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.