Category — Drum Products

Happy 4th of July weekend to you and yours.

If you are feeling patriotic tomorrow and this weekend, go pick up some American flag drumsticks and start playing away.

Happy 4th of July to everybody reading this blog. I’ll be back on Monday with more Drum news.

Pearl Drums is introducing a new drum kit, with new maple shells.

“Our Masters Series MCX 6-ply Maple shell has set the standard for great sound and craftsmanship for years and can be heard on countless recordings by the world’s most legendary drummers.”

“NEW for 2008, MCX 4-piece shell packs can be purchased at an average street price of just $1,500 dollars ($2,499.00 List) in your choice of 5 NEW configurations.”

“The heart and soul of MCX is the 6-ply 7.5mm shell, made from hand-selected choice Maple using our Superior Shell Technology. This offers the smooth round tone you would expect from Maple with even highs and mid range frequencies, coupled with pronounced low-end punch. The 7.5mm shell thickness provides a super wide tuning range; increased resonance and projection all of which allows your sound to be felt as much as heard.”

This drum set looks like a great intermediary step between Pearl’s lower budget models and their higher-end professional kits.  It is great that matching Pearl MCX snare drums are available as well. The tuning range of this kit is also a major plus, in my opinion, for drummers who like to experiment and/or tune to specific pitches.

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If you can make it, this should be amazing, you can catch Jason Bonham playing his awesome Ludwig Kit up-close and personal.

Harmony-Central.com reports…

“Fresh from playing in the Led Zeppelin reunion tour Jason Bonham today confirmed he will officially open The London International Music Show next week. The son of drumming legend John Bonham will cut the red ribbon and welcome crowds next Thursday 12 June at 10am at ExCeL London.

Europe’s largest drumming festival, Drummer Live, is part of the overall music show and has a truly world class line up of drummers to play the show.” Line-up is now as follows:

Drummer Live Stage (Saturday & Sunday):

Saturday 14th June

• 11.15 George Barnett (Young Drummer of the Year) (mikedolbear.com)
• 11.30 Ray Luzier (Korn & Jonathon Davis)
• 12.45 Derico Watson (Victor Wooten Band)
• 14.00 Trevor Lawrence (Snoop Dogg, Independent)
• 15.15 Jojo Mayer (NERVE)
• 16.30 Chad Smith (Red Hot Chilli Peppers)

Sunday 15th June

11.30 Josh Devine (Mapex Drummer of Tomorrow)
• 11.45 Roy Mayorga (Stone Sour)
• 13.00 Pete Ray Biggin (Mark Ronson)
• 14.15 Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree)
• 15.45 Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin & Foreigner)

This isn’t an amazing new piece of drum hardware or even a huge advancement in anything drum related, its just pretty cool (and yes, a little cheesy).

A company called Firestix has created “Light-Up Drumsticks” which are essentially, glow-in-the-dark drumsticks. Check out the page and the accompanying video demoing the product…Firestix Light-Up Drumsticks.

The sticks look really nice in complete darkness, but I can imagine them looking kind of lame at an actual club show. Anyway, cool nonetheless. I wonder about their playability and reliability though…

I posted earlier this week about famed session drummer Josh Freese. This guy has officially played drums on over 200 records, and not just small unknown bands either. He’s appeared on albums ranging from Jewel, A Perfect Circle, Chris Daughtry, Nine Inch Nails, Puddle of Mudd, Evanesence, Filter, Fuel, 3 Doors Down, Staind, Avril Lavigne…the list goes on and on.

Josh Freese is so sought-after as a session drummer that even bands with their own drummers sometimes swap them out for Freese, so he can record drums on the albums! Unless he is a member of the band (like he was with A Perfect Circle), he is usually uncredited, so as not to offend the bands own drummer even further, one would assume.

His style is very straightforward most of the time, although he can play very complicated fills and beats as well. Anyone who’s heard his work can of course attest to this. He is known for his rock-solid beats and ability to master a songs drum parts instantly. He has even stated in several interviews that he has just gone into the studio and played drums to something without even knowing what it is, then he’ll be listening to the radio, the song will come on and he’ll say to himself “oh, so thats what that was for!”

Freese is currently recording and touring with Nine Inch Nails. He plays DW Drums, he was playing Zildjian cymbals, but switched to Paiste a few years ago. Here are the specifics of his drum setup…

Drum Workshop Drums, Pedals, and Hardware
Paiste cymbals
Remo drumheads
Vater H220 drumsticks

Drum Workshop Drums

1. 18″ x 22″ DW Bass Drum
2. 6″ x 14″ Paiste Spirit of 2002 Snare
3. 5″ x 14″ DW Aluminum Shell Snare
4. 8″ x 10″ DW Tom
5. 10″ x 13″ DW Tom
6. 14″ x 16″ DW Tom
7. 16″ x 18″ DW Floor Tom

Paiste Signature Series Cymbals

A. 14″ Dark Crisp Hi-Hats
B. 18″ Full Crash
C. 18″ Power Crash
D. 21″ Dry Heavy Ride
E. 19″ Full Crash
F. 20″ Dry Crisp Ride
G. 20″ Power Crash
H. 18″ Sound Formula Thin China 20″ (top), inverted Full Ride w/rivets (bottom)

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Sabian cymbals will be releasing new Vault series 13inch hi-hats. These cymbals were partly inspired by famed drummer JoJo Mayer, who I posted about just two days ago, (see: JoJo).

“The hats’ attack is very aggressive with a low bite, which means they are punchy and cutting, yet not metallic sounding. This is more about music than metal,” Love said. “Sticking is always precise, and the pedal ‘chick’ is strong and articulate. Jojo’s Fierce Ride and Crash created such a positive stir, and with so many people commenting about the cymbals on his ‘Weapons for the Modern Drummer’ DVD, introducing the Fierce Hats was a natural progression.”

Mayer said: “We’ve got a very unique sound with these Fierce Hats. There’s a raw aspect and a complex darkness that works well in live and recorded contexts. I’ve been playing prototypes for about eight years, and wherever I go people ask me, ‘What are those hats?’ Similar to my Fierce Ride and Crash, they’re very complex, but great for almost any music. It’s great to be part of the adventure of creating these sounds with SABIAN.”

If you’ve ever heard Mayer’s drumming, particularly his tight and defined hi-hat sound, you’ll definitely be interested in these cymbals.

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It’s Earth Day 2008! The day where we should all do something helpful for the planet, except its kinda hard to post about earth day on a drum blog.

Think about it…pretty much everything you use as a drummer; snare drums, your floor tom, your mounted toms, drumsticks, well pretty much the whole drum set…Besides the hardware and cymbals, is made of wood. I guess it’s not so bad considering that the majority of people who own drum sets aren’t ever going to just throw them away.

Anyway, I guess something drummers could do for earth day is be appreciative of the drums we have, and maybe try to volunteer around where you live or even just pick up a few pieces of trash, anything helps. We have to protect those trees! Or else no more drums!

Grover Pro Percussion Inc. has introduced two new models to its SilverFox drumstick product line, the “Boston Basher” and the “Sweet Pea” at the MESSE trade show in Germany.

Boston Basher
“The olive-shaped wood tip and short tapered shoulder achieve maximum projection from snare drums of any construction and bring out a full-bodied tone from toms. At 16″ long with a diameter of .620″, this durable hickory stick effortlessly achieves heavy volumes on the club scene or in arena venues without feeling heavy in your hands.”

Sweet Pea
“The Sweet Pea also enjoyed a successful debut at the MESSE show in Frankfurt, Germany. At 15-3/4″ long with a diameter of 0565″, this dynamic hickory stick features a small ball tip for fast response on cymbals while producing a warm sound on snare. Created in response to jazz artists’ requests for a stick with the feel of a 5A, yet capable of consistent cymbal articulation and projection, the Sweet Pea is the ideal choice for combo jazz in every setting.”

I think for me personally, I’d really like to try out the “Boston Basher”. While it is a pretty lame name for drum sticks, it sounds like it would be great for heavier/more aggressive playing. Also the length of this stick seems like it would be beneficial for a player like myself who is usually all over my drum kit and not always playing in the pocket. Although, the length of the “Basher” sticks would also help with playing the pocket as well.

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According to Harmony-Central.com, a new high-def version of the electronic drum pad, the Mandala is going to be released. Inventor Vince De Franco who founded synesthesia corp. worked on the creation of this drum, with Tool drummer Danny Carey for 5 years, to replace his old Simmons SDX electronic drums. I posted about Isis drummer Aaron Harris a few days ago, he is also a Mandala user as well.

“A new kind of synthesizer, the Mandala 2.0 packages a musical range so wide it simultaneously offers players the top of the line, most accurate model of a physical drum (via 3,000 professionally created, proprietary samples of the Black Beauty Snare Drum) — along with a library of sounds derived from more than 100 other instruments.

It plugs into a PC or Mac with just a USB cable, and its easy-to-use software comes with more than 100 presets for out-of-the-box functionality. Players also can create their own configurations as they explore and discover its astonishing audio range.”

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To celebrate Gretch’s 125th anniversary the company is teaming with Guitar Center to release the “Gretsch Vintage USA Maple Limited Edition Snare Drum”. The snare’s were selected from 300 original Vintage USA Jasper shells recently found in an amazing discovery at the Gretsch factory in Ridgeland, South Carolina. Only 125 of the drums have been made and will be available for sale worldwide.

In my opinion these drums look really cool. This is definitely a chance for any gear-heads to own a vintage made Gretsch snare drum thats also new! These would be great, especially if you want to get that warm vintage tone everyone always talks about. The price also isn’t bad at $599.99 considering what you’re getting. I personally won’t be getting one just because I’m going to be getting a nice double bass pedal soon, but if you are getting one I’d hurry there’s only 125!

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