North Drums

Superman

Gold Member
Saw these for the second time on CL this year:

https://hudsonvalley.craigslist.org/msg/5593052870.html

Not interested in buying them, but I know nothing about them! Were these ever popular?? Did anyone really record or tour with these? They look so ridiculous, but I'd love to hear what they sound like. Thanks in advance.
 
They had a reputation for being very loud and easy to tune.

I remember a Bow wow wow show back in the day and the drummer had a set of them. They sounded not memorable in a large venue, but I think I remember them as being more like staccato toned concert toms.
 
Saw these for the second time on CL this year:

https://hudsonvalley.craigslist.org/msg/5593052870.html

Not interested in buying them, but I know nothing about them! Were these ever popular?? Did anyone really record or tour with these? They look so ridiculous, but I'd love to hear what they sound like. Thanks in advance.

Russ Kunkel rented a few of these as add-on's to his kit (pictured below) when he toured with Jackson Browne.

I knew of one drummer in Dallas who did a lot of sessions in the 80's with a large North kit, but I can't remember his name.
 

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Alan White and Billy Cobham both used 'em briefly. The obvious downside of these drums ..... drum cases. The case for a 14" north tom is almost the size of a 22" kick drum case.​
 
I remember Gerry Brown playing them touring with Return to Forever during the Musicmagic tour in the late 70's. Gerry sounded amazing, so did the drums.

Chris
 
I saw Billy Cobham playing them on the Spectrum tour. I thought that they were kind of silly and they made me think of these.

side_kid_strainer_600px_1.jpg


Mr. Cobham and company were great of course.
 
I saw Billy Cobham playing them on the Spectrum tour. I thought that they were kind of silly and they made me think of these.

side_kid_strainer_600px_1.jpg


Mr. Cobham and company were great of course.

I'm glad that the spider that produced that web isn't in the shot!
 
I played these for about a month in a large club after hearing a friend playing on a kit and being quite impressed.. I didn't think they sounded dry at all, but had amazing and unexpected tonal qualities and projection. The problem was, you couldn't hear those tones sitting behind them. No depth at all. Sitting behind them, it sounded as if you were playing on single head 2" deep thin shells. Of course, transport was a problem, but I think the biggest factor is how they sounded behind the drums.
They certainly sound dry in the YouTube videos posted by Superman, but that's not how I recall them sounding in a live situation.
88274
 
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I used to sit in with the house band at the legendary Leisure Lounge in Homestead FL in the mid-80s. Their drummer would let me play his North kit for a few songs. By today’s standards they sounded rather bad but in those days, working drummers didn’t have the quality options we have today. Most important though were the aesthetics. The North drums looked really cool. There was nothing else like them. Fun to play.
 
I never saw a North in action but I saw couple of Staccatos, maybe they were more popular in Europe.
Dry sounding but easy to mike and good projection. On stage those drums were unrivalled visually.
Here is a huge Staccato set up. Interesting set up and solo.
Staccato solo
I think it’s really dry, hydraulic skins, tuned high, I remember deeper Tom sound.
 
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