Right!
Sound clips may appear at some point. To be honest, I'm very self-conscious about my playing so I tend to skirt this issue, despite having a recording rig! I tend to use it for practice purposes - monitoring my playing using the mics with isolating headphones on. Nevertheless something may appear soon. I have some plans to put up some covers but it all depends on my mental state on that day. I'm a little...fractured at the moment.
Bob, I am using traditional grip about 80% of the time at the moment. I switch between grips in the middle of songs without even realising it so trying to focus on one grip made me switch the snare to this angle. I can still play it matched without many problems but although the angle looks steep - it's really not. I used to play with a much steeper angle.
Arky, bowing cymbals is a case of either having a wingnut on fairly tight or using a hand to hold the bell. I choose to hold the bell most of the time because depending on the hand position I use, I can get different sounds out of the cymbal. Like I said earlier I can get actual notes from these cymbals with the right grip and bow angle. I need to find my rosin. It's probably in the violin case! That makes a huge difference too. Bowing is mainly a matter of practice; I've been doing it for a few years.
Martin. The finish on the toms I think is a stain over the ash. That's how it came from the factory some eight years ago. The bass drum is a wood oil I used (I forget which one, probably Danish) which stained it a few shades darker than it was originally. I do have thread on here on the staining process and the look of the drum before I re-finished it. The shine is a light French polish - about six coats of shellac with light buffing between layers. Not difficult at all but it is a little delicate. Either the shell will age with the polish or I will re-apply it.
Regarding the cymbals, I sold my crash for the 20" Dream Bliss about four months ago. I had a Sabian AAX Studio Crash and sold it for exactly the same money as my Dream. It functions well as a big, dark crash. All of the cymbals that I use regularly are 20", although I'm trading a 20" Paiste for a 21" Agop on Wednesday. I can't wait. I love bigger cymbals and now most crash cymbals sound weak. I find that having larger cymbals - especially thinner cymbals - lets me extract more voices and tones from one cymbal but I find that crashes - particularly smaller crashes - tend to have fewer tones available. I'm a total cymbal nut in all reality and as long as my snare is nice, then I don't really care about the drums I'm using!