RMcSlash
11-15-2011, 05:50 PM
Getting old beats the alternative, and you sure get to see a lot of crazy things . . .
It had to be about 1971, and I was visiting my Bass playing buddy Steve in Santa Cruz.
We were only 19 but we managed to get into a Jazz club where Cal Tjader was playing.
Tjader's Drummer, Dick Berk, was playing the wildest looking set I had ever seen. Hell they could have been glass for all I knew.
Berk had one of the First Clear Acrylic Fibes, I believe it had been given to him for beta testing. Well nobody knew what beta testing was in 1971. I got a chance to listen to and play them and loved the response and the projection.
They were so Modern!
Now they're Classics?
And physicists argue whether time exists, ha!
I got my set a year later;
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/rickmccamy/fibes72As.jpg
20x14 Bass
12x7 Tom
13x8 Tom
16x16 Floor Tom
4-1/2x14 Snare
All Clear Acrylic.
I wasn't very impressed with Fibes Tom mounting system, it looked a little hinky. I ordered the Premier Tom Mount, the one with the telescoping rod that goes clear through the bass and loads on a special receiver on the inside bottom of the bass.
My Hi Hat Cymbals and my 22" Ride predate the Fibes set. I had them with my Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl since 1962, before Ringo got his . . .
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/rickmccamy/cutoutfibes.jpg
Cymbals all Zildjian, 14" Hi Hat, 22" Ride, 18" Sizzle Crash, 16" Crash, 8" Splash.
Back in the Seventies, we didn't bother with little six inch holes in the resonance head, we just took the whole thing off, stored the head and hoop and the bolts somewhere, and laid a microphone on a pillow inside the Bass Drum.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/rickmccamy/39years.jpg
Of course when you a touring around the Country, doing a week here and a week there for nine months at a time, with all the distractions the seventies and eighties had to offer, You end up forgetting where you left that damn hoop!
Ebay is a wonderful thing . . . have you ever seen how many different hoops you can find there? Now Fibes Bass Drum hoops were pretty standard, wood, painted black, with the usual chrome tape strip down the middle.
On ebay I found a pair of Rogers all Chrome hoops that look very sweet on the clear drums, they match the Chrome Tom and Snare hoops, and I got the pair for $36.
Makes the set Custom, and I think it shows better on stage.
A couple years back I was thinking about trading in my Fibes and getting some DW Maples, you know modernizing by getting rid of the Modern Drums and buying some Traditional Drums. The Old School is actually the new school, uh, wait.
Before I could get the cash together, I started noticing a Clear Acrylic at this show and another at that show. Acrylics were making a comeback, with some big name players.
Now if all these folks were rediscovering the power and response of Acrylic Drumming, how could I do any better than the original set that started it all, my Clear Fibes.
It had to be about 1971, and I was visiting my Bass playing buddy Steve in Santa Cruz.
We were only 19 but we managed to get into a Jazz club where Cal Tjader was playing.
Tjader's Drummer, Dick Berk, was playing the wildest looking set I had ever seen. Hell they could have been glass for all I knew.
Berk had one of the First Clear Acrylic Fibes, I believe it had been given to him for beta testing. Well nobody knew what beta testing was in 1971. I got a chance to listen to and play them and loved the response and the projection.
They were so Modern!
Now they're Classics?
And physicists argue whether time exists, ha!
I got my set a year later;
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/rickmccamy/fibes72As.jpg
20x14 Bass
12x7 Tom
13x8 Tom
16x16 Floor Tom
4-1/2x14 Snare
All Clear Acrylic.
I wasn't very impressed with Fibes Tom mounting system, it looked a little hinky. I ordered the Premier Tom Mount, the one with the telescoping rod that goes clear through the bass and loads on a special receiver on the inside bottom of the bass.
My Hi Hat Cymbals and my 22" Ride predate the Fibes set. I had them with my Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl since 1962, before Ringo got his . . .
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/rickmccamy/cutoutfibes.jpg
Cymbals all Zildjian, 14" Hi Hat, 22" Ride, 18" Sizzle Crash, 16" Crash, 8" Splash.
Back in the Seventies, we didn't bother with little six inch holes in the resonance head, we just took the whole thing off, stored the head and hoop and the bolts somewhere, and laid a microphone on a pillow inside the Bass Drum.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/rickmccamy/39years.jpg
Of course when you a touring around the Country, doing a week here and a week there for nine months at a time, with all the distractions the seventies and eighties had to offer, You end up forgetting where you left that damn hoop!
Ebay is a wonderful thing . . . have you ever seen how many different hoops you can find there? Now Fibes Bass Drum hoops were pretty standard, wood, painted black, with the usual chrome tape strip down the middle.
On ebay I found a pair of Rogers all Chrome hoops that look very sweet on the clear drums, they match the Chrome Tom and Snare hoops, and I got the pair for $36.
Makes the set Custom, and I think it shows better on stage.
A couple years back I was thinking about trading in my Fibes and getting some DW Maples, you know modernizing by getting rid of the Modern Drums and buying some Traditional Drums. The Old School is actually the new school, uh, wait.
Before I could get the cash together, I started noticing a Clear Acrylic at this show and another at that show. Acrylics were making a comeback, with some big name players.
Now if all these folks were rediscovering the power and response of Acrylic Drumming, how could I do any better than the original set that started it all, my Clear Fibes.