I have been forgetting stuff myself a bit..

Anyway, I do remember when I tried some Evans Hydraulics on the 2 large floor toms on my Pearl Fiberglass set. They seemed to go well together.. "The natural beauty of oil?" hehehe..

John you have given new meaning and new life to cheap drums. But yes, I prefer live over Memorex..

Last Friday i did a Bluesfest show in a local bar with an old Zimgar kit,which i absolutely love.I have a Gretsch logo head on it.These drums with their cast hoops and look alike lugs look EXACTLY like a Gretsch.Lots of "players" in the crowd,it was packed all night,and ,well you guessed it.Guys pulled aside to compliment me on my drums sound.Did i tell them?..Nope.Why rub salt into the wound.Play your drums folks,use good heads,no one knows the difference,except you..My "real" Gretsch kit is still in the closetClapping Happy2

Back in the 80s I decided I needed a second drum set to leave where our big band rehearsed.

I responded to an ad in a local news paper for a set of Pearl –"Fiberglass and Wood".(Not a particularly attractive white kit.)

The seller was a “big” German Beer Garden drummer….many “Z” cymbals --a serious drum throne….I thought ….let’s do it.

Bottom line the Pearl chrome snare is a serious piece of work in my opinion,….the cymbal and snare stands will withstand a hurricane…I eventually put Evans Hydraulic “oil heads” on the toms.

IMHO these drums are more than acceptable…I had originally bought them as rehearsal drums to avoid schlepping my principal kit to practice (1960 Ludwigs)

I would not hesitate to take this Pearl set anywhere based on their sound.

Photo #2 Pearl chrome snare on the left-Ludwig Supraphonic snare on the right.

(The Pearl is a pretty substantial drum.)

The Ludwig snare has the “baseball bat” tone control with a red felt muffler pad.

Photo # 3.

David

P.S.

The bass drum pedal and hi-hat stand with cymbals got stolen from the place we rehearsed back then…..too bad…they were quite good.

Skin it and tension it and play it. If you haven't learned how to do that, there's always the keyboard.

That's close to what Steve Gadd made into the industry standard drum sound in the 70s with his Pearl Fiberglass drums.. Don't knock it. It isn't under-rated, this is a really well-known studio fact. Some people don't like his thuddy sound but the way he plays I love that sound.

I was never a Beatles fan…however I think they wrote some very interesting music that has become classic…and has since been done by many other artists.

I never really thought of Ringo as being a great drummer….but I guess he was a good driver of that band for the type of music they were playing.

And that, I suppose is what a good drummer should do…and what the band needs.

I am sure that Ludwig was happy that Ringo was playing their drums …as are collectors that have the classic oyster black pearl sets in the “Ringo” configuration.

Interesting that the impact of him playing those drums has the continued collector impact and interest today.

I guess my head and musical interest was into a very different style of music at that time.

(I was living in London when the British sound started to find its way to the rest of the world.)

History would suggest that the Beatles had a great interest in the American R&B style of music….thus the Beatle’s version of “Twist and Shout” an Isley Brother’s creation.

In my opinion the musicianship found in the U.S R&B world was several notches above what was coming out of the U.K. at that time.

But the world fell in love with it!

And Paul McCartney is still doing his thing…very well…I might add!

David

The King Curtis Band opened for the Beatles at the Shea Stadium in 1965…this band and style of music is what I liked at that time.

The drummer in this short clip is Ray Lucas….he was special.

I say this because the group I was with at the time worked on the same bill with the Curtis band in Montreal.... July 1964 and I had the opportunity to watch this very talented drummer up close and personal. (Photos # 2-3-4-5)

NOTE;

You might be interested in some of the other youtube videos that are shown after the youtube video below finishes. (Scroll through them.)

Example---Aretha Franklin & King Curtis -Dr Feel Good.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjRHDIHUvtI[/ame]

The first photo below shows Ray (partially) with the Curtis band at a party for Percy Sledge.

The liner notes of the 2nd Percy Sledge lp on Atlantic ("Warm And Tender Soul" Atlantic SD 8132 released in 1966) have this to say: "Percy Sledge comes from a small Alabama town called Leighton. His first trip to the Big City came shortly after his first hit. We met him when Atlantic Records threw a "welcome" bash at the famed Prelude Supper Club on New York's upper Broadway. Percy was as dazzled by the bright lights as the critics and radio people were dazzled by his performance. As part of the "fun-and-games" that night, he and Esther Phillips sang a duet version of When A Man Loves A Woman while King Curtis and his band backed them up. Percy and Esther sang nineteen choruses of the song before they finally quit " The liner notes were written by Jack Walker of WLIB, New York who must have attended the party one assumes.

I am not sure if this was the same party?

It is hard to find good photos of Ray Lucas….he was a bad ass drummer in his day.