Is there a lost art in drum design? That of making a kit as light as possible ,yet fully functional, with great sound and precise hardware because most of your customers will be toting their own gear? Have companies sacrificed lightweight functionality for the illusion of bigger and beefier is better, as though every drummer aspires to having roadies?
thoughts?
Rogers drums of the mid 60s were not "lite."
As for hardware....... I believe that is a matter of individual choice. I use Tama Iron Cobra pedals, no matter what set I have out. I play Rogers Swivomatic Cymbal Stands with my 60s Rogers. With my 70s/80s Rogers Memrilock kits, I use DW 9000 series stands. They are heavy, but they are what I chose to use. Ive used DW hardware since 2001, with only one tilter handle failure. Hardware case was dropped off the back of the pickup truck. There will probably be a time when I no longer use hardware of that calibre, but.... until then, I will never have to replace any of it because it is falling apart. With casual care, it is indestructable.
I did use the term , "precise hardware", not crappy hardware. There are two aspects to crafting such things . 1) design ---the look melded with it's functionality. 2) engineering ---getting the design to function properly and have durability. That's why I used the phrase ; lost art.
Actually; DW might be on the lower end of the bigger is better curve. They are one of the few who has maintained flat based stands and seems to try to incorporate a degree of refinement to their hardware. The problem they all face is ; having their stuff look wimpey compared to the competition ,on the showroom floor.
I did use the term , "precise hardware", not crappy hardware. There are two aspects to crafting such things . 1) design ---the look melded with it's functionality. 2) engineering ---getting the design to function properly and have durability. That's why I used the phrase ; lost art. Actually; DW might be on the lower end of the bigger is better curve. They are one of the few who has maintained flat based stands and seems to try to incorporate a degree of refinement to their hardware. The problem they all face is ; having their stuff look wimpey compared to the competition ,on the showroom floor.
I can tell you that my involvement with drums these days is mostly in the realm of rentals and rental services. We can all talk about how heavy players were in the late sixties and seventies, but I can tell you that there are a lot of guys that play REALLY hard now with varying degrees of technique. The guys that play really hard with great technique are actually a lot of fun to watch. The guys that play really hard with poor technique absolutely require some heavy duty hardware. I don't think it is entirely an issue how beefy things look on the showroom floor, if it were then we would still have those Pearl and Tama boom stands with the counter weights on the booms. A lot of guys today would absolutely destroy much of the gear available in the 60's and even the early 70's.
Both DW and Gibralter make lines of flat base stands to accommodate those that do not require such heavy hardware and I think it is great that they address that market. Otherwise, we would be limited to simply choosing hardware that was simply built to be cheap.
You certainly must see your share of stripped threads , duct tape, cracked castings, lost feet etc.etc.
Is there not also a contingent of those that make destroying equipment , a misplaced mark of professionalism? A lot of stuff got destroyed in the 60's and 70's and 80's due to a combination of rebelliousness and klutziness , not necessarily , equipmment failure.
You certainly must see your share of stripped threads , duct tape, cracked castings, lost feet etc.etc. Is there not also a contingent of those that make destroying equipment , a misplaced mark of professionalism? A lot of stuff got destroyed in the 60's and 70's and 80's due to a combination of rebelliousness and klutziness , not necessarily , equipmment failure.
Actually, that is my point. I use fairly heavy duty stands and I make sure they are well maintained. No stripped threads, gaffer's tape, etc. All the gear gets inspected before it goes out and if there is an issue, it gets fixed or it is set aside until it can be. My goal is to provide gear in the condition I would like to see it in if I were the artist.
For whatever reason I have started off with 900 series Pearl stands which are heavy duty and easily functional. I use DW pedals and either Pearl or the heaviest DW snare stands. In my mind the DW stands are actually a little over engineered, but the baskets open up wide enough to accommodate 14" wood hoop snares as well as my 15" snare should anyone want to use it.
As to that being a misplaced sense of professionalism; that is probably true. I had a guy the other day that wanted to use his own cymbals and snare drum on a festival show. No big deal and that is fairly common. Since the turnover between acts was under ten minutes, I was helping him get set up. I was shocked when I started pulling out his cymbals. They were fairly cheap, student model cymbals in the most horrid condition. All of them were cracked (including the hi-hats), all of them were covered in green tarnish from sweat stains and they had that smell... (as a side note, "that smell" is reason enough for me to clean cymbals regardless of how one feels about patina Cool Dude) Suffice it to say that I was just fine with him using his cymbals after watching him play. Not much technique but he certainly hit hard...and fast.
I actually had a singer come up to me after their set the other day and say that normally he knocks the drum kit over at the end of the last song but since my rental kit was so nice he decided not to. I was at a bit of a loss as to what to say to that other than "thank you for not trashing my kit." Certainly I thought of a lot of other things I could have said.
Actually, that is my point. I use fairly heavy duty stands and I make sure they are well maintained. No stripped threads, gaffer's tape, etc. All the gear gets inspected before it goes out and if there is an issue, it gets fixed or it is set aside until it can be. My goal is to provide gear in the condition I would like to see it in if I were the artist. For whatever reason I have started off with 900 series Pearl stands which are heavy duty and easily functional. I use DW pedals and either Pearl or the heaviest DW snare stands. In my mind the DW stands are actually a little over engineered, but the baskets open up wide enough to accommodate 14" wood hoop snares as well as my 15" snare should anyone want to use it. As to that being a misplaced sense of professionalism; that is probably true. I had a guy the other day that wanted to use his own cymbals and snare drum on a festival show. No big deal and that is fairly common. Since the turnover between acts was under ten minutes, I was helping him get set up. I was shocked when I started pulling out his cymbals. They were fairly cheap, student model cymbals in the most horrid condition. All of them were cracked (including the hi-hats), all of them were covered in green tarnish from sweat stains and they had that smell... (as a side note, "that smell" is reason enough for me to clean cymbals regardless of how one feels about patina Cool Dude) Suffice it to say that I was just fine with him using his cymbals after watching him play. Not much technique but he certainly hit hard...and fast. I actually had a singer come up to me after their set the other day and say that normally he knocks the drum kit over at the end of the last song but since my rental kit was so nice he decided not to. I was at a bit of a loss as to what to say to that other than "thank you for not trashing my kit." Certainly I thought of a lot of other things I could have said.
Like you could've said, "I normally knock the singer on his ass after the last song but since you were respectful of my equipment, I decided not to".
Not cool.
I'd file those guys under: "Who not to rent to in the future".
What a disrespectful Jack....o-lantern...
Agreed. That was a "festival" situation with 5 or 6 bands sharing the same gear so I don't have much control over who these people are. Quick set changes, that kind of thing. I have seen some of these kids do the most bizarre stuff.
I actually did tackle a lead singer during a show who was pulling out bottles of water and tossing the water over the crowd. No harm in that...until he then walked over to the keyboard rig that was set up for the next act and started to unload a bottle onto the keyboards. I took him out. Game over. The end. He was very embarrassed. I wasn't.
