Maiden Voyage

I have the set in a playable state now so I took it to practice last night. Here is the report. (I posted this in the cocktaildrum.com discussion forum and cut and pasted it here).

Practice went well last night except that one of our guitarists missed due to illness. Everyone else really liked the set, but kind of didn't get the point. Why would I stand when I can sit?

There are bugs to be worked out. I'm currently mounting the side snare and tom on a stand because I think they are too heavy for the bass tom. I'm using 8x12 and 9x13 toms from my std set for these. That means an extra stand to pack around and set up instead of simply hanging them from the bass tom. And it's a heavy stand.

I'm very unhappy with the snare sound. I've made a fan snare typical of those I've seen on other cocktail sets. If anyone has any suggestions about that I'd love to hear them. It sounds like a crappy low-end snare that comes on the crappy low-end drumsets. If I can't fix it I'll convert to a standard bottom head strainer set up. That means more $$ though. Trying to keep that down as much as I can.

I have the 20" Zildjian ride I use on my std set mounted on my right with a cymbal stacker holding the closed hi hat on top. I bought some cheap 12" splash cymbals for the hi hat and their sound is not what I'm used to. (I have 70's vintage 15" Zildjians on my std kit.) These are mounted on an arm that puts them almost directly in front of me so I'm reaching a bit for them. This adds to the discomfort level so I'm going to move the hi hat around the bass tom a little closer to me. This means another leg mount needs to be added to the shell.

Finally on the minus side: standing up. I used muscles I didn't know I had last night. This isn't a surprise to me, I knew I'd be standing and I knew it would be mostly on one leg. I tried a tall stool but that got to my back. I'll get used to it. I will probably try a heel block so I can shift a little weight to my right leg.

Pluses: totally cool set up. Takes up a lot less room than my std set. A lot easier to move and set up/tear down, tom stand not withstanding. I'm pretty happy with the bass tom sound I'm getting on both ends. The bottom needs a little more muting, it's still a little ringy, but I get a decent bass sound. I think that's because it's a 16" shell. The top side sounds like a floor tom. Just what I was after. The long shell seems to give it a great reasonance.

Even though my minus list seems a bit long (we do tend to focus on the negative, don't we?) all in all this is a great set up. I've enjoyed building it and I'm going to enjoy playing it (dammit!). I think it will contribute to the unique sound of my band and will certainly get a lot of attention. If any of you readers have suggestions let me know. I'll post pictures later.

Progress

The second floor tom arrived this week and I went right to work on cutting it down and getting it joined up with the other tom to make the bass tom.





Here it is all cut up. The larger piece on the right is the part that will be put together with the one in the picture above. The small ring on top is the sleeve I'll put inside at the seam to help hold them together. I'm saving the one on the left to make into a Bodhran later.




I cut a small piece out of the sleeve so it will fit inside both shells.







And here are both shells joined, glued, all the unneeded holes plugged. I also drilled them for the lugs and test fitted them. Tonight I painted the inside of the shells gray to go with the snakeskin tolex I'm using to cover them. I have some on order to cover the bass tom. I'm planning on getting the toms covered tomorrow. I'll post pics tomorrow night.

Field Engineering

Changed my mind again. The 2nd floor tom showed up today. Full of holes from the old hardware. The good news is it is the same outer diameter as the other floor tom it will be mated with, bad news is it is not the same inner diameter. The shells are different thicknesses so I have to get creative with a lap joint (or something...any suggestions).

I checked on another type of covering but it was too expensive too. But! I was at a friend's house tonight and he had a ton of snakeskin tolex left over from his amp covering project. Voila! So forget about the wood look and the Craviotto example. I'll post some pics after I get the shells joined and then when the covering goes on.

While I'm waiting...

I'm still waiting for the floor tom to come from eBay to put finish my "bass" drum. In the meantime I've been refinishing the toms. I was going to recover them, but the cost of the wrap put me over my budget. The toms are made of mahogany and they are a little rough. I was wondering what to do with them, then I remembered the Craviotto Cherry/walnut set I saw in an ad.

I like the dark bottom half with the orangish top.

The shell I already have for my bass tom has a finish on it that is sort of greenish/gold. I have some Behr deck and fence stain that is sort of orange so I used it on the toms. I'll take the wrap off the tom that is on the way and finish it the same and inlay a pattern between them to hide the seam. I stained the toms yesterday and I 've put on a couple of coats of poly. I'm hoping they will turn out similar to the Craviotto's.

I also reversed the beater on the pedal so it will hit upward now. It seems to work well. I post some pictures of the drums when they are further along.

Getting started

This weekend I scoured a music store that has a lot of used parts. I didn't find all that I hoped for and I didn't find it all used. I picked up 16 used lugs for the floor tom, legs, leg mounts, a 4" snare strainer, lug bolts, and rims. All for a grand total of $150. A little more than I hoped, but not too bad.




I am going to use two shells that I have for the snare and tom, and I've bought two on eBay for the floor tom. One of the floor toms has arrived. I'm still waiting on the other and the pedal.






While I'm waiting for the other stuff to arrive I went ahead and constructed the fan snare the same as you've seen posted other places. I cut the snare wires about 4 inches long and pop-riveted them to a muting device. I used a 4 inch wide snare in hopes of getting a bigger snare sound so I couldn't set it up to rotate away from the head. It's too wide. I can turn it off by twisting the knob to lower it away from the head, just like a regular mute. It's not quick, but it works.
Not much more I can do until the other shell comes. I'm planning on ordering the shell wrap this week. Check back for updates. I may have more done next weekend.

About the tom and snare

Quick update. I tossed it around all day yesterday and I've decided not to cut the toms down. I want to keep the sound as full and fat as I can. I haven't done any new work. Waiting for parts.

Prepping the toms

The picture at the top of the last post is not my set. That is just a picture I snatched so you can see what I'm talking about when I say "cocktail drumset".

Last night I stripped my spare tom toms down to the wood in prep for new hardware and wrap. One of these originally came with my standard drumset. That is a 1970 Pearl wood/fiberglass. The other is one I added later and it is amazing to see the decline in quality over ten years. Anyway, they are both very usable, but I will have to recover them. I was hoping to do a natural stain, but the surface of the wood is not good and there are holes to fill.

At this moment I am planning to reduce the depth of these shells (I did the math: a 36% reduction in each). I came up with that because I want them to stay proportional to their widths and to each other. I am considering leaving the bottom heads off to save money on hardware and so they will nest inside each other for easier transport. I'd like to get this all in one case.

The other shells and pedal are being shipped so in the meantime I'm planning on finishing the prep on these shells: plugging unnecessary holes and cutting them down. One of these will become the snare.

I went to a local music store that has a few boxes of parts behind the counter yesterday, but I couldn't find anything I need. I'm trying to do this "on the cheap" so if I can find anything used, in good condition and where no shipping charges are involved, then that's what I'll use. Right now I'm looking for floor tom legs and mounts. I think I'll need at least seven, three for the legs and two each for the tom and snare. I may need two more to mount cymbals and percussion, I'm still trying to figure out how to do that.

I'll try to get some pictures taken this weekend and include them in my next post.

Decisions, decisions, decisions

Recently, I became interested in having a cocktail drum set because they are easy to transport and don't take up much room. The guitarist in my band has been talking about a percussion set up he saw at a concert that was actually a cocktail set, but he was having trouble describing it.

I started looking around for one and found that there aren't a lot of manufacturers making them anymore. No surprise, they are an artifact of an earlier time. Yamaha has a beauty called Club Jordan. It has a beauty of a price too. $2000+! Not going there. I looked on eBay and saw some basic sets for around $250+shipping. Now that's more like it, but it was hard to tell what the quality was. This set will get used and I don't want something that will fall apart easily.

Looking around the internet, I found http://www.cocktaildrum.com/. This site has everything you ever wanted to know and more about these kind of drums. I read the construction section and got a little inspired to try building one myself. I have intermediate woodworking skills and the right tools, so it is a possibility.

What really cinched it for me was this: I went to a local music store that I like (not one of the chains) and asked if they had any or ever got any CDS in. The kid behind the counter had no clue what I was talking about. On the way out my build or buy decision was made.

Over the weekend I bought a 16 X 16 shell and a 10 X 16 shell on eBay. They weren't too expensive (except for shipping). I also bought a bass drum pedal that I will convert to a reverse pedal so it will hit the bass drum up from underneath. I intend to join the two shells to make one that is 26 inches deep. I already have two smaller toms that I can use along with the ones I bought. I will make one a snare. Also I can borrow cymbals from my main set and I have some spare cymbal stands I can use to mount them.

Next time I'll include some pictures of the parts and pieces when I get them all together. I'll probably start making the snare this week while I'm waiting for the shells and pedal.