re: Drummer Talk: setups & hardware discussion/questions

Tip of the Weekend: Put a cotton ball or two inside your floor tom heads. It will dampen the ring some. You get the same sound without the long and drawn out sustain.

I've tried both. Ring does too much. Cotton + 1 gel works great.

How do you dampen your snare,; the moongel?

Just ordered some S-Hoops! 1 set for my snare and an extra 16" for the big floor tom.

Brief demonstration vs. Cast

another vs. triple flanged

I plan on trying them on both of my snares, 6.5x14 brass and 6x14 maple. Still going to eventually order some die-cast hoops for my brass but I figure these will be worth a shot. I also heard they are GREAT on toms so maybe I will eventually try that as well.

Hmm...I'm intrigued. Looking forward to the pics...

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the rings

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I used to swear I'd never use studio rings...until I started using my toms in the drum room at the church I recently started attending.

For some reason, that studio ring just focuses the sound perfectly and brings out the low end. It's interesting how differing ceiling heights and sheetrock angles change the sound of a drum.

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I use an Evans ST Dry head (which is vented near the bearing edge) and it dries out the sound just enough to eliminate some of those unwanted overtones...

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I tried that one time on my brass and I liked it ok but it didn't last long. The only head I've ever REALLY been pleased with on my brass is the emperor X. I just hit too hard when I'm playing that snare. I've been rocking the S-Hoop with 1/2 a moongel for a couple weeks now and I love it.

I've never tried one on my maple but I'm extremely pleased with my CS on it.

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How do you dampen your snare,; the moongel?

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I have been more into getting a "classic jazz" sound lately. I like to let my snare drum sing. I do not dampen it because it chokes the drum's voice. I like to get the tuning solid and the snares tight and let it sing out. My old steel Ludwig Supraphonic has a lot of personality and is a solid workhorse of a snare drum.

If you are playing rock or metal you would probably not like this type of snare sound (I know I didn't back in the day), but it sure has been fun lately.

I do the same thing with my bass drum and toms. No muffling, just wide open. Of course, you have to make sure everything is well-tuned, but I get a cool, and inspiring sound out of my drums. Improvised soloing has been a lot of fun with this sound.

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Of course, now that I have (at least in my opinion) setting my kit up to sound right where it currently is, I'll have to change that in a few weeks because I'm moving

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Isn't this always the case? You never know what kind of neighbors you are going to get.

It's like you have to "train" your neighbors. When I move to a new place, I always start out by playing with brushes for a few weeks, then move to "rake brushes" for the next couple of weeks, then to "hot rods" for a few more before moving to normal sticks. When they complain after you have moved to regular sticks, you ask them why they have waited for 6-8 weeks (or how ever long it has been) to say something. You had been playing for about two months and never got any complaints. That person will say that "it is louder today for some reason" to which you will respond "I don't know what is different. I am playing the way I always do." Then you can come to an agree like only playing between the hours of 9am-9pm, which they should find reasonable. Then you can work on your brushwork (or rudiments on a practice pad) in the hours after 9pm since he didn't complain when you were playing at that volume at the beginning.

I have done this a few times and it worked for me.

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You never know what kind of neighbors you are going to get.

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Closest one will be about 1/4 mile away

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I like your Gretsch avitar BTW. I play Gretsch also.

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Gretsch is the bee's knees. I have a Transparent Ebony Catalina Maple kit.

Kick: 18x22
Rack: 7x8 8x10 9x12
Floor: 14x14 16x16
Snares: Cat Maple 6x14 & a Gresch Legend Brass 6.5x14

LIGHTLY sanded the interior of the shells down and refinished them with Teak Oil. Made a huge difference. Supposedly that's what the mysterious "silver sealer" is, teak oil with silver paint. Didn't want to risk the paint though
. It really brought out the grain in the shell and they look AND sound amazing.

Also cleaned up the bearing edges. The 7x8 was pretty rough so I recut it. On the others, I just used steel wool to remove any overspray that may have leaked on there. Once they were bare I just ran a little 0000 steel wool over them just lightly enough to smooth them out. Then a little paste wax and cheese cloth to polish them. Made tuning a breeze. When you sit the head on it just glides. No seating, no 'sticking' when you tighten lugs, just smooth tuning.