My latest obsession

[karatestu]

Just to rerail the thread - Count Me In on Netflix isn't a bad documentary about drummers, well worth a watch.

Thanks for posting that. Didn't know about that one.

[TheMadMick]

Just to derail this part of the thread, I'm currently breaking in an Avalon Ard Ri acoustic guitar. Lovely thing but the ends of my left fingers are a bit ragged.

Trouble is, I can't work out how to get the pic up. It's on my e mail client not on a web page.

Have you tried searching for a similar image on Google?

Thanks for the advice but the problem is that this is a had built job and they are all individuals. No two are quite alike. But if you want a flavour then try this: https://www.avalonguitars.com/ard-ri It's a small jumbe cutaweay with walnut back and sides and a bearclaw spruce top. It better than all the ones on the web page to my eyes.

[antonio66]

Back in 2018 I bought a Pearl Export kit for £100. Red with 12 x 10" & 13 x 11" rack toms, 14 x 14 " & 16 x 16" floor toms and 22 x 16 " bass drum. That's a lot of drum for the money. I had to drive 8 miles to Selby to pick them up.

Chap selling them was a lovely guy. A bit older than me but obviously had taken up this fine hobby later in life - he wasn't that good but had a ton of enthusiasm which was really addictive. He had "upgraded" to a more expensive Pearl kit. He played it for my amusement and it sounded no better than the one he just sold me, I often think about how he's getting on. Wasn't in any bands, just bashed away to rock songs in his garage when his neighbours were out.

I wish I knew more people like him. Unpretentious, salf of the earth, happy and full of spirit. At this stage of my life I have worked out what kind of people I like. In my 20's and 30's I had to put up with all sorts of knob heads in bands. It was usually a guitarist or singer that pissed me off, ego driven selfish cants who played only for themselves. Luckily I don't have to put up with these people anymore.

[CycleCoach]

I bought a few sad orphan drums as well. 80's Pearl Export 14 x 10", 12 x 8" toms, 16 x 14" & 18 x 16" floor toms, 1970's Premier Elite 15 x 12" tom. That Premier tom is the best drum I have ever heard.....ever.

Anyway, nearly all my Export drums have now had the wraps removed. They were all different colours so I could have made a jelly bean kit. Like this one but these are a Drum Wanker kit.



So now my Exports are now naked. The plywood is not fancy in any way, it needs a fair bit of sanding. These coloured wraps are just glued on at one point, the lugs etc hold it on. Anyway, this covering damps some of the shells resonance (tone) and removing it does help the drum sing better. Good result musically but wouldn't satisfy the image is everything drum jewellery lover. I couldn't give a toss . They look like wooden drums. I could try staining, varnishing or clear coating them but not sure I can actually be arsed. These drums were made with the intention of covering them with a plastic wrap so they didn't care what the wood looked like. It takes a while to get them looking acceptable but I'm not adverse to a bit of work.

[karatestu]

Here a naked export 16" floor tom. There was mold under the wrap, yuck. This is now going to get a thorough sanding, going through the grades til it's shipshape.

[slinger]

I was going to bring up the subject of wraps, Stu, and I was wondering if there's a possibility of some "personalisation," DIY that might be fun for you. Not quite the Nicko McBrain (him again) level, obviously...



but...

[antonio66]

That is a horrible looking drum kit, yuck. We will see what happens but I'm not sure I want to cover the wood with anything as the tone is nicer without.

I put the 40 year old tension lugs, tension rods and leg brackets in to my ultrasonic cleaner to try remove four decades of crud. Submerged them in vinegar and cleaned them on an eight minute hot cycle.





I don't know if the final drum will use these lugs again or not. On thd bass drum, 12" & 14" toms I am trialing a single tension system with no lugs. At the mo it basically uses rods with threads on either end that go from one hoop to another. The heads are tensioned and tuned by tightening the nuts on the ends of the rods. If you tighten the nuts it tunes thd drum up equally on both the batter and resonance heads. That's OK if like me you want both heads tuned the same. If you want a higher tuning on the resonant head then you have to put a thinner skin on it - thinner skin at the same tension has a slightly higher pitch.

There are a few things to iron out with this system. The threads on thd rods have a habit of snagging on the tension rod holes in the hoops. Also occasionally you can get a rattle which is very annoying. Don't worry I have ways to overcome these problems.

Yeah but why go to this trouble when the drum came with perfectly good tension lugs and rods ? Well, on a 16" floor tom for example there are 16 of these lugs and they are all in contact with the shell. Machine screws hold them on from the inside. All these lugs affixed tightly to the shell chokes the wood's resonance. Without it the drum seems much happier, has more resonance and simply sounds better.

Same goes for what ever mounting brackets are attached to the shell. Some manufacturers go to great lengths tk minimise the amount of hardware on the shell. We can do this in diy land of course but maybe not quite so elegantly. My aim is to have nothing attached to the shell at all so it can sing to it's full potential. This will leave quite a few holes in the shell that will need filling somehow. Shouldn't be a problem. The drums sound fine with all the holes but I may be able to tease out a fraction more tone out of the drum if they are filled. It doesn't have to be wood either which may influence the tone a little.

All fascinating stuff I think you will agree. It's a refreshing change from trying to make inert speaker cabinets. In this case we want all the resonance we can get. Otherwise might as well use cardboard boxes as drums.

[slinger]

I'm thoroughly enjoying this thread. I love learning more about music and musical instruments.

All these lugs affixed tightly to the shell chokes the wood's resonance.

It sounds like the intent is to build a cage for the natural sound, which can't be right.

...In this case, we want all the resonance we can get. Otherwise might as well use cardboard boxes as drums.

I was reading a book by Pamela Des Barres, in which she mentions Jan & Dean (you need to be pretty old to remember them, but they invented the "surf" sound before the Beach Boys)

Anyway, so the story goes, Jan & Arnie, as they were then because Dean Torrence had just been conscripted, recorded an original song called "Jennie Lee" in Jan's parents' garage (his dad just happened to have a pair of two-track Ampex reel-to-reel tape recorders in there, as you do ), and the next day they took their recording to a small recording studio, to have it transferred to an acetate.

Joe Lubin, Vice President and Head of A & R for Arwin Records just happened to be in a room next door and heard their recording through the wall - all the best rock 'n' roll "discovery" stories have accidents like this in them - and was so was impressed that he offered to add instruments and to release the song

He put them straight into a "proper" studio to re-record it, but he couldn't get the drum sound, which is what propelled the song, and first attracted him to it.

He asked them about their recording of it and they told him about the garage, etc., so they got in his car and drove over.

After much banging and bashing of the assorted drums in situ (Sandy Nelson used to drum for them on occasion), they still couldn't get the "right"sound.

"What are you doing?" says Jan's mum, who was passing through the garage, so they explained.

"Oh, I remember that," says mum. " You were slapping the drum stool, and Arnie was bashing the top of that old metal baby's high-chair over there".

I absolutely love geek trivia like that.

[karatestu]

I'm glad you are enjoying it Paul. Maybe there is more to the art of drum building than most people realise. Just wait til we get on to the subject of bearing edges.

Everything has a sound of course. Some objects have a more interesting sound than others. I enjoyed your story. I can play snare and bass drum parts on my body as I walk about. Open hand on my stomach or hip is the snare. Left hand made in to a fist gives a lower thud for the bass drum. Very entertaining, for me

I think using strange objects for percussion sounds is a free thinking idea and easily done on a recording.. However I wouldn't be wanting tk wheel in a load of strange objects on to a stage and do a live performance.

[CN211276]

There seems to be a higher percentage of musicians on HFS than other hifi forums.