Drum Kit Help

[pro]

I am no drummer! So, here is a dumb question.

I want to put together a nice retro kit for my project studio and I just found three stainless steel ludwig toms, cheap. Each one fits into the other, there are no bottom heads. Is this a good place to start? clueless

[Bishbashbosh]

Er.....
I think the problem here is your use of the word 'nice'!!!!

Stainless steel kits were used by both Bonham, and Carl Palmer in the 70's..... And they sounded like total shite!

They kinda only do one sound...... and you wouldn't want to listen to it for very long... (and I'm speaking as a big Bonham fan!)

If you want to get a kit for your studio, it's probably worth getting something that will cover as many styles as possible.
If you want cool and vintage sounding, you can probably pick up a 60's Rogers kit for not too much.... Or stretch to a Ludwig or Gretsch for a little more cash.
If you were in the UK (your signature doesn't say) you could pick up a Premier kit for almost nothing, and they were built really well, and still sound fantastic.

IMO, buying the steel kit would be a waste of money..... save your cash and get something that can do the job right!

[pro]

thanks bud,

I wanted something kinda unique. I'm no commercial studio so I'm not looking for a one trick pony.

just something unique I can f'k with, but I like a big deep 50'ish sound.

Why do some kits not have bottom heads?

Buying vintage kits are there some things to watch out for? warped, hardware thats no longer made?

[chetatkinsdiet]

Stay away from the SS shells. They're crap. Like the previous post said, you can grab a decent Ludwig, Rogers, Slingerland, Premier or other for decent money. If you're not worried about matching drums, it's really easy and cheap. There are tons of singles on ebay all the time. Vintage drums are like anything else. There are some out there that are ragged beyone belief, some that weren't that great to begin with, but a lot that are pretty cool. If you run through a lot of them, you might get lucky and end up with a magic kit. Same with guitars or any other acoustic, vintage instrument.
But, for a grand or so, you can get a great kit that can't be matched in any music store buying new. There's really nothing on them that can't be found online, so don't worry about obsolete parts or anything. Rims are all basically standard, t-rods, etc. If lugs are missing, they're unique per manufacturer, but they're all available online.
A lot of guys don't consider the 70s kits "vintage", so you can get some great deals there. Ludwig 6ply drums, Rogers "bigR" kits, Slingerland "Niles" drums, etc. Don't hesitate a bit on them. They're all great.

Later,
m

[pro]

cool, thanks


What are the basic 'laws' about Size, Materials, and Hardware, that can give me an idea of what I'm looking for ?

[Drumsound]

Originally Posted by pro

I am no drummer! So, here is a dumb question.

I want to put together a nice retro kit for my project studio and I just found three stainless steel ludwig toms, cheap. Each one fits into the other, there are no bottom heads. Is this a good place to start? clueless

NO!

[drummin4christ]

If you don't have a lot of money to work with, Check out the PDP drums. There really afordable and the CX and LX kits have all maple shells. Everyone here will pretty much say that Maple and Birch kits are what they use so look for a kit that has these shell types. After that, buy good heads and keep them tuned up real nice.
Don't skimp on Cymbals!!! You can't tune cymbals so what you buy is what you get.

Hope this helps,

[pro]

Thanks for the tips,

I'm gonna mix and match and build a magic kit. (some of it will be stainless)

Why don't some of the ludwig toms have bottom headz?
If my research is correct the bottom headz controll the resonance of the pitch of the drum?

[Bishbashbosh]

Originally Posted by pro

If my research is correct the bottom headz controll the resonance of the pitch of the drum?

Yep..... control the decay.
And there will be a tonne of decay with stainless steel toms!!!!

Honestly.... the steel toms are only useful as plant pots..... and they're not even very good for that.

[Nutmeg II.]

There was a time were a lot of manufacturers did no bottom head drums...
The sound of a drum is some what bodyless, with a lot of attack nut no real nice tone...
I always prefer the 2 headed drums but that is a matter of taste and even now adays there are drummers that use the single headed drums (Tim "Herb" Alexander for exsample and even he had switched to the regular toms in the last 2 years).

With type of woods there are maple and birch for the main wood types on drums. Maple is a realy well balanced with a nice tone and good attack, wile birch will have a bitt less mids which will make the drums a bit punchier...

With old drums you should check for round shells! If they aren't round they aren't worth shit!
Also check if they were exposed to humidity (wet storage or rehearsal space). Watch for wrinkles in the woodplys.
Cracks in the wood?

All in all vintage kits could be a great value for the money and some of them sound fantastic, but I still prefer new drumsets.
Newer building standarts and machienery did a lot to drum manufacturing and even the cheap starter kits are great!

P.S.: check the bearing edges too!
they could be recut but if they are all bashed up and have bumbs in them go for another drumset or ask for a discount!

[Nutmeg II.]

P.P.S.: A lot of the "vintage" sound comes from the drum size, heads, tuneing and the rooms they were recorded in!
Like we had the power tom sizes in the 80s, were the drum size was square like 14"X14"...
A lot of the older stuff was relatively flat, toms like 8"x13" or kicks with 14"x20" or 14"x22"...

With drum heads the good old days were single ply heads (Remo Waetherking) and later on Remo CS became popular...

So a new drumset with a size of your choice could get you into alot of places sound wise with just changeing the tuning and the drum heads... and yes you even could remove the bottom head to get the single head sound out of it.

[pro]

thanks nutmeg

What about the Vistalite kits any good? I think they're plastic?

[Nutmeg II.]

They defenetly have a sound.
Bonham did play them for a time.
The sound is very attack focused.
You got to play them to check if you like them or not.
And the shells are more sensetive to bad handling, so watch out for cracks in them.

One big plus for the pelxiglass drum kits is the look!
You even could glue LEDs in them to have a funky lighted drum kit!

I still prefer a good maple, birch, mahagonny (how every you spell that in english) drumset.
And if you have a lot of money and 1 to 10 roeadies you might want check out one of this or this.