So, yeah, it's pretty great!
I was inspired to go big on this kit after my awesome experience with my other DaVille drum, a 13x5" stave Padauk snare, and, of course, I was inspired by Guru's incredible work as well. I decided to go with Purpleheart after a positive experience with a Renown (maple shell) and Andy's suggestion that it is "maple on steroids"- I like pure, open kind of sounds but I also play plenty of aggressive styles so I need attack enough for that. I think it does a great job of that, especially with the heads that are on there. Here's what's on each:
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Hardware~~
-Ego Mini Tube lugs. These guys kind of screwed up my order, and it took forever, but the product is very impressive, good-looking, and light. I went with full-length lugs mainly for cost-saving reasons, though they do look nice and maybe better than the separated short tube lugs I was going to purchase originally. Certainly a classier, vintage vibe. I was going to use as few rubber gaskets as possible when putting together the kit but it turned out that I got considerable lug splay when doing so, and as such I was forced to use them. The lug splay was actually so bad on the bigger drums that I had to buy extra washers and put them between lug and shell on the floor tom and bass drum, but that fixed it quite easily (and the washers don't look drastically removed from the actual base design of the lugs) so I'm not bitter about it.
-Curly maple inlay. I like the look of inlays a lot, and between bird's eye, regular, and curly maple, I think the curly (or "flame") maple looks interesting (almost holographic up close) and its vertical pattern lines up with the grain of the wood.
-RIMS mounts. I like aluminum, and didn't want to go for the knockoff versions. I actually saw a very interesting mounting system in the latest DRUM! mag from Trick whose band goes between tension rod & hoop, like washers, but extends all the way round and looks nice too. Unfortunately, I only saw the review this week, and it also doesn't seem like the mounts exist outside of the magazine, so RIMS mounts it is. They feel really nice to hold, especially with the friendly rounded edges- which is very important, as you'll likely be touching these every time you take the drum off of its mount. Speaking of which-
-S-Hoops. These things are great. They look fresh, and the rounded edges are ALSO very friendly- these right next to the RIMS mounts make we just wanna rub my hand all over them. I've noticed, though, that the flat top of the S-Hoops makes them VERY susceptible to fingerprints and smudges on the chrome, so I basically have to wipe them down every time I handle a tom. But they sound great, and they have a perfect rim sound- seriously, it's great. It makes me want to play my rims more often.
-DW hoop mounted spurs (picture below). I figured that I might as well try them instead of the medium-weight Gibraltar ones that attach to the shell. They're pretty good! Hard to set the angles of each equal at first, but they look very nice and aren't ridiculously heavy. One thing I'm worried about in the long run is that, while I tightened them fairly high at first, after playing for a while, the rods that are used to tighten were a little loose, and I had to tighten them more. However, I'm afraid to tighten them too tightly, because they tighten by constricting the bass head's hoop and the actual bass hoop, and I don't wish to deform anything by having abnormal tension at only those two points on the hoops. I'll probably get over it, though.
-DW aluminum floor tom legs. They're light and I think they look nice. Whether they're worth ~$70 is your call, but I like them.
-Pearl air suspension feet. Easy and durable way to unlock a floor tom's low end potential. If you're looking for something similar but don't want to replace your feet, or don't have the right diameter legs, Booty Shakers basically do the same thing in a less durable form (though the feet, advertised for 10.5mm or under legs, fit onto my 12.7mm aluminum legs without much issue).
-Hendrix Drums sleeved washers. They look nice, they're inexpensive, and they noticeably smoothened my tuning process. As far as I'm concerned, there's not much reason to get any other kind of tension rod washer.
-Slug Triad Pads. Don't fit together well for double bass setups, and the orange accent clashes pretty badly (I would prefer white or black options at least) but the design itself is suitably modern-looking and they have a nice subtlety to the sound effect. However, I don't know if that effect is much different than, say, an AF patch or whatever.
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Toms~~
The toms are all 1/4" thick in the shell body with lathed re-rings. I haven't had much opportunity to play with different tunings yet but in my preliminary trials, they bristle with shell resonance but don't go overboard with it. In comparison with my Superstar, I can tune both to similar ranges and get more head resonance on the Superstar but little shell resonance- leading to a dry, semi-dead sound a few feet away from the kit. With the DaVille, the sound away from the kit has great, great attack, similar to the Superstar, but it's like someone added in the actual fundamental pitch in post. They project clear notes incredibly well yet keep a ridiculously tight attack on top of it. (Even with a full reso head on the bass drum and felt-side beaters, I had no trouble placing the kick's attacks.) Each resonant side has a half-roundover with an inner 45, and each batter side has the same but with a slightly rounded edge between the two. Andy recommended this, and while I obviously can't compare it to anything else, they sound great and I think the edges do a great job of 'transmuting' vibrations into the shell.
As far as the heads, I tried out the "graduated head" concept that many people seem interested in now, especially with the advent of Evans' several new thicknesses. In short- I don't think it works very well. Ideally, what it's supposed to do is control the bigger drums with thicker heads and let smaller drums open up easier with thinner heads, but what it does in practice is give me a dormant 15" floor tom, an overly excited 10" tom, and a 'just right' 12" tom (I got a G14, G1, and G12 for the batter side respectively, after consulting with EvansSpecialist). I also got Genera Resos for the rack tom resos and a G12 floor tom reso but I think the G12/G14 combination is just too much for me. I'm going to get a 15" Genera Reso and 10"/15" G12s sometime and see how that balances it out. (I think you could do well with perhaps one thickness head for two drums- say, a g1 on an 8, g12s on 10 and 12, and g14s on 14 and 16 with the same reso for each- but I don't think it works very well for singular shifts. especially not on these drums) No problems with the actual heads, though- the 12" sounds great and the 10" and 15" are only slightly off that level. Next year I'm going to get White Suede Ambassadors (and a coated Force I bass head) for lighter stuff but for now, these Evans are great.
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Kick~~
The kick is 3/8" thick with the same re-ring thing. The hoops are very nice (though I actually had to add some padding to the batter one to get my 9000 to be able to clamp to it- too thin!) and I love having the 'claws' drilled into them, rather than being real claws. Way, way more convenient when changing heads and IMO they just look better. I'm using a Fiberskyn FA resonant head (though in these photos, it's a coated ambassador after I massively screwed up the port on the first Fiberskyn I ordered- you can see where i also screwed up the port on this ambassador. don't worry, i'm being much more careful with the replacement Fiberskyn) which has a lovely dark sound. Honestly, though, I mainly got it because of its appearance, because it looks
so good. I'm also using Remo's new Powerstroke 3 Black Dot head as a batter. I got turned on to it by Alex Rudinger and it certainly seems to have a positive effect on the sound- a subtler EMAD. My current muffling situation is an Evans pillow which is only touching the reso side right now, and that's great- though I'll experiment on lessening it once I get the new Fiberskyn installed. Oodles of attack, and I'm guessing that it is not going to need much processing to get a great metal sound once I mic it up. As for the feel of a 20" kick, I'm still getting used to it, and I might try putting weights on my beaters to compensate for coming off of a 22", but it does seem to be easier to play on.
Anyways, yeah, they're really great drums, and while my emotional detachment isn't really helping me distinguish the subtle ways in which this kit is superior to my previous one, I can at least tell enough about it to see that it is a tremendous work. Big, big thanks to
Terry Thompson who built it, Andy for helping me with tons of queries about how to get the sound I wanted, and Ben (EvansSpecialist) for helping me with some Evans questions.
Wasn't able to get any video yet but look out for a Meshuggah cover, a Karnivool cover, and a 'sound test' video probably next weekend.
Oh yeah, it's there. Hopefully that will come through when I am able to get some videos up! Like I said- thanks so much for the consultation, and sorry for divulging all of Guru's mystical drum building advice
Wow, you basically own my dream kit down to the woods, lugs (intended), hoops, and sizes. I am so very jealous of you (and a 15" floor just makes so much sense!). Seriously though, that's my dream kit, and you have it. My mind = blown. You had better play it every day for hours
.
Aw, thanks! 15" floor toms are the ideal middle ground IMO. Surprising that they are so rare. After I ordered the kit, I found myself thinking that I should have got the 12" tom as a 13" as my usual Orbin-type setup now utilizes it as sort of a floor tom/rack tom hybrid, but ah well- it works absolutely fine. I have been playing it very often so far, so no need to worry
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Photos~~
I'm told that the purple color will richen and darken over time from its current reddish state, and I believe it based on the sample I received a few months back that I have been leaving in a UV-accessible space.
Like I said earlier- 20x15" kick, 15x14" floor tom, 12x8" rack tom, 10x7.5" rack tom.
Cymbals (L to R) are- 14" Zildjian "New Alloy" Crash/14" Saluda Glory Vented Bottom hi-hat, 18" HHX Evolution crash, 12" no-name "Made in China" china, 20" Custom Shop HHX Omni, 14" A Custom EFX/17" AA Holy China stack.
The spurs.
As far as the Level 360 collar goes, I haven't had any trouble tuning these, but I also didn't have any trouble with the Remo bass heads. I did notice easier tuning on my Superstar when I used G14s (or Aquarian Super-2s) though, and obviously I haven't had anything to compare with on this new one.
Yeah, I know, badges. I like how they look and I want to promote Terry's work, as he makes a great product at a great price. No gaskets though
(All photos taken with an HTC One X and the Camera FV-5 app, edited & color corrected in GIMP.)
See you soon, folks!