Lets see your awful/embarrassing/broken kits

First off I'm new to drummerworld so this is my first post/thread.

After looking through several other threads of other drummers monster/expensive/cool/excessive kits, I thought I'd do the opposite. This thread is to 'show off' your rubbish kits, your first kits, awful drums, no name cymbals, broken stuff etc. I'll go first..

It started of as a Premier Cabria Lite (I think) that came with the wrong size toms:
22" bass
10" hi-tom
13" hi-tom(?!?!)
14" low-tom
14" snare
&
14" hats
18" crash/ride

After deciding to go for more of a rock sound/setup, I ditched the 10" tom and bought a no name (well actually Millennium, Thomann's own brand) 16" floor tom and a Manhattan(?!) 16" crash with a Pst3 20" ride. I also bought a second hand big dog double bass pedal and a set of evans g2's for the toms and an st for the snare with a metal eq pad for the bass. I also got those little eq things by evans for the toms. Pointless. They do bugger all.

The snare sounds horrible and rattles, my cymbals are awful with the crash/ride broken also, my hi hat stand gets in the way of my double bass pedal and I cant get my bass to sound right. the only good things are the toms dont sound too bad and I quite like my big dog pedal.

I desperately want to be in a band but this is what is holding me back, I'd be laughed off stage. When I bought most of this I just left school and had a rubbish part time job and was more interested on spending my money on alcohol. Then I joined uni and I'm constantly skint now. But it's not all bad though, I'm gonna start saving my money from my uni loans and my new job and buy decent cymbals (maybe aax's or alphas) and NOT go and buy the first b8 cymbal pack i find. Then in October I'm 21 so I'm gonna get a new kit as a big birthday present, probably the pdp 805. I think this will good as an intermediate rock kit.

I'd be interested to see how people reply to this and if people will share their kits. I did it out of sheer desperation. Also I'd like to hear your drum owning dreams for the future such as mine

Gaz

Hm well what do you know i just got done uploading some photos of my embarassing kit and figured i'd post them up on my own thread in this forum then ironically came across this thread(no need to start my own now)...and it's a new thread to. must be a god send.

But here's my Tama Swingstar kit.
The ride and hats are the Tama branded cymbals that came with the set 5 years ago and the crash is a paiste pst5....so i'm not pushing grand grooves out of those bad boys lol.

Oh yea and my bearing edges on the bottom of both rack toms are completely ruined, my twin talked me into take the resos off when we first got it and i knew nothing about a drumset when i did it and just let them rest on the screws....i beat myself everyday for it now ha. This was/is my first set ever...the snare i have actually frankensteined and it sounds bearable now. i had to put a new throw off on it and switch the snare wire to a puresound 30 count or something i can't really remember and the evans genera dry helps drop out the over tones. but the rest....god forbid. i believe my heads plies are separating too cause i've had them for almost 3 years.

The sizes are:
22" x 18" Bass drum with a ported reso head i couldn't get a picture.(about the only good thing besides my snare and roto toms)
14" x 5.5" snare
12" x 10" Rack Tom
13" x 11"(i think) Rack Tom
16" x 14" Floor Tom
14" Hats
20" Ride
15" crash (if i remember correctly)
and 6", 8", 10" rotos.

I'm currently saving up for a custom stave 6 piece kit, (it's taking forever to say the least due to my senior year priorities) I hope to have it after i get all my money for graduating so i can have a nice kit when i head off to a music tech school then transfer to Georgia State Univ. to learn some music. I'm also saving up for an XS20 Cymbal Package or maybe just a simple Alpha set up just to get my feet off the ground until then though fellow drummers....wish me luck ha.

Here you go though after much talk:

Lol it's high mid and low for the toms.

Here is a Premier cabrias I restored to health for our deployed chapel tent.




Most drumheads were split. The pedal was broken. It was sad.

freebirdgdw said:

I desperately want to be in a band but this is what is holding me back, I'd be laughed off stage.

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That is a terrible attitude to have. You're NEVER going to be in a band with an attitude like that. The drummer from my first band plays a crappy cheap kit with toms that rest on the bass drum because the tom holders can't hold them up properley and he's had to tape the snare strainer onto the snare because it kept coming off, making the drum sound like lars ulrich's drum off st anger. No-one ever laughed at him on stage because he was such a good drummer and that's the important thing. These days he still has the kit but he's upgraded the heads and cymbals and it sounds great!

I really doubt that even a proper drummer would notice that was a cheap kit from more than 10ft away if you were on stage. What they WILL notice is your PLAYING. So please stop whining about your kit, go to all the music shops and your union and find out any bands who are looking for a drummer. If ONE of those bands says "sorry mate we don't want a drummer with a cheap kit" then i will personally come round to your house in manchester and give you all my drum stuff!

They won't want you in their band however if you're not good on the drums so get PRACTICING!
http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45764&highlight=an+inspiring+story

Read this thread too.

Oh and another thing, if you couldn't get decent heads to sound good then you're tuning them wrong. If you like rock then tune the toms and kick really low, just enough to straighten out the wrinkles on the head. Then tune the snare up really high.

Maybe those roto toms could be at a little steeper angle.

Drum kits are like old Motor Cycles and Farm Tractors. The best ones look the worst! There is nothing better to me than a well worn, battle scarred drum kit with innovative custom hardware, a mismatch of heads and cymbals. There should also be some Duck Tape somewhere on the kit. Some of the most fun that I have ever had, was behind a kit like this during my youth. When a young person with limited financial resources plays a kit like that, I feel that he learns more. He has to be creative to make it sound good. I think that a drummer who started out with a state of the art $6000 dollar kit would miss a great deal of the drumming experience. I often wish that I still had my first "Rat" kit.

eddiehimself said:

That is a terrible attitude to have. You're NEVER going to be in a band with an attitude like that. The drummer from my first band plays a crappy cheap kit with toms that rest on the bass drum because the tom holders can't hold them up properley and he's had to tape the snare strainer onto the snare because it kept coming off, making the drum sound like lars ulrich's drum off st anger. No-one ever laughed at him on stage because he was such a good drummer and that's the important thing. These days he still has the kit but he's upgraded the heads and cymbals and it sounds great!

I really doubt that even a proper drummer would notice that was a cheap kit from more than 10ft away if you were on stage. What they WILL notice is your PLAYING. So please stop whining about your kit, go to all the music shops and your union and find out any bands who are looking for a drummer. If ONE of those bands says "sorry mate we don't want a drummer with a cheap kit" then i will personally come round to your house in manchester and give you all my drum stuff!

They won't want you in their band however if you're not good on the drums so get PRACTICING!
http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45764&highlight=an+inspiring+story

Read this thread too.

Oh and another thing, if you couldn't get decent heads to sound good then you're tuning them wrong. If you like rock then tune the toms and kick really low, just enough to straighten out the wrinkles on the head. Then tune the snare up really high.

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eddie,

Thanks for the, erm, constructive criticism. You're probably right, it is the wrong attitude to have and the link to that inspiring story proves it. But I think it's just how all these other threads that have amazing kits and the magazines full of advertisements for bigger better kits etc put it in your mind (especially to younger, newer drummers) that you need these things.

I will of course upgrade my kit but I can see how I shouldnt think of it as holding me back as it is now. I'm an ok drummer, not great, but ok so theres always room for improvement

As for the tuning, my toms arent too bad, and the bass is average with stock heads and an eq pad, but my snare sound is horrible. I've tried tuning it as high as i can and different tensions on the reso and the wires but it still rattles a lot when i hit anything else (toms & bass). my temporary fix has been to rest a small sponge in the snare cradle so it just touches the wires. I can still get a crack when I hit it and there's no rattling but It is choking the snare sound somewhat.

freebirdgdw said:

eddie,

Thanks for the, erm, constructive criticism. You're probably right, it is the wrong attitude to have and the link to that inspiring story proves it. But I think it's just how all these other threads that have amazing kits and the magazines full of advertisements for bigger better kits etc put it in your mind (especially to younger, newer drummers) that you need these things.

I will of course upgrade my kit but I can see how I shouldnt think of it as holding me back as it is now. I'm an ok drummer, not great, but ok so theres always room for improvement

As for the tuning, my toms arent too bad, and the bass is average with stock heads and an eq pad, but my snare sound is horrible. I've tried tuning it as high as i can and different tensions on the reso and the wires but it still rattles a lot when i hit anything else (toms & bass). my temporary fix has been to rest a small sponge in the snare cradle so it just touches the wires. I can still get a crack when I hit it and there's no rattling but It is choking the snare sound somewhat.

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oh so that's what you're worried about with the snares. That's perfectly normal, most snare drums do that, including the really expensive kits you see in the catalogues! It's more prominent if you get into a band because the bass playing will cause the same problem. If you don't like it at all then you could reduce the sensitivity of the snare by loosening the strainer a bit.

freebirdgdw said:

As for the tuning, my toms arent too bad, and the bass is average with stock heads and an eq pad, but my snare sound is horrible. I've tried tuning it as high as i can and different tensions on the reso and the wires but it still rattles a lot when i hit anything else (toms & bass). my temporary fix has been to rest a small sponge in the snare cradle so it just touches the wires. I can still get a crack when I hit it and there's no rattling but It is choking the snare sound somewhat.

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That's sympathetic buzz. Your snare reso head is tuned close enough to the reso on your toms that they are vibrating on the same frequency. Like eddiehimself said, it's commonplace on all levels of equipment and usually difficult to hear in front of the kit. Tweak your tunings to reduce the sympathetic buzz. If you can't live with the changes is sound, you can also look at high quality snare wires like Puresound. Their construction methods lend them to be less succeptable to sympathetic buzz. Good luck and have fun.

GRUNTERSDAD said:

Maybe those roto toms could be at a little steeper angle.

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I'm 6'3 that's about a perfect angle any steeper and my wrists hurt cause i have to turn them back to hit them for good projection

JarodMaybern said:

I'm 6'3 that's about a perfect angle any steeper and my wrists hurt cause i have to turn them back to hit them for good projection

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I think it might have been a sarcastic remark.

stasz said:

I think it might have been a sarcastic remark.

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oh i know, i wasn't taking offense i was just explaining in case anyone might've actually thought that.

Crappy kits? Where to start, where to start...







Yet I managed to prevail through my gear-buying adventure, and eventually ended up where you will be if you buy the 805. I highly recommend it, it's a great intermediate kit! As long as you like the colors, you'll love it.

805Drummer said:

Yet I managed to prevail through my gear-buying adventure, and eventually ended up where you will be if you buy the 805. I highly recommend it, it's a great intermediate kit! As long as you like the colors, you'll love it.]

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what do you think of the 16 and 18" toms? im currently on 14" and 16" floor toms so i was worried the 18" would be too big.

freebirdgdw said:

what do you think of the 16 and 18" toms? im currently on 14" and 16" floor toms so i was worried the 18" would be too big.

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The 16" is perfect, but the 18" is freaking huge, I'm not gonna lie. Right now, I'm not using it because I like the 4 piece. But it's nice to have when your playing heavy metal or hard rock, especially for gigs (which I don't really do), for the visual effect.

805Drummer said:

The 16" is perfect, but the 18" is freaking huge, I'm not gonna lie. Right now, I'm not using it because I like the 4 piece. But it's nice to have when your playing heavy metal or hard rock, especially for gigs (which I don't really do), for the visual effect.

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I lost my interest in 18" floor toms. The deal is, it sounds only *slighty* deeper than a 16" FT. But it also loses punch and coherence. I have noticed from an audience perspective that a 16" sounds deeper because of the punch. And as to recording: a 16" records cleaner IMO.

I avoided having one in my kit for those reasons.

trkdrmr said:

I lost my interest in 18" floor toms. The deal is, it sounds only *slighty* deeper than a 16" FT. But it also loses punch and coherence. I have noticed from an audience perspective that a 16" sounds deeper because of the punch. And as to recording: a 16" records cleaner IMO.

I avoided having one in my kit for those reasons.

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I think you're right. I haven't discovered my 18"'s true potential yet, because I still haven't gotten around to replacing the stock heads.

805Drummer said:

I think you're right. I haven't discovered my 18"'s true potential yet, because I still haven't gotten around to replacing the stock heads.

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I found the sad truth, that in order to get an 18" to work right, and play well with a 16" you have to tune both UP.

Bonham knew this, and his 16/18 were higher pitched than you might expect.

I saw his green sparkle maple kit had emperor coated on top, and ambassador coated on bottom.

After messing with plenty of 18" floor toms (multiple drumhead changes and so on) I can see why this is.) It's really easy to get an 18" sounded as high, or higher pitched than a 16". For me, it became the 'appendix" of my kit and I had it removed.

Note that Lars Ulrich no longer has an 18" floor tom, yet when he plays "enter sandman" it sounds just as deep as when he used one.

trkdrmr said:

I found the sad truth, that in order to get an 18" to work right, and play well with a 16" you have to tune both UP.

Bonham knew this, and his 16/18 were higher pitched than you might expect.

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Does this not mean you're effectively tuning them up to sound like a 14" and a 16"?

trkdrmr said:

Note that Lars Ulrich no longer has an 18" floor tom, yet when he plays "enter sandman" it sounds just as deep as when he used one.

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Yea I heard this in an interview. He said he can't ever remember using it and that him and his crew called it the coffee table.