Down 'n' Dirty Jungle Drum

Nothing better to do today, so I made a little jungle drum kit.

The idea was to make it easier for visiting kids/grandkids to reach everything while pounding on an old Sonor Force 501 kit that I keep for such occasions.

I put away the bass and used a Trick Drum conversion kit on the 16" tom. Made the 13" tom into a floor tom using an LP conga stand, with the 12" tom staying high.

The ride and "crash" cymbals are Paiste 101 Brass given to me by a friend, a clangy trashcan of a 12" Wuhan China splash, and ZHT hi-hats that cost me twenty bucks in the parking lot of the local health food store. The cymbal stands are lightweight PDPs. (Too lightweight, I think, for real use, but that's probably another story.)

The whole thing took 5 minutes to pull off. It would've been quicker, but the diameter of the spurs that came with the Trick conversion kit was too large for the Sonor tom so I had to trade them for the bass drum's original spurs. (Why the original spurs are small enough to fit on the tom while the add-ons were too big but fit on the bass is a question that probably can best be answered by the likes of those who understand why the Tardis on DOCTOR WHO is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.)



The weird thing is that here in the house this thing looks tiny, cute, and perfect for children, but in the pic it doesn't appear small at all and even seems kind of cool (except for the "bass" being stuffed with bedding). Where I live street busking is a way of life in the summer. The harbor's just a couple of blocks away. Maybe I'll take this out there and serenade some tourists.

Just thought I'd share.

Very cool. Kids ought to love that.

It's amazing how large that 12" looks in comparison to the rest of the kit. I love it!

What a great little kit, those Jungle kits sure seem to be getting really popular here!

How is the crash on the right suspended though? I don't see stand legs or a clamp or anything.

-Jonathan

Pass.of.E.r.a. said:

How is the crash on the right suspended though? I don't see stand legs or a clamp or anything.

Click to expand...

Magic,of course....

And a cymbal stacker. The little china is stacked above the slightly less little crash. There's also one of those little tambourine dealies at the top of the hi-hat stand, but it's invisible here. I can barely hear it when I play, but the younger the kid thrashing at it, the louder it chings.

Want to know how insecure I am? After I saw your comment about how big the 12" tom looked, I got out my tape measure to re-check. That's definitely the smaller one. Further proof that we really can't trust our own eyes.

Here's a pic where you can actually see everything:



Now if I could just remember where that cowbell went....

HipshotPercussion said:

Magic,of course....

And a cymbal stacker. The little china is stacked above the slightly less little crash. There's also one of those little tambourine dealies at the top of the hi-hat stand, but it's invisible here. I can barely hear it when I play, but the younger the kid thrashing at it, the louder it chings.

Want to know how insecure I am? After I saw your comment about how big the 12" tom looked, I got out my tape measure to re-check. That's definitely the smaller one. Further proof that we really can't trust our own eyes.

Click to expand...

Ooooooh. Gotcha. The reflection on the cymbal was playing tricks on my eyes.

Haha, this kit is making me doubt my own eyes!! First the magic floating cymbal, then the Tom, now the missing cowbell! Will it ever stop!?!?!!

Seriously though, I love the kit!

-Jonathan

Cool project. Does the bass drum have a spin cycle?

Missing cowbell found: Silly Labrador retriever loves banging it on the hardwood floor.

Oscar and Leah, a 7 yr old and a 9 yr old from down the street, came into the house today to play with the dogs and saw the jungle kit downstairs. (My other drums are upstairs.)

"What's that?" Oscar said.

"Um...drums," I said. "Want to play?"

Oscar marched over to the kit, picked up the sticks and blasted away on the nearest tom for about 20 seconds. He put the sticks back down. "No," he said.

I turned to Leah. "How about you?"

Tentatively, she reached out and quietly tapped a cymbal with one small finger. "Is that enough?" she said.

"Can we go in the backyard and play with the dogs?" Oscar said, and out they went.

Ah well. Now I can raise up everything, add better cymbals and a throne, and admit the truth:

These drums are for ME.

Obsessions never stop.

Added an opaque res head and a logo to the modified bass drum.

Psyching up for the last step: Pinstriping tape for the toms and "bass." I'm thinking each drum should get 2 narrow, close together stripes of barbed wire in gold. (Mostly because I can't find any tape but plain and barbed wire online.)