zambizzi
Platinum Member
The Madman from Montebello strikes again! This is a continuation of this thread, started by Frank a couple of weeks ago.
I got them in last night, unpacked, and spent a lot of time tuning and re-tuning. To be entirely accurate, I spent the first hour just looking at them. I was so struck by how beautiful they were, I had to force myself to start setting them up instead of just turning them around with my hands and ogling over them. These drums could be hideous and the sound alone would justify them...but they're not, they're a work of art...much nicer than any other piece of furniture that I own.
The sizes (diameter x depth x thickness)
22"x18" (7/16") bass
16"x14" (3/8") floor tom
12"x9" (3/8") tom
10"x8" (3/8") tom
14"x6.5" (1/2") snare (not pictured)
Frank forgot to pack the legs to the kick drum and is shipping them out via expedited mail this morning, so I should have them in a few days. Meanwhile, I used two 5lb. dumbbells and a couple pieces of foam to hold the front up. Sexy, eh?
They feature Frank's own quick-release lugs - top-shelf quality and should make for very quick head changes. The heads on the toms are coated ambassadors over clears, the kick has a coated PS3 over a clear PS3 batter.
The matching snare is finished and should make its way to me sometime soon. I'll post pics once I have it.
I'm going to outfit it with die-cast hoops and the Tama Star-Cast (aluminum) mounting system for the smaller toms. For now I'm using the Pearl Optimount brackets I already had.
The sound:
If a set of high-end, boutique, maple plywood drums are a like a fine chocolate bar, these drums are a hand-whipped, hot fudge sundae covered with caramel, whipped cream, and a cherry on top (in a silver bowl). Was that helpful? Probably not. But seriously, the sound far exceeded my expectations.
I took quite a leap; maple ply shells to solid bubinga staves...so it's unclear to me after just a few hours with them, what characteristics are due to the wood type or the shell construction, specifically. The first thing I noticed is how crisp and clear the note is. When the head is struck there's an initial, super-fat, super-low, super-warm, super-LOUD tone that then resonates all the way up through the mids and tops off at a nice clear ring. It's everything you'd want from maple but much more...deeper and fatter on the low-end and more expressive and "musical" on the high-end. It struck me that all the high-end ply drums I've had are missing many of those tones. I've gotten quite used to my practice room acoustically, and for the first time I felt like the sound of my drums really *fills* the room. The kick drum is so fat and punchy, it gave me the feeling that the walls were actually moving! I dare not stand in front of it while someone else plays it...I'm not sure I'm done having children yet. The next thing that occurred to me is the wide tuning range these drums have. I can tune as high or as low as I want...it's really going to take a long time to figure out my ideal sound since the "sweet spot" is so much wider than other drums I've had. I couldn't get them to choke as I messed with them...I'm sure I'd have to crank it beyond a playable tension to spoil the sound.
That being said, I don't have them tuned all that well yet and will post some sounds once I think I've got them sounding more to their potential.
So, enough BS, here's some eye-candy!
I got them in last night, unpacked, and spent a lot of time tuning and re-tuning. To be entirely accurate, I spent the first hour just looking at them. I was so struck by how beautiful they were, I had to force myself to start setting them up instead of just turning them around with my hands and ogling over them. These drums could be hideous and the sound alone would justify them...but they're not, they're a work of art...much nicer than any other piece of furniture that I own.
The sizes (diameter x depth x thickness)
22"x18" (7/16") bass
16"x14" (3/8") floor tom
12"x9" (3/8") tom
10"x8" (3/8") tom
14"x6.5" (1/2") snare (not pictured)
Frank forgot to pack the legs to the kick drum and is shipping them out via expedited mail this morning, so I should have them in a few days. Meanwhile, I used two 5lb. dumbbells and a couple pieces of foam to hold the front up. Sexy, eh?
They feature Frank's own quick-release lugs - top-shelf quality and should make for very quick head changes. The heads on the toms are coated ambassadors over clears, the kick has a coated PS3 over a clear PS3 batter.
The matching snare is finished and should make its way to me sometime soon. I'll post pics once I have it.
I'm going to outfit it with die-cast hoops and the Tama Star-Cast (aluminum) mounting system for the smaller toms. For now I'm using the Pearl Optimount brackets I already had.
The sound:
If a set of high-end, boutique, maple plywood drums are a like a fine chocolate bar, these drums are a hand-whipped, hot fudge sundae covered with caramel, whipped cream, and a cherry on top (in a silver bowl). Was that helpful? Probably not. But seriously, the sound far exceeded my expectations.
I took quite a leap; maple ply shells to solid bubinga staves...so it's unclear to me after just a few hours with them, what characteristics are due to the wood type or the shell construction, specifically. The first thing I noticed is how crisp and clear the note is. When the head is struck there's an initial, super-fat, super-low, super-warm, super-LOUD tone that then resonates all the way up through the mids and tops off at a nice clear ring. It's everything you'd want from maple but much more...deeper and fatter on the low-end and more expressive and "musical" on the high-end. It struck me that all the high-end ply drums I've had are missing many of those tones. I've gotten quite used to my practice room acoustically, and for the first time I felt like the sound of my drums really *fills* the room. The kick drum is so fat and punchy, it gave me the feeling that the walls were actually moving! I dare not stand in front of it while someone else plays it...I'm not sure I'm done having children yet. The next thing that occurred to me is the wide tuning range these drums have. I can tune as high or as low as I want...it's really going to take a long time to figure out my ideal sound since the "sweet spot" is so much wider than other drums I've had. I couldn't get them to choke as I messed with them...I'm sure I'd have to crank it beyond a playable tension to spoil the sound.
That being said, I don't have them tuned all that well yet and will post some sounds once I think I've got them sounding more to their potential.
So, enough BS, here's some eye-candy!
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