drums and more drums

PHATT!! 14x15 cherry shell by Matt Wille. The 15" head gives it tone and huge bottom.

snares

5.5 x 14 cherry finished December 28, 2005. Matt Wille shell with Pearl hardware and Puresounds. Mmmmmm good. I've heard engineers say cherry snares record better than anything. It's true. Had it in the studio only six days old and couldn't make it sound bad no matter how hard I tried. This drum goes on 90% of my gigs and always sounds great.

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Here are my first two segmented shell snares. The first of a limited edition by Matt Wille from Global Drum Co, the 6x14 segmented shell (above) consists of maple, wenge and zebrawood. I have played it on gigs with many bands and it is awesome. The drum has a few different voices and they are all happening. It is nothing like a ply shell; the sound is truer and more expressive. It's like lifting a veil. When you hear Matt talk about the sound it seems good, but hearing the drum is really persuasive. An instrument so good I asked Matt to build me another from a Honduras Mahogany/Padauk shell he had (below). It is a 4 1/2 x 14 but slightly thicker shell than the tri-wood. I've used it on many my gigs and the sound is wonderful. It is my "go to" studio snare. A deeper sound than you'd expect from a 4 1/2" drum, but the rim shots are as cracking as any I've ever heard.

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These 1965 Ludwigs (with 1977 stainless melodic toms) did the job nicely for 25 years.

My first luxury kit; it replaced my 1965 Ludwigs, was a custom built DW Collector's series in Regal Blue that I had built in 1991. Ordered it and paid for it in 1990 and then waited tenuously for 7 months to find out what regal blue was. It is a beautiful sounding set of drums. I sold the kit in early 2004. See detailed photos of the DWs here.

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a superb kit I owned for a few years handmade by Nashville's Sam Bacco- serial numbers 001-006

hot red Rock Tour Customs- my first Yamaha kit

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had a large blue sparkle lacquer Maple Nouveau kit for a year. It was too good for anything I had going on. Couldn't justify the cost. Wanted to. Couldn't.

Yamaha Rock Tour Customs- current gigging kit

Currently I am playing Yamaha Rock Tour Customs 10x10, 10x12, 12x14, 16x22 in white with a pearlescent coat. For some gigs I add an 8x10 Alex Acuna 10" maple timbale.

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Orphans. Note homemade subkick mic.

Through the magic of ebay I have been buying and selling some really fabulous kits. A 1992 DW Collectors 5 piece covered in Blue Abalone was a joy. Even had some pink Tama Granstars. A Tama Starclassic maple kit in Marine Blue Fade lacquer. I used those on the Swing Shift CD. I recorded a blues/rock CD four years ago with WIRED using a Pearl BLX birch kit. The finish was the ultra fab Sheer Blue, which is one of my all time favorites. That kit is long gone as is the Tama Superstar deep snare I used with it. Here and there dabbled in Yamaha Rock Tour Customs and Tour Customs which I love.

On my recordings with Dry Jack I used the Ludwigs that dad bought me at Manny's in 1965, augmented with two stainless steel Ludwig melodic toms I picked up in Kansas City in 1977. On the Suspects and live WIRED CDs I used a Pearl MLX maple kit that had a 16x22 kick, 10x10, 11x13, and 13x15 toms, as well as a DW 5x14 Collector's snare. That snare gets talked about by many of the sound men I've dealt with. The Pearls were nice drums and sounded good but were too HEAVY for me to lug around. The kit which I custom ordered in 1990 and was just about too nice to leave the house, was a DW Collectors series in regal blue lacquer stain. Sizes 16x20, 8x8, 9x10, 10x12, 12x14. That kit was used when I played with Ernie Watts in 1992 on a PBS jazz series, broadcast around the world. I use a DW hi hat stand and a DW 5000 bass drum pedal.

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CYMBALS

I've used all kinds of cymbals. Started with Zildjians but got frustrated in the 70's and 80's because the sound was so inconsistent from one cymbal to the next. The Zildjian's that have survived are a 20" ride that I bought new in 1965 with my first kit, a 16" medium thin crash that I bought about 20 years ago, and a 14" medium heavy hi hat that I got on ebay a while back which I've been teaming lately with an even heavier Sabian AAX brilliant bottom. Had a 17" thin crash that I loved and an 18" Swish that was the best, but they cracked up and are long gone. After Zildjian I loaded up on all kinds of Sabians. I still use HH 13" fusion hi hats and a 20" HH heavy ride, sometimes a 10" HH splash. At home and for some jazz gigs I use a 20" Jack DeJohnette ride and also his 14" signature hi hats; these are both the original Sabian issues. Some of my favorite crashes ever are AA 12" sound controls; I recently acquired an old 14" SC AA and a new 12" SC AA and am treating them gently.

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Old Pearl BLX's. Nice drums but heavy to lug around.

the most beautiful sheer blue in the world