Thanks for the kind words chaps. $6,995 is quite a price.
I got the drums over the last two and a half years. The first to be bought was the R30 Edge, I was on holiday(vacation) in Dayton Ohio, my ex-wife was born there, and we we're visiting her family and I walked into the local guitar centre hell bent on buying a snare, a Tico Torres in particular. I had no intention whatsoever of buying a Neil Peart R30 snare but I accidentally saw it after a lacklustre search for a Tico. I asked the price, calculated how much it was in GBP and knew I wouldn't get it cheaper anywhere else (if I could find one that is) and bought it there and then with an SKB case.
The next to come along was the lighter wood Snakes and Arrows Connosieur, a Maple with Walnut inlay, I picked that up from Thomann.de for £700.
The red Snakes and Arrows Connosieur is a really lovely story...............
I was looking through google at some drum pics and a red Snakes and Arrows was in the mix and it got me thinking if I could get one, so I did a search and found a link to an ebay auction that had finished a month beforehand but I still contacted the seller in the vain hope that he might still have the drum as the seller was a dealer out of Fresno. After a couple of emails, I got told a price and was asked if I wanted to buy one? ..................... ERM............... YES PLEASE!!!! So I paid the full amount incl postage which came to $950 and was told that it would be a bit of a wait. That was August last year and in the October I sent an enquiry email to the dealer who said "let me find out and I'll get back to you"
A couple of days past and then I received an email with a quote from one of the guys at DW.............. "I'm not sure what the hold-up is, but the drum is in with Louie at the moment so I'll chase him up......." I asked my dealer if the Louie in question was Louie Garcia, the guy who hand paints all of Neil Peart's drums and was told a simple "yes". Louie Garcia was painting MY DRUM??!!!! OMG I am not letting that drum out of my sight when it arrives, and less than a month later, it arrived and I just sat and marvelled at it for over an hour, it just humbled me.
The darker wood Connosieur is a Walnut with Sycamore inlay and I bought that off of Ebay for £450 (I don't think the seller knew what he was selling as it was at least £200 cheaper than I would expect.
After letting my dealer know that the red snare had arrived safely, he told me that he'd been allocated four Time Machine snares and that he was gonna keep one for himself and sell the other three. I asked if I could put a deposit down on one of the other three and he accepted immediately. I had the email two weeks ago saying the snares were in and he actually shipped it on the 14th, so it should arrive any minute.
My ex-wife was very understanding about my passion for snare drums and my new partner is just as understanding. So I've been lucky, but I suppose with no kids, and I don't drink, smoke or gamble, snares are my vice.