Some drum samples

SLVU mixed/mastered @ Smart Studios.
Stone recent live rehearsal, still working out the parts
Jerk1 pop version w/vocals
Jerk2 fast demo w/no vocals
Galaxy Gramaphone bonus track, cover of TSOOL
100,000 lb Man posted for fun, from 1992 when I was just a punk

I bought a cheap Ludwig Acrolite shell and Imperial lugs on eBay, sprayed a color and clear coat of Krylon and swapped the strainer and butt from my Supraphonic to make this cheap, great sounding snare. Easy and totally fun.

RIP Mitch Mitchell

One of my heroes, the great Mitch Mitchell -- most famously of the Jimi Hendrix Experience -- died today in Portland, apparently of natural causes. Mitch was 62.

Click for the news. Mitch was a legend... learn why.

Orange Osage

I recently received this "factory second" Vaughncraft drum shell for my next project. It's a solid piece of Orange Osage, steam bent with maple reinforcing rings. There's nothing secondary about it, this shell is simply gorgeous. The very hard osage wood should make a very nice snare drum with plenty of crack.

Supra!

Obtained via Austin, Texas where a fellow dimBulber went wayyyy out of his way to find and secure it. This drum is a legend, the only model John Bonham would play. You've heard it before -- possibly the most recorded snare drum in history... early 1980s Ludwig Supraphonic. No badge or vent grommet. Chrome acne. Still beautiful and sounds like a Supra should -- lots of body and crack, controlled, and easy to tune.

Grape Ape snare

Completed November 5, 2007. 6.5x14" 10-ply maple Keller shell, dyed with Trans-tint purple and topcoated with General Finishes high performance water-based poly. The inside is treated with pure tung oil. Eight cast lugs from Drum Foundry. Remo coated Emporer on top, hazy Ambassador on the bottom. DynamicX 20-strand snare wire and a Gibraltar snare strainer. S-hoop on the top, triple-flanged on the snare side.

e-Berry kit

With a new kiddo, I needed a way to practice quietly at home. I didn't want to shell out thousands of dollars for a Roland V-kit, so I did what I normally do -- built my own. I purchased these shallow depth 5-ply Keller shells from a GhostNote classified for $50 or so. I used the lugs and rims from my old TAMA Rock Star kit (now fire wood) and replaced heads with Hart Dynamics Magnum mesh heads -- very durable and realistic.

In addition to finishing these shells with a mixture of Trans-Tint purple wood dye and Solar-Lux black wood dye (to get that deep purple color), I fabricated my own triggers and supports. The e-trigger bridges are made from U-channel, nuts and washers and bolts and springs, all from the Ace Hardware. They are are height-adjustable, so I can control sensitivity underneath the head with a socket wrench.

Triggers are simple piezo elements like these purchased at Radio Shack for $2/each. They are mounted to a rubber gasket that is glued to a piece of aluminum plate, which in turn, is mounted to the bridge. A Roland replacement foam cone sits on top of the piezo. The piezo lead wires are crimped to regular 20 guage copper wire, then to a mono or stereo panel jack for a clean look. All drums are mono, except the snare, which is dual-zone (head and rimshot).

The cymbals are Pintech Visu-Lite acrylic e-cymbals in translucent gold. There is a 13" hi-hat, two 16" choke-able crashes, and a 18" dual-zone ride cymbal. Pintech is a great company that delivers great service.

All of these are connected through mono or stereo audio cables to a the Alesis IO trigger to MIDI box. This goes USB into a MacBook running Toontrack's EZDrummer, hosted by Garageband. Now, I can demo new beats as a kind of mini-studio. Lots of fun.

Lil' Pink EVO kit

I made this kit for Tangy frontman Jammy B's daughter. 6-ply Keller maple shells: 10x16, 7x13, 5x12. Wrapped in Neon Pink satin from Jammin Sam. The kit is designed to grow with age -- the kick will become the floor tom, the 13" will move to the up position, and a newer, biggerer kick built to match. Lugs by Drum Foundry. Kick riser by me -- angle bracket and an LP claw fabricated to give height for use with a standard drum pedal.

OJ kit

8-ply Keller maple shells dyed with Trans-Fast water-based dye, finished with Campbell's pre-catalyzed spray lacquer. Insides tung oil. Edges are 45 inside/round-over outside. Lugs by Drum Foundry. Coated Remo Emperors over clear ambassadors for the toms, Coated Powerstroke 4 batter on the kick with an Ambassador front with a 4" hole. Sizes: 10x13, 16x16 and 16x24.

They sound epic.

Shop Talk

This is where it all happens, until I get a better set up. I built a router table, sanding table, layout jig, and a drum-working jig. Those guys at Drum Foundry should get a medal for helping schlubs like me build my drums.

That little dial thingy is a DIY surface tension guage like the TAMA tension watch, but about 1/25th the cost. A hockey puck and dial guage and that's it.

I also made a DIY variable speed Random Orbit sander by installing a dimmer switch into a junction box. Now my ultra-cheap Chicago tools sander is variable. Here's proof...

Mr. B Red 20

20-ply Keller maple in red, satin finish and black chromed tube lugs. Nickle and Puresound. Heavy, with lots of attack.

Mr. B Nekkid 8

From GhostNote brother DBautista (Mr. B, apparently), 8-ply Keller maple, naked with clear coat. Offset tube lugs, Nickle thro and a PureSound wires. This drum has great tone.

Yammie RC

Thanks to Alex Morales (ex: Muttz) for this beautiful instrument, which I played for over ten years. It's a 1984 Yamaha Recording Custom, birch. Steve Gadd and a few others made the RC series very desirable for studio work, so this snare rivals the legendary Supraphonic for "most recorded" status. Tone = Balls.

Cleo memorial snare

This is the first drum I ever built, named in honor of our beloved dog Cleo. 10-ply Keller maple dyed with Solar-Lux black wood dye. As my first project, I didn't have many tools, so I created an "on top" router to cut bearing edges by mounting a router to a length of clear plexi. Snare beds are shallow. I wet-sanded this finish, which is DEFT clear poly. Lugs by Adonis.

True Blue restoration

My very first drum project was restoring this 1990 TAMA Rockstar kit. It originally had black covering, which I stupidly removed without a heat gun, splintering the outer mahogany ply. I patched and painted them, and applied four coats of brushed lacquer. I also re-cut bearing edges, improving their sound. They look okay here, but they were not pretty up close.

The entire kit is now sitting in a milk-crate -- I cut it all down for backing material when I drill for lugs on newer, betterer drums I build today.