May 2nd, 2012, Fremont, OH

Jerry,

I don’t know where to start. The drums were just an absolute joy to play with oodles of horsepower and tone. These aren’t fiberglass drums. . .they are great drums that happen to be made of fiberglass. Comparing them to wood misses the point altogether. These shells have all the “information” you need in order to dial in whatever sound you desire with some judicious choices in heads, tuning and muffling. If there is something these drums won’t do, I haven’t found it.

If there is something these drums won’t do, I haven’t found it.

Obviously if you have a specific sound in your head (Gretsch round badge, Ludwig 3-Ply, etc.) then those drums are still the way to go. The idiosyncrasies present with an organic material like wood can be exploited to great effect by those with an understanding of the materials. . .Craviotto comes to mind.

Last night was 2.5 hours of relentless, high energy playing (and I have the hamburger hands to prove it this morning) and the one thing I was interested in finding out is how well the drums speak back at me behind the kit. Some drums, especially bass drums, just don’t project back at me and on loud stages like last night, I have trouble hearing what I’m playing. I was running clear Ambassadors on the toms. The bass drum had a clear Emperor batter, a ported front head and a small pillow just touching the batter head. I had no problem hearing the drums at all. (No drums in the monitor either. Yay!)

I feel like I need to find something to complain about in order to make this seem remotely objective so here it is: the bass drum hoops weigh a ton.

All I’m going to be able to do from this point on is rave about these drums.

I’m still digesting the info I gleaned from the gig last night but I think at this point I’ve lost all objectivity. These are simply fantastic drums and I think my usefulness as a test driver is toast. All I’m going to be able to do from this point on is rave about these drums. The stuff we talked about regarding the spurs and tom mount placement, etc. are all minor details (I like idea of being able to flip the bass drum around to change the tom holder position). You guys
have nailed the formula and once you get some weight/thickness out of those bass drum hoops I don’t know if there is anything you can do to improve the sound or functionality of the drums.

Congrats on a great product!!!

Donn Deniston

 

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