A Whole New Kit (sort of)

Okay, so recently it was my birthday (woooo!), and I've reached the dizzying heights of 19 years old. I don't really like that number but there you go. And, as part of my birthday, I received a bit of financial compensation for managing to survive for all this time without being stabbed or anything. 

I also realised that some of you (probably not that many, but hopefully some), would have been interested in looking at my personal drum kit, set up, and equipment. So, to that end, I have decided to do a bit of a kit tour, and at the same time, show you all some of the new additions to my beautiful baby of a kit. Enjoy.

The Purple Beast

First things first, I should probably show you around my kit. The drums themselves are part of a Fusion 22" Pearl VX Vision kit, finished in RB Blue. So it consists of; a 10" tom mounted on the left crash stand, then a 12" tom mounted through the bass drum (I keep my toms to the left as I like having a low ride on the right, over the bass drum). Then there is a 14" floor tom on (you guessed it) the floor to my right. And obviously the bass drum is a 22" beast. 

The view from behind the kit - from left to right, the 10", 12" and 14" toms, with the 14" metal snare in the middle.

  

Here you can see the RB Blue finish, which is more of a purple in the light, but turns blue the darker it gets. 

So that's the drums. If you care about the hardware (which you probably don't, it's a just a bunch of metal), I have a standard Pearl hi-hat stand, and two semi-lightweight crash stands, one of which has a special clamp on it to mount my baby 10" tom. I have a heavier-weight, armed stand to support the larger weight of the ride, over the bass drum. 

Ooo, actually, I forgot one incredibly sexy piece of hardware I recently got, which leads us nicely onto the new stuff... 


The (Mostly) New Stuff


Okay so this is where it probably gets slightly more interesting for you. I recently (over the last few months) have been adding to my kit to make it more perfect. Lets start with the sexy piece of hardware. 

The bass drum pedal. I know it's something that just sits on the floor, and hits the big drum down there, but it's a pivotal part of you not sounding like a dick when you play, and therefore, it needs to be a big part of where you stick your money. This is mine.

Pearl Demon Chain Drive Pedal (isn't it pretty?)

I told you it was beautiful. It's a Pearl Demon chain drive pedal. Now, you can get these with the 'direct drive', which replaces the chain with a piece of solid metal, but they're now discontinued after being plagued by problems due to the inflexibility of the metal, which could, depending on the playing style of the drummer, end up bending the pedal and wasting the £250 the player spent. So, I implore you, if you buy this pedal, get the chain. Don't waste your money, this one is awesome. You can literally adjust everything, see a video of that here.

Now, onto the cymbals. I've done quite a lot here in the last month, so buckle up. Originally when I bought the kit, I bought it with a starter set of cymbals, a basic set of 14" hi-hats, a 20" ride, and a 16" thin crash, all part of the MCS range sold by Meinl. And shortly after, I bought a Zildjian ZHT Rock Crash, also 16". 

Since then, several things have changed. Lets start with the hi-hats. It is my belief that hi-hats should also hold a significant investment. They are one of, if not the most used components on your kit, and therefore, they should be perfect. So I explored (a lot of the time at Wembley Drum Centre's Zildjian Vault), and eventually, after a lot of hunting, found a pair I was happy with. Now they cost quite a bit, and are not all that conventional, but damn; so worth it. 

The perfect (IMO) pair of hats.

They cost £357, and are a pair of custom half-hammered, half pressed hats, with a ribbed bottom hat. They're labelled as "Custom Hybrid Hi-hats", and are a slightly odd size at 13 1/4 inches, instead of the usual 14. However, they're gorgeous, and if you ever get a chance to play them, then you should. I might in the future upload some sounds of the kit to share them with the world. I'm in love, they're like my expensive shiny children.

NEXT. So, I will be doing a more in depth post on this crash, as I loved it like a son, (lot of paternal references to elements of the kits here, sorry), but, long and short of it, it cracked in 3 places, after 4 years of loyal service, and needed replacing. So, ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you, my new crash! (Literally about 2 weeks old, been hit about 40 times...)

You got a lot to live up to little buddy.

So, it's an Armand by Zildjian. No, I'm not sponsored by them or anything, but I damn well should be the amount I've spent with them. I chose this one as it had a very similar tone to my MCS to be honest, and that's all I wanted. However, being a more expensive cymbal from a different, higher end range, it is a lot more versatile. Where the Meinl was great at loud, fast crashes, and suited rock/indie music, this can play anything really, from jazz and blues to death metal (not that I enjoy that shite). It's a great crash, and I'm on my way to loving it.

Moving on from cymbals, and onto probably the other most important part of a drum kit. The drum heads. Now, everyone finds this boring, so if you carry on reading we'll talk about cowbells after, promise. So, about 2 weeks ago I reheaded the entire kit. It was rocking Pearl Protone heads which had come with it, and been tuned, used and abused for about 4 years. It was starting to sound a bit weak, and the bass drum was dead, stuffed full of foam. That is no longer the case. 

Evans EC2s on my baby 10" tom.

I went for Evans EC2s all around the toms, and an Evans EMAD2 on the bass drum batter head. So why? Basically, I could lie to you now and say that I did a TON of research into the heads, and the best ones for my personal preference, but that would be bullshit. What I did was listen to Arctic Monkeys playing live at Glastonbury (favourite band), and think "That kit sounds awesome. What heads does Helders use?". 

One Google search later, and I'm researching the shit out of EC2s and EMAD2s. As you can see on the picture, there is a black honeycombed line running around the outside of the tom. This basically dampens it, and makes it sound epic. Also, the head is 2ply, (it is actually made up of two heads one on top of the other), which further dampens and makes it sound more epic. Tune them right and you have some sexy sounding toms. The bass drum head actually has a holder which presses a ring of foam onto the head, making a deep, loud bass noise with no overtone and basically no sustain either. Again, I'll upload a sound because it's just so beautiful.

That's drum heads done. Start caring about them, they're important.

If you reached this part of the post well done, not many people will have even given a shit past the first bit. We can now talk through the last bits of the kit. 

You should be able to see the tambourine
mounted to the left of the hi-hats, and the
cowbell mounted to the bass drum loop.

So after you get your snare sounding great and your toms and bass sounding epic, and you've added all the world's most beautiful cymbals to their stands, you're going to want a couple of accessories. Now, the ones that I consider to be essential, and the ones that I love the most are the tambourine and the cowbell. (Cheeky little bit of Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke will get you through the cowbell sitch). Now there isn't much to say about these two except that they aren't cheap, but they will most certainly last. Think about it, they need to stand up to being beaten by wooden sticks on a daily basis, that's pretty durable. (Sorry, I don't have a close up of the cowbell, but you can see the tambourine in glorious detail below.

My beautiful Meinl tambourine.

And, I think, that's about it! Well done if you read this all, and sorry if it was boring, but even if none of you read it, it was a great exercise for me, going through and actually realising all of the elements that make up this beast of an instrument. 

See you next time!