums this year.

Rogers marketed expander kits for their drum sets this year, and it’s a good idea. You start with a Londoner Five drumset which is a basic fivepiece and then add one of six prepackaged kits to your set as budget allows.

Rogers also showed their new low-end priced drumsets: the R-360 and the R-380. The R-360 set is a five-piece set with nine-ply shells, soundmaster heads and medium duty stands. The R-380 drumset comes with nine-ply mahogany shells, Remo Ambassador heads and heavy-duty hardware. The 360 sets are available in black, white, wine, red and navy blue, with the 380 available in these finishes plus natural wood. LUDWIG DRUMS (1728 N. Damen Ave., Chicago, IL 60647) The Ludwig drum company began in 1909. William F. Ludwig, Sr. was the inventor of the first bass drum pedal and the first snare drum throw-off. The Ludwig name has been a dominant force in percussion since then, and they are the largest American drum company.

Ludwig recently introduced a semi-pro and student line called Ludwig Standard. The Standard sets come in the traditional five-piece with 22” bass, 12” and 13” toms, 16” floor tom and 5” x 14” wood snare, with a speed king foot pedal and Ludwig’s lighter weight standard hardware. The sets also use the Ludwig studi-Lok double tom holder and Ludwig rocker heads throughout. Standards are available in red, blue, black and white cortex line of drums.

Ludwig’s professional line of drums feature sixply hardwood shells and the new modular hardware. The Modular hardware is designed to offer interchangeable tom mounts, cymbal holders, and hardware accessories and enables the drummer to mount up to six toms on one stand and to mount the floor toms without legs for extra resonance. (To test this idea, hold your floor tom off of the ground and play it, then sit it on the floor and see how much sound goes into the carpet.) Modular hardware is also available to suspend floor toms overhead and behind the drummer, in addition to handling bongos, timbales, triangles and other sound effects around the drumset.

Ludwig’s snare drums have long been an industry standard, known for simplicity of design and dependable performance. More hits have been cut on Supra-phonic 400 snare drums than most other brands combined. Ludwig recently introduced a hammered bronze series of snare drums, and a slotted shell coliseum model wood shell snare made for volume.

Ludwig offers 23 finish colots including their new silver, blue, red and gold silk metallic finishes. YAMAHA DRUMS (Yamaha Musical Products, Box 7271, Grand Rapids, MI 49510) What do Larrie Londin, Tommy Aldridge, Phil Ehart, Steve Gadd, Vinnie Caliuta and David Garibaldi have in common? They’re all badass drummers, and, yes, they all play Yamaha drums. Yamaha offers three lines of drums called Stage series, Tour series and the Recording series.

The Stage series drums, would be considered the semi-pro line of Yamahas and comes standard with Phillipine mahogany shells and five series lightweight hardware. The Stage series are easily identified by their triangular shaped lug and are available in black, white and the new high lustre red finish.

Yamaha Tour series feature laminated shells of birch and Phillipine mahogany and are recommended as the all purpose working musician’s drums. The Tour series can be used with the seven or nine series hardware; the seven series being single legged, and the nine series being double legged and more substantial. Ed Soph, a leading studio drummer, says the Tour series drums “give you a maximum of sound with a minimum of effort.”

The Yamaha Recording series drums are “state of the art,” and you’ve seen and heard them on tour with Steve Gadd on the Paul Simon TV specials. The Recording series features all birch shells and a super high gloss hand-rubbed piano finish in black, white, naturalwood, red and the new Recording Custom series cherry wood finish. RC drums used springless tension lugs and nine series hardware throughout. All double headed Recording series drums use high tension casings that extend across the drum shell. Matching wood snares are also available in the Recording Custom series.

Yamaha seems very interested in furthering the percussive arts and has made available a complete series of drum instruction videotapes featuring Steve Gadd, Yogi Horton, Bernard Purdie and Ed Thigpen.

PEARL DRUMSETS (Pearl International, 408 Harding Industrial Drive, Nashville, TN 37211) The demand for Pearl Drums is at an all-time high, and one of the main reasons is their ability to combine the quality of an American-made eight-ply maple shell with the hardware, technology and workmanship of Japan into their professional drumsets. Most of Pearl’s metal components are imported from Japan and Taiwan, but the majority of assembly and finishing work is done in Nashville, Tennessee. This enables Pearl to be able to custom-build each drumset component to the individual’s order and makes the drumline much easier to service. Pearl’s pro series of drums are available in 18 covered finishes and several beautiful lacquer wood stains, with hardware available from the 700, 800 or 900 series. A1 Duffy, Pearl’s R&D man in Nashville, invented the original chain-drive pedal many moons ago, and recently introduced its latest pedal: the silent action wheel drive pedal called the P-800. Though similar to the original chain pedal, the P-800 uses a wheel and strap in place of a sprocket and chain, giving positive action but quiet operation.

Another new product from Pearl is the Rack, a modular hardware system rack designed by studio legend Jeff Porcaro. The Rack is a fourlegged, square aluminum structure that surrounds the drumset and eliminates all other stands except the hi-hat. Mounted on the Rack are movable tom receiver plates that can hold tom arms, cymbal booms and mike booms which position your drums and hardware almost anywhere conceivable with no stand bases to clutter up the kit. The Rack folds down to a very neat square package for transporting.

Pearl’s new export series of drums was designed to give the beginning and semi-pro drummer a price alternative to their pro series, but has met with widespread acceptance at all levels. The Export series is available with Pearl’s Professional hardware. They’re good looking drums with heavy duty hardware, and, with a good set of heads, they sound fine. Probably more drums per dollar than you’ll find in most lines. SLINGERLAND (6633 Milwaukee Ave., Niles, IL 60648) Slingerland introduced the most new products they’ve shown in a long time this year. The most unique drumset is called Black Gold, and is a jet-black five-piece set with extra length mega-toms, black heads and gold tone hardware and metal parts. The Black Gold Series is a limited edition set, and includes Black Gold cymbals and drumsticks as well.

Slingerland’s new hardware line is called Magnum. All the Magnum stands have polyurethane insulators to eliminate possible vibration or rattle. The Magnum line looks very strong and offers a huge asortment of interchangable cymbal holders, tom holders, boom tom holders and brackets that can be used mounted on the bass drum or on floor stands. Slingerland also has a piediumweight line of hardware available with ! their Spirit drum line, as well as a lightweight line of stands called the Artist series.

Slingerland’s new marching percussion includes the slap-shot strainer which keeps the snares under tension whether engaged or disengaged. The slap-shot throw-off is extra large for easy use. The TDR Series marching snares and tenor drums have five-ply shells, 12 lugs and cold rolled steel rim shot hoops. Slingerland marching timp-toms are called Cut-a-ways, and the shells are contoured to direct the sound outward for more projection. Slingerland marching also introduced a less expensive line of marching drum called Artist series that should help drummers and schools on a tight budget.

Slingerland’s Magnum drumsets are made in the U.S.A. with five-ply shells, magnum hardware and three different series of snare drums. Slingerland snares come in 5” to 9” depths ardin steel, brass or 5-ply wood shells. Slingerland offers the optional May E.A. internal miking system in all their Magnum drumsets, and they’re presently on tour in Carmine Appice’s new Slingerland set.

The Slingerland student model drum line is called Spirit, and has a full-range line available from one piece starter kits to complete nine-piece concert kits.

TAMA DRUMS (c/or Hoshino Inc., P.O. Box 886, Bensalem, PA 1920) Tama offers several lines of drum sets, including Swingstar, Royalstar, Imperialstar, Superstar and Artstar. The Swingstar line is their student series and offers the young drummer an opportunity to have a set with tne Tama name and hardware without spending a fortune. Swingstar: drums have nine-ply mahogany shells, the o’mni-sphere tom holder and Royalstar hardware/and are available in metallic | white, * jet black and sndw white; Royalstar,, the next step up in Tama, have many features of the Swingstar line, but are available with power drum sizes and wood grain finishes in cherry and Brazilian grain, which is a synthetic rosewood finish.

Tama Imperialstar drums were their first professional series drums, and they’re very popular with the touring rock acts because they’re very heavy duty. Imperialstar drums come only in covered finishes and come standard with the Titan hardware, a hardware line that put the drum industry competition in high gear when it came out. Imperialstar drums are now available in the new extended length X-Tras series and in new placer gold and deep red colors.

Tama Superstar drums come with six-ply birch shells and stained wood finishes that include super maple, super mahogany, aquamarine and the new cherry wine finish. These finishes are super high gloss and are available on all superstar drums in the standard sizes and the new X-Tras sizes. All Superstar sets come with Titan hardware.

The big news from Tama this year is the Artstar series drums. The Artstar drums are a birch shell, 6mm thin, with a South American cordia finish ply inside and out. This thinner shell is said to give a brighter, cleaner resonance and to be ideal for close miking. The cordia wood ply, inside and out, is very richly grained: and highly glossed, again inside and out. The Artstar drum set was prototyped on the road with Neil Peart of Rush. The Artstar drum sets feature the new Omni-lock Tom holder that is completely adjustable in the middle to give extra positioning that was previously unavailable. Artstar drums use the new high tension, springless mightly lugs for strength and good looks. The Artstar snaredrums have 6mm shells, come in 5”, 6V2” and 8” depths, and are cordia wood inside and out. They also use die-cast hoops top and bottom. Artstar drums come standard with pinstripe heads and the new see-through chrome Mirage heads on the front of the bass drums. The new X-Hat closed hi-hat attachment mounts a pair of closed hi-hat cymbals anywhere on a drumset, giving double bass players new freedom. The Artstar are expen* sive but “state-of-the-art.”

SIMMONS ELECTRIC DRUMS (P.O. Box 1444, Reseda, CA 91335) You’ve seen them on MTV or on tour with King Crimson, Prince, Bow Wow Wow and Journey, and you’ve probably wondered what they are. They’re hexagon shaped and more powerful than any drum you’ve ever heard. They’re the Simmons electronic drums. The Simmons electronic drumset is the most exciting and revolutionary thing to happen to the percussion industry in a long time. The SDS5 five-piece drumset is totally electronic, touch sensitive, and has stereo output. Each hexagon shaped Simmons pad triggers a module with four different sounds; one that is factory preset, and three that are player adjustable. The sounds that are available range from roto toms, tympani, and space toms to exotic electronic sounds that don’t resemble drums but are percussively triggered. The Simmons rack that contains the modules comes standard with modules for bass drum, snare drum and three toms, and has space available in the rack for optional digital hi-hat and electronic cymbal.

The SimnTons drumset sounds very futuristic and the availability of sounds seemlimitless. The playing surfaces of the Simmons pads are made of a polycarbonate material used to make British riot shells, and should never show signs of wear and tear. The playing surface is extremely hard, which makes the Simmons very touch sensitive, one of the main things missing from other electronic drums.

The Simmons set is set up for Pearl heavy-duty tom tom stands and uses your choice of traditional bass drum pedals. The Simmons brain can also be triggered externally by using pick-ups on regular acoustic drums. (H&S engineering recently introduced the Trigger TS101 Audio Trigger amplifier that allows distortion free triggering of the Simmons with acoustic drum, drum computers, and any other audio source.)

Simmons recently introduced a SDS6 programmable eight channel sequencer that will hold 99 sequences of up to 250 patterns each. The drums of the future start today with Simmons! SONOR DRUMS (c/o Alden Music, 4 Industrial Rd., Walpole, MA 02081) Sonor Drums are the heavyweight kings from Germany, and they incorporate thick beechwood shells with German steel for an excellent quality product. Sonor offers a nine-ply Sonor-phonic drum line, an exotic wood signature series drumset available in Bubinga wood or ebony finishes, and a new approach for Sonor called Sonor Lites. Sonor Lites were created as an alternative drum for Sonor players who want a lightweight, bright drum sound. The Sonor Lite drums shells are Scandinavian birch, which is known for being strong but lightweight. Sonor compresses this shell down to 6mm thin which increases the resonance of the wood. The Sonor Lite drums are available in the wildly grained natural Scandinavian birch finish and genuine rosewood finish. Sonor drums are fairly expensive, but are known for super quality control. Steve Smith of Journey has been playing Sonors for about six years now, and he has to regularly, but firmly,”thank the other drum companies that approach him because he is completely satisfied.

MAY E.A. (Internal Micing System, 8312 Seaport Drive, Huntington Beach, CA 92646) This is revolutionary! Drum micing has always been a confusing art, but Randy May has come up with a goodie. The May E.A. (electro-acoustic) micing system is modified Shure SM57 microphone cartridge that is permanently mounted inside your drum to eliminate mic stands, placement problems, microphone leakage, phase cancellation and headaches. The shock-mounted cartridge rotates on ifs mount a full 180 to isolate the full range of internal frequencies. The May E.A. is available factory-installed in some manufacturers drums or you can buy a do-it-yourself kit complete with templates and instructions. Monitor levels can be increased with E.A. since the mic is inside the drum, eliminating many of the problems with feedback and monitor leakage. May E.A. are currently on tour with Carmine Appice, Frank Zappa and Danny Seraphine of Chicago.

CB700 PERCUSSION (c/o Kay man Music, Blue Hills Avenue, Bloomfield, CT 06002) CB700 continues to offer a full line of percussion instruments that give good quality in a price range that students can afford. The most exciting offering from CB for this year is their International drum outfit that offers a five-piece drumset with locking torm holder, heavy duty spurs, nine-ply shells, 10 lug chrome snare, good colors and a list price of $599.50.

CB700 further expanded the Mark series drums with power tom and power bass drum sizes and a new line of Gibraltar series hardware. The new Gibraltar hardware uses elliptical tubing throughout and dual bracing on all stands. This hardware is heavy duty, yet lightweight and inexpensive.

Just when you thought you’d seen it all, here comes the CB700 free floating snare drum. This new snare drum used a subframe that-allows the shell to have nothing attached to it at all, allowing total freedom to resonate. The beauty of this style of drum is that you can interchange a steel, bell brass or curly maple snare shell quickly and easily and have three snares in one. With different tension rods, you can even have different depth drums. CB’s other new snare drum is the Cadet snare drum kit using a wooden shell, pre-tuned heads and tubular lugs. This drum sounds good and the P.T.S. head can be fine-tuned. (List Price $137.50 with practice pad, sticks and back pack to carry it.) CB700 continues to innovate and it’s time to take them very seriously. Write for details. LATIN PERCUSSION (160 Belmont Ave., Garfield, NJ 07026) Latin Percussion has been the largest manufacturers of congas and hand held Latin American and ethnic percussion instruments for years, and they have now become a full line drumset company as well. They have introduced a barrage of new products this year, with the most exciting ones in the Latin instruments being the new wood congas with Asiatic whitewood shells, the new super oversize Thunder-Timb timbales, new exotic wood bongoes in Bubinga and Zebra wood, and the new esoteric line of cowbells. The esoteric line is a new funkier sounding, darker line of cowbells and agogos. The L.P. Percussion catalogue contains hundreds of interesting instruments and should be in every drummer library. L.P. recently added a line of authentic Chinese gongs and cymbals from the Peoples Republic of China to their catalogue.

Good news to the drummer on a budget is the new Cosmic Percussion line from L.P. This is a full line percussion and drum set catalogue that offers quality. Manufacturered in overseas factories, the lower labor cost keeps prices very reasonable and the quality good. The Cosmic Percussion catalogue offers four lines of drum hardware, inexpensive congas, bongoes and sound effects, and the new Ascend drumsets. The Ascend drumsets are L.P.’stop line and have nineply shells with natural woodgrain finishes and very heavy-duty hardware. Latin Percussion continues to be an innovative force in percussion and I’m sure many drummers will welcome them to the drumset world.

REMO, INC (12804 Raymer St., North Hollywood, CA 91605) Remo is best known for being the world’s leading supplier of drumheads and for the super popular Roto-toms, but they’ve recently come up with the most innovative idea in drums in years: pre-tuned percussion! Due to a new process discovered almost accidentally, Remo found they could shrink heads to certain tensions and mount them in rims, having a resonating head without a shell. This means you can mount the head on almost any chamber and sound good. Since this eliminates costly hardware and expensive drumshells, a new market of low price student model drums has been developed by Remo.

The new Junior Pro 4 piece pre-tuned drumset is a. miniature set designed for children under 10 years old. This set has a 16” bass drum, 10” mounted tom, 12” floor tom and 12” snare srum and sounds good! The best surprise is the price which is $195.00 list. The new pre-tuned drums include snare kits, marching drums, bongoes, tambourines and more. The most popular P.T.S. drums are the standard five-piece with 22” bass, 12” and 13” tom, 16” floor tom and 14” snare drum with hardware for under $395.00. Brave Remo!

RUG CADDY (P.O. Box 725, Wilmington, CA 90748 or 23824 Banning Blvd., Carson, CA 90745) Rug Caddy accessories makes a line of drummer’s aids. Rug Caddy, the namesake item, is a combination drummer’s rug and trap case that is very convenient on any gig. How many times have you rushed to a gig with all your drums, cymbals, and stands, only to find you have to set up on a waxed floor that promised to let your drums slide from one end of the room to the other for four hours? Rug Caddy is a full size drummer’s rug that has,velcro strips inside to strap your hardware in, roll it up, and put it in the case and roll to the van. Next gig, roll the rug out, the stands are right at hand and you don’t have to tear ’em down. Good idea!

The Rug Caddy cymbal shock absorbers are an oversize,super-spongy cymbal insulator that absorb some of the impact a cymbal takes on a gig.

The newest and hippest products from Rug Caddy are the Beato Bags—Heavy Duty Tolex drum covers with V2” foam lining.

DRUM WORKSHOP (2697 Lavery Ct. *16, Newbury Park, CA 91320) Drum Workshop Drums are handmade in California in a custom workshop staffed by suspected drum fanatics. The Drum Workshop’s drumshells are six-ply maple with maple reinforcing hoops, and the attention to detail is fantastic. Drum Workshop is the only drum company that uses R.I.M.S. mounting systems on their drums from the factory and this enables them to drill no resonance-robbing mounting holes in their drums. Perhaps Drum Workshop’s most famous product is their chain drive pedal that is used by Steve Smith, Shelly Manne and Jim Keltner. Drum Workshop says their pedal is the original, all-American, chain drive pedal. Drum Workshop also has a line of drum accessories that includes tone controls, speed keys, tension set lugs and rubber grip drumsticks.

AQUARIAN ACCESSORIES (1140 North Tustin Ave, Anaheim, CA 92807) Roy Burns and David Donaho created a company called Aquarian to supply drummers with specialized drumsticks and accessories. Their X-10 drumsticks are said to last eight to 10 times the life of wood drumsticks and are guaranteed to be straight and consistent. The Aquarian cymbal spring mounts cymbals so they can flex with the cymbal stand and deter the impact of hard playing on your precious cymbals. Aquarian also offers a lightweight graphite stick line and a value line drumstick that glows in the dark. Aquarian offers a deluxe vinyl stick bag with Kwik-Key included, and a super-safe cymbal bag that is reinforced and has separate compartments for each cymbals.

At NAMM, Aquarian introduced their new miking system that attaches to the rim of the actual drum. Write Aquarian at the above address for a free brochure or cassette demo tape. fj)’