Are DW drums still cool?

pgm554 said:
The DW lugs remind me of cars that were designed by the Soviet Union back in the cold war days.
The was a joke about their cars in a very funny movie called 1 2 3 with James Cagney about their cars being modeled after a 1937 Nash.

http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=1483972

About 1:10 into the clip.

DW soviet design bureau.
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I have a totally different view of the DW lugs - they're classics because they're a direct copy of the old Camco lugs of yesteryear. I never owned a Camco but have always liked that look, especially the sound you got out of a Camco (I had a rented set of Camco's I used for a stage play in college, and loved them. The guy who rented them to us wouldn't sell them!). So I really like the big round lug look, because to me it's a hats-off to Camco - the company that pretty much made the most popular bass drum pedal (and now some of the best drums) for everyone to copy.
 
They're the only company that I know of that has done a special show about how they sourced their exotic wood for some anniversary release or another. "John Good's Quest for Exotic Wood". I mean it's almost as good as porn for drummers. How is that not cool?
 
Midnite Zephyr said:
They're the only company that I know of that has done a special show about how they sourced their exotic wood for some anniversary release or another. "John Good's Quest for Exotic Wood". I mean it's almost as good as porn for drummers. How is that not cool?
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That actually made me dislike them.
 
Elven Bones said:
That actually made me dislike them.
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Me - maybe just a tiny bit as well. I'm just a working drummer (when I get to work) so exotic wood finishes are not my cup of tea. I saw a video where John Good was talking about how jealous he was of guitar players who always had the cool finishes and such, and now the drummer can have that too - but at what cost?

The drum itself doesn't sound any better, and of course, this is all dependent on the person tuning and playing it anyway - it is akin to playing a fire engine red grand piano for me. If you can't play, then the drum won't matter.
And DW charges an exorbitant price to have a cool looking instrument, which is worth the cost if you're a big touring artist (like Mick Fleetwood and his cherry kit).

Stewart Copeland said that guitarists like to cuddle with their instrument, take it to bed and cherish it, but for him, drums aren't designed for that. It's not personal due to the physical size of it, and I agree with that. There's something about a guitar that let's you connect with it like that because you can physically hold it. Not so with a set of drums - they literally feel more "tool-like" and a part of the stage than anything I adore. So John Good's guitar-finish analogy doesn't work for me, either.

But hey, if you have the money and you really want that 1,000 year old wood drum set, be my guest.
 
Elven Bones said:
That actually made me dislike them.
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Reminds me of the restaurants here in the bay area that advertise sensibly sourced and vegan.

Next thing you know ,they will advertise their drum shells as being organically grown.
 
They're the only company that I know of that has done a special show about how they sourced their exotic wood for some anniversary release or another. "John Good's Quest for Exotic Wood". I mean it's almost as good as porn for drummers. How is that not cool?

Porn for drummers....well its got the name for it!
 
I’ll get excited about DW when they start doing solid shell or hollow log drum kits. Until then, I just don’t see what the fuss is about.
 
I stated that I think that they are NOT "still cool" - but that doesn't mean that I don't like them. I think they can sound great. They came on really strong in the 80's & 90's and they somehow lost their "cool" to me.

I am not really crazy about the way they look either. The big round lugs are unattractive in my opinion. And I noticed on many of their older used kits that the wraps do not hold up. On many of the sets I looked at, the wrapping was coming off & just not holding up well.

But I DO like the way they sound. And maybe that is the most important thing about a musical instrument.
 
A few decades ago, DW had beautiful lacquer finish they called "Superman's hair" and that was the perfect name for it.
Black with blue specs of color added to the paint. It's no longer available I think.
 
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I think many have realized that on the sound side DW is much like anything else, perhaps even on the dull, tubby side of that.
 
Drums are only as cool as the drummer-hence marketing last 50 years of selling drums by what cool and famous players play them. I’ve seen some ugly drums and drummers that are cool as hell (interesting contrast).
 
OK so if a non DW fan person was stuck forever on an island with only a DW drumset, is the non DW fan person going to refuse to play them for the rest of their lives? If they have integrity they would. They shouldn't be allowed to play them because they dissed a legitimate enterprise. But they would and I'd bet they'd even grow to love the tone. Drums are basically drums when you boil it down. I guess dissing drums is better than dissing people though. But why dismiss anything anyway?

Dissing a product that works perfectly well...I can't understand that. Like I don't use shampoo, I use something else. If I saw a person dissing shampoo, I'd think he got a little inside his brain.

Tubby sounding drums is a result of tuning and heads, and has very little to do with the shells. To my ear, 7.5 mm thick shells like Pearl's mid lines sound tubby to me from the throne but fine 20 feet away. A thin shelled drum like DW....I'm not understanding where the tubby perception is coming from. Different strokes.

If I go into a drum shop and there is a good quality kit set up that's tuned horribly, I wouldn't be very smart in thinking that it's a bad set of drums. The tone has much more to do with the user control than the shell.
 
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You can't legislate taste. Some people will like the way they look and some won't. You can't argue with the options available with DW Collectors kits. I've heard plenty of them live and they sound pretty damn good. Cool is a relative term. I have a 2004 DW Collectors/Craviotto Solid Maple steam bent 14x5.5 snare and it sounds VERY cool. Am I crazy about the lugs? Not really but I can get around that.
 

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larryace said:
Tubby sounding drums is a result of tuning and heads, and has very little to do with the shells.
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Although to be considered in the full context of the drum's design, increased hardware mass can certainly contribute to a shortening of the fundamental (as opposed to a reduction in head sustain). Some would perceive that as "tubby" when tuned low, & a choking affect when tuned high.

In general, I think DW produce a damn fine line of drums, & I would have zero issue playing them, in fact I have, on many occasions. I've never had an issue getting a more that acceptable sound out of them, but I do find them somehow generically slightly one voiced in their delivery.

As for the original question - cool? I think their marketing, finishes, & sheer major artist / act / TV exposure see to it that many regard them as aspirational.
 
As long as people are willing to buy them, and they still seem to be doing so, they are cool.
 
Isnt buying something because other people think its cool the opposite of being cool?

I personally like DW, and my more recent purchase has done nothing to disuade me from that opinion.

38420459_2144377502249686_3992605287738507264_o.jpg
 
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