Mis-matched finishes anyone play live?

Hello all. Just wondering if anyone here plays a kit with different finishes. Not so much a jelly bean kit but something like a natural stain kick and red toms.

If so, have you received any negative feedback?

Thanks, rob
 
Since no one has replied, I will chime in. I don't qualify to answer your specific questions, but I like appreciate drums that are not all the same. I have a black Sonor kit, but one tom is red. I wish I could have gotten one of the floor toms in green. Those, along with the hammered bronze 6.5 Supra, would all look good to me. I don't see anything wrong with all the toms matching, with a different kick.
 
I just recently picked up some Yamaha Oak Customs. They are awesome drums but were mismatched (long story). 3 were brown, 1 amber and 1 red. I tried to like them that way, but couldn't. I ended up refinishing the 2 odd drums by sanding the finish off and staining them with 2 coats of Minwax Stain and then 3 coats of poly. They came out real well and now I'm happy.
 
Thanks guys. I have a few nice pearl reference toms but no kick drum. Long story on that lol....I also have a Gretsch USA kick drum but no toms.

I haven't ordered the ref. kick drum yet because of the cost and I'm not really sure what size I want. Nothing has popped up on eBay eitherwith the matching finish in over a year.

I picked up the little 18" gretsch kick earlier this year to try out a small kick drum. Much like above, ordering 2 or 3 toms from gretsch won't be cheap plus to match the finish I will have to send the drum back to gretsch.

So....long story short, I'm wondering how well they would look on a stage. I wonder if anyone would really even notice and give the different colored finishes a second thought.
 
I think you'll be fine. How about this? Set the kit up with the kit with the Gretsch kick and the Pearl toms and snap a picture. Then post that here and we'll all be able to give you our honest opinion as to how they look together.
 
What are the finishes?
 
Jon Fishman from Phish uses a mismatched kit. He doesn't do any endorsements so its all fair game. I believe his current set up uses a Gretsch bass drum with Noble and Cooley toms and wide variety of cymbals from various companies.
 
I think you'll be fine. How about this? Set the kit up with the kit with the Gretsch kick and the Pearl toms and snap a picture. Then post that here and we'll all be able to give you our honest opinion as to how they look together.

As long as they're not solid color wraps, I'll probably be okay with it. I assume most people wouldn't even care about the wraps. Honestly, mismatched shell hardware colors would probably bother people more (a la some of Mapex's Mydentity options).
 
I think you'll be fine. How about this? Set the kit up with the kit with the Gretsch kick and the Pearl toms and snap a picture. Then post that here and we'll all be able to give you our honest opinion as to how they look together.


Good idea! As soon as I return home Tuesday I will do this.


BGH, the kick drum finish is a lacquer maple, actually called millennium maple and the reference toms are all finished in scarlet fade. Sort of a deep red that fades to a very dark red. Lacquered as well.

If I could figure out how to resize the photos I have on the iPad I would post what few separate pics I have.
 
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If you are playing bars and small clubs, I see no issue using these together. However, I wouldn't take them together to a wedding or private gig, where your gear is expected to have a classy look.

If this will be a long term situation, there are places you can have custom wraps made. You could look into having a wrap made for the bass drum or even have someone do a custom refinish. But, I would only look at those options if you want to continue to use the Gretsch long term.

If you want a bigger kick Pearl has other options with similar finish, such as this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pearl-Visio.../281093046256?pt=US_Drums&hash=item4172737ff0
 
If you are playing bars and small clubs, I see no issue using these together. However, I wouldn't take them together to a wedding or private gig, where your gear is expected to have a classy look.

If this will be a long term situation, there are places you can have custom wraps made. You could look into having a wrap made for the bass drum or even have someone do a custom refinish. But, I would only look at those options if you want to continue to use the Gretsch long term.

If you want a bigger kick Pearl has other options with similar finish, such as this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pearl-Visio.../281093046256?pt=US_Drums&hash=item4172737ff0



Kinda afraid of this. I mostly play in churches. I do have another set but my plan was to perhaps sell it and fund one kit or the other. The down side is the waiting period. ESP pearl, about 6 month wait.

Thanks for the great idea and the link. That just might work!
 
Thanks guys. I have a few nice pearl reference toms but no kick drum. Long story on that lol....I also have a Gretsch USA kick drum but no toms.

I haven't ordered the ref. kick drum yet because of the cost and I'm not really sure what size I want. Nothing has popped up on eBay eitherwith the matching finish in over a year.

I picked up the little 18" gretsch kick earlier this year to try out a small kick drum. Much like above, ordering 2 or 3 toms from gretsch won't be cheap plus to match the finish I will have to send the drum back to gretsch.

So....long story short, I'm wondering how well they would look on a stage. I wonder if anyone would really even notice and give the different colored finishes a second thought.

Ha! I have a natural maple finish Reference Kick drum, and I got MCX toms in birdseye maple finish because I didnt want to shell out a small fortune for Reference Toms to match.

I don't regret it--the MCX toms sound good, and the Birdseye looks different, yet fits well with the natural maple kick. Besides, who cares? If you play them drums before an audience and take 'em back home they aren't going to even think about mismatched drums. So wear them like a badge of honor.
 
I think they look great. I play a church gig every Sunday and I play a kit with a mismatching kick and floor tom. Its a flat black Drumcraft kick with red Yamaha toms. In fact I have been getting compliments about how nice my kit looks.
 
I've played a self-compiled jellybean kit of vintage Ludwig sparkle drums before. Also, the snare mismatching the toms/bass is common. But, I've never played a "bass drum one color, toms another color" setup. I would guess people wouldn't get hung up on that, unless you're playing a wedding...
 
Yeah, agreed. Weddings and corp gigs definitely a no-go. I will have to set them up and take a few pics to see how they look.

I probably could pull it off in most churches. Some of the smaller gigs I will set up with a floor tom only, no rack toms. This setup I wouldn't worry so much with a red floor tom.
 
My son has been playing a kit with a tom that mis-matches in shading the same as the red ones pictured in this thread. No one has noticed, and even the other parents of the band members and the band members themselves only see it when I point it out ("Oh yeah, I see it now...").

It also depends on lighting. In clubs/bars, it is very hard to see any difference. The boys just played a very large outdoor gig, and the difference was very visible (to me at least) in the bright sun, but as the sun set you would never know one tom was a distinctly different shade.

If you are talking about totally different colors, I bet 99.9% of audience members would either not care, or assume it is supposed to be like that.
 
My current main kit is mis-matched. Slingerland toms and Tama Superstar kick. The floor tom is all original so I tried staining the bass and 13 tom to match. Its close, but no cigar. No negative comments yet :)
I like mismatched kits. Check out the drummer for Vintage Trouble - he always mixes up his kit.

tamalandkitdec12.jpg
 
I don't like mismatched finishes on kits. Snare doesn't matter, but the bass and toms need to look the same. That's just me. I don't care if the drums themselves are different brands, as long as they look the same. its like having a mismatched wheel on a car, why not get it right? I have seen concerts where the drummer has a cobbled together kit and I bugs me. Wood hoops on one tom slung low and flat and metal hoops on a floor tom. Why?
 
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