Talk to me about drums, teach me oh wise ones :D

[buzzsaww]

Re: Talk to me about drums, teach me oh wise ones

How much difference does the number of plys make?

[Newc]

Re: Talk to me about drums, teach me oh wise ones

About $10 per ply [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/poke.gif[/img]

Regarding various brands and their associated quality: Think of a drum as a guitar - different wood means different tone. You can get 9 ply birch or 9 ply maple and get two totally different tones, same as a Mahogany Soloist or an Alder Soloist.
And just like guitars, some people can't do anything good with good wood, and some people can do no wrong with good wood.

My ex-drummer built a kit based on first-hand comparisons or identical pieces from several brands (Pearl, Tama, DW, Ludwig, etc etc), and went with Ludwig shells, DW hardware (pedals, posts, etc), and Zildjian cymbals (not sure if they were As or Ks, but they weren't ZBTs). Not sure of what heads he uses - I think he said Remo, but he mixed and matched the series' (pinstripes for some, dots for others?).
He did state that the oil-filled heads were crap and had a rubbery tone, like someone tapping a rubber bucket with water in it.
The kit cost him about $28,000 to build, and everything but the snare were off-the-shelf components. I think he said the snare was 9-ply birch and maple and 9" deep?
Basically a Tom with the snare hardware on it.

But then just like with guitars, everyone has a different taste. Some like the tone of a particular drum brand/material just like some prefer Poplar over Alder.

[Endrik]

Re: Talk to me about drums, teach me oh wise ones

Remo heads sound the best, powerstrokes for the kick drums and pristripes for toms.
Mahagony drums are usually vintage, they are very bassy, great for oldschool stuff.
Maple is more universal, they are great for old and new music. Maple's attack is better than Mahagony's.
Snare's are another subject. There are wood and metal snares, metal snares are brighter, wood are darker. Metal snares are usually made of bronze or brass or aluminium, they all sound different. I personally like wood snares more, good old maple snare, very powerful and full sounding.
Snare sizes are important too, the standard is usually 14x5, I like bigger snares, 14x6,5 and up, they sound more massive. For very sharp attack there are piccolo snares wich are very thin, I think they aren't really good for beginners. Just go to store and dry out some.

[Newc]

Re: Talk to me about drums, teach me oh wise ones

If Line6 wanted to model something, they need to make a drum modeler where you select the wood, number of plys, head type, head tuning, shell diameter and depth, all that stuff.

[buzzsaww]

Re: Talk to me about drums, teach me oh wise ones

If you build it, they will come [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Newc]

Re: Talk to me about drums, teach me oh wise ones

I know I would, so they'd have to make it spill proof [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]