Let's see your drums!

[dontfeartheringo]

Thank you - a friend traded me the drums for recording time about 10 some years ago. I think I got the better end of the deal. I'm about to tear it apart and give it a deep clean. I'd like to pretty up those BD hoops too as they're pretty haggard. Not sure exactly the best way to go about that though. Probably black Testors paint?

If it's possible to either tape off or remove the inlays before painting, I'd recommend the black nitrocellulose lacquer that they sell in spray cans at Lowes. I'd remove the inlays (carefully!), give the hoops a good sanding, then hit them with a coat of lacquer. Let it dry, buff it with 000 steel wool, then lacquer them again.

Cleaning tips:
Never use steel wool on metal parts! Use a non-metallic scouring pad and Barkeeper's Friend. Then use Turtlewax chrome polish before you put the metal parts back on the drum.

Use Novus plasic polish #2 on the shells, then finish with Novus plastic polish #1. Then, a little Turtlewax White Creme polish will make the shells shine like new drums. Don't use the Novus #3 polish unless you're buffing out something really bad.

You can often buy Novus polish at the Harley Davidson dealership on your town. That's where I get it.

I also find that this stuff is really useful for making drums more cooperative:

Viper tension rod lube

It's not that expensive- I just order some whenever I order a new round of drumheads from Andy at Drum Supply House.

[garthplinko]

Patrick, as always, you are the best, a real prince - thank you!

[dontfeartheringo]

No worries! Remember, if those drums ever need a new home, just holler. They're gorgeous.

[garthplinko]

Well maybe I can at least contribute for a change and post some clean-up porn pics when I go through and get them back to sparkly.

[dontfeartheringo]

Yes! Before and After pics are always a good thing.

[matthew]

Old Tama kit from the late 80's. I removed the covering and coated the bare wood in polyurethane.

Pearl snare

not pictured- a shallow wooden Tama snare. I actually play with two snares a la Damon Che....yeah.

24" Zildjian A ride......if they made a 34" I'd have it but they don't. I like GIANT ride cymbals.

16" Sabian Crash.

Cheap secondary crash/ride. I'm gonna replace that with another Sabian....sometime.

Cheap but good hi-hats. Chick, Chick, Chick.

Gibraltar double bass pedal

Tama and DW cymbal/hi-hat/drum stands

[Frank Decent]

Old Tama kit from the late 80's. I removed the covering and coated the bare wood in polyurethane.

Pearl snare

not pictured- a shallow wooden Tama snare. I actually play with two snares a la Damon Che....yeah.

24" Zildjian A ride......if they made a 34" I'd have it but they don't. I like GIANT ride cymbals.

16" Sabian Crash.

Cheap secondary crash/ride. I'm gonna replace that with another Sabian....sometime.

Cheap but good hi-hats. Chick, Chick, Chick.

Gibraltar double bass pedal

Tama and DW cymbal/hi-hat/drum stands

How hard was it to remove the coating?

[matthew]

Old Tama kit from the late 80's. I removed the covering and coated the bare wood in polyurethane.

Pearl snare

not pictured- a shallow wooden Tama snare. I actually play with two snares a la Damon Che....yeah.

24" Zildjian A ride......if they made a 34" I'd have it but they don't. I like GIANT ride cymbals.

16" Sabian Crash.

Cheap secondary crash/ride. I'm gonna replace that with another Sabian....sometime.

Cheap but good hi-hats. Chick, Chick, Chick.

Gibraltar double bass pedal

Tama and DW cymbal/hi-hat/drum stands

How hard was it to remove the coating?

Not hard at all, actually. Just started at the seam and peeled, then gave then shells a nice sanding with fine grit sandpaper before staining them.

[Frank Decent]

Old Tama kit from the late 80's. I removed the covering and coated the bare wood in polyurethane.

Pearl snare

not pictured- a shallow wooden Tama snare. I actually play with two snares a la Damon Che....yeah.

24" Zildjian A ride......if they made a 34" I'd have it but they don't. I like GIANT ride cymbals.

16" Sabian Crash.

Cheap secondary crash/ride. I'm gonna replace that with another Sabian....sometime.

Cheap but good hi-hats. Chick, Chick, Chick.

Gibraltar double bass pedal

Tama and DW cymbal/hi-hat/drum stands

How hard was it to remove the coating?

Not hard at all, actually. Just started at the seam and peeled, then gave then shells a nice sanding with fine grit sandpaper before staining them.

Right on. I'm thinking of doing that with my shitty Pearl kit.

[projectMalamute]

Not mine, belongs to a friend. This is the kit he is using for a sounds-a-whole-lot-like-Tool thing I am playing bass in.

The silver sparkle rack tom and the floor tom are from a '62 Ludwig kit. The blue tom is from a '64 Slingerland. Kick is a 28" Leedy from the late 20's or early 30's. Snare is a recent Gretsch.

Sounds monstrous. Really, really good. Deepest, loudest kick I've ever heard.

[dontfeartheringo]

Not mine, belongs to a friend. This is the kit he is using for a sounds-a-whole-lot-like-Tool thing I am playing bass in.

The silver sparkle rack tom and the floor tom are from a '62 Ludwig kit. The blue tom is from a '64 Slingerland. Kick is a 28" Leedy from the late 20's or early 30's. Snare is a recent Gretsch.

Sounds monstrous. Really, really good. Deepest, loudest kick I've ever heard.

Fuck yeah.

[projectMalamute]

Not mine, belongs to a friend. This is the kit he is using for a sounds-a-whole-lot-like-Tool thing I am playing bass in.

The silver sparkle rack tom and the floor tom are from a '62 Ludwig kit. The blue tom is from a '64 Slingerland. Kick is a 28" Leedy from the late 20's or early 30's. Snare is a recent Gretsch.

Sounds monstrous. Really, really good. Deepest, loudest kick I've ever heard.

Fuck yeah.

It's a really cool drum. In clean shape but it looks like something that was used and well maintained rather than something found in a closet. The (brass?) hardware is worn like the sturdy old-school tools you would see in your grandfather's wood shop. Hip hop dude who runs a studio below us calls it 'the 808'.

Sounds like this: http://soundcloud.com/robert-edge/drum-sample

[AnthonyCinder]

Not mine, belongs to a friend. This is the kit he is using for a sounds-a-whole-lot-like-Tool thing I am playing bass in.

The silver sparkle rack tom and the floor tom are from a '62 Ludwig kit. The blue tom is from a '64 Slingerland. Kick is a 28" Leedy from the late 20's or early 30's. Snare is a recent Gretsch.

Sounds monstrous. Really, really good. Deepest, loudest kick I've ever heard.

Is that one of those 28" Singerland bass drums that aren't too many inches in depth? A good friend of mine has one of those. Pain in the ass to tune properly, but sounds great if you can get it right.

[projectMalamute]

Not mine, belongs to a friend. This is the kit he is using for a sounds-a-whole-lot-like-Tool thing I am playing bass in.

The silver sparkle rack tom and the floor tom are from a '62 Ludwig kit. The blue tom is from a '64 Slingerland. Kick is a 28" Leedy from the late 20's or early 30's. Snare is a recent Gretsch.

Sounds monstrous. Really, really good. Deepest, loudest kick I've ever heard.

Is that one of those 28" Singerland bass drums that aren't too many inches in depth? A good friend of mine has one of those. Pain in the ass to tune properly, but sounds great if you can get it right.

It's a Leedy, 14" deep. He can get it sounding pretty great, the link I posted was him just sitting down behind the kit and playing for a minute. I was mostly interested in what the room sounded like, the kit probably hadn't been touched for a week or more. What doesn't really come across is how loud the low end is in person. Deep and loud.

[AnthonyCinder]

What doesn't really come across is how loud the low end is in person. Deep and loud.

That's awesome. Best kind of drum sound!

[dontfeartheringo]

What doesn't really come across is how loud the low end is in person. Deep and loud.

That's awesome. Best kind of drum sound!

I find that it's sometimes hard to capture this in the studio. I have not tried the Yamaha subkick or homemade equivalent, but if any drum called for this, I'd say this one would.

I put a ribbon mic about seven to ten steps away from the drum, often. I started doing this with a Fathead and then we got a Coles 4038 and now I use that. I set the mic up at about 30" to 36" from the floor and then put it through some kind of compressor at mixtime (I seldom compress going in). This tends to thicken things up considerably.

We just got an Ampex MM1200 16 track 2" tape machine at the studio. At 15ips I've heard it's a low end BEAST.



I think we'll be hearing a lot more beastly kick drum out of our studio in the future.

[projectMalamute]

My trip these days is trying to do a whole band with a single stereo pair. As close to exactly what you would hear if you stood in front of the band as possible. This kick drum gives me a fighting chance to get in to the neighborhood of 'rock record' style sounds without using multi-track recordings and post processing.

I've also got a pretty good room to work out of right now, which is critical.

[dorfmeister]

Ludwig Standards - Late 60's or early 70's. I can't determine from the serial #s. I have owned them since 1981. They were well used by the time I acquired them.

22" Bass Drum
16" Floor Tom
13" Rack Tom
14" x 5" Supraphonic (not original to kit)

DW and Pearl Hardware
Pork Pie Throne
Meinl Cowbell and Jingle Ring - Not shown in this picture.


Cymbals in flux. Right now a combination of Sabian, Dream, and Wuhan.

[Frank Decent]

Those are fucking insane. Would love to hear.

[mmmribsmmm]

IMG_0178 by mliz8998, on Flickr