Custom Conaway Drums, Quasi-Symmetrical Setup, Abstract Drumhead Art

What's up everyone!?

I'm sort of new here so allow me to introduce myself by showing you the gear I'm using right now. My gigging setup is pretty minimal but this is the rig I use at home. It's symmetrical in terms of having a ride, crash, china, splash, hi-hat, bass drum pedal, two toms on each side. I can play completely left handed, completely right handed, or anywhere in between. What I'm really into is independence, coordination, and ostinatos so this setup allows me to work on all of that very comfortably.

Please check out my YouTube page for examples of my playing!
http://www.youtube.com/mattwalker21

Artwork is another passion of mine. I did all of the work on my bass drum, tom, and snare drum heads. Please drop by my deviantART page for a gallery of my work!
http://mattwalker21.deviantart.com/

I'll throw down some complete specs if anyone requests but for now I'll just get to the pictures! Thanks for taking a look and please don't hesitate with any questions or comments.

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Welcome to the forum and congratulations on of the most unique kits I've ever seen. I love your heads, are they handpainted or is it a digital design that painted upon them? The finish of your kit is also something else, I've never seen a bassdrum with a fade from top to bottom. I like it very much.
Please give us al the specs you can.
 
Welcome to the forum Matt. Great looking and innovative kit you have there. I listened to some of your stuff. Very clever & skillful plus a great sound, especially the snare. I'd like to ask, what genre of music do you play using the style of drumming on the video's? I can imagine an experimental style of jazz rock or similar but I'm struggling to think of anything else.
 
What sort of kit is that? The badges are unknown to me. Great head shot. Cannot hear you on youtube due to my crap pc. Sorry. Welcome to the forum.

Looks like a Yamaha.
 
Very clean set-up; everything is gorgeous!

Is that a panda spitting out a rainbow on your snare drum?
 
That thing is insanely beautiful! Be careful though, there's a snake in your bassdrum ;)
I really like the heads... but doesn't that wear off real quick if you play it?
 
That is one of the most gorgeous kits I've ever seen. I too absolutely love the fade on the bass drum. The gold hardware really sets it off. The setup is equally interesting, looks extremely comfortable and unique!...Congrats and welcome!!!
 
I love the art work on your heads. Is it something that you are going to be selling? If so I might be interested in buying a few for my new kit.
 
Absolutely stunning... quite simply one of the best looking kits ive ever seen :)

(and you know it you lucky devil)

I dont normally like gold hardware at all, but here, against the turquoise and natural shells its perfectly at home, and its an incredibly tasteful choice. The heads are inspired too.

Good stuff indeed.
 
Absolutely stunning... quite simply one of the best looking kits ive ever seen :)

(and you know it you lucky devil)

I dont normally like gold hardware at all, but here, against the turquoise and natural shells its perfectly at home, and its an incredibly tasteful choice. The heads are inspired too.

Good stuff indeed.

Agree. VERY tasteful setup. Ive always liked the natural/turqoise fade, and the gold hardware fits beautifully. Specs are never a bad thing (hint hint)

With all of the HHX's it looks like it would cost almost as much as my house.

PS. GET THOSE IN A MUSIC VIDEO
 
Welcome to the forum and congratulations on of the most unique kits I've ever seen. I love your heads, are they handpainted or is it a digital design that painted upon them? The finish of your kit is also something else, I've never seen a bassdrum with a fade from top to bottom. I like it very much.
Please give us al the specs you can.

Thank you! The designs are hand drawn by me on the head with markers (usually Sharpie or Prismacolor). Actually, the bass drum was done using a Prismacolor paint marker but most of my work is done with normal felt markers like Sharpies.

Here's a list of specs for everyone. Hopefully it will address some of the questions other people have.

Drums:
Conaway Custom Drums - Natural to blue fade with brass hardware
This includes a perpendicular fade direction on the bass drum. I've always thought that's the way it should go. This way, the fade looks consistent when the drums are all set up!

8x7
10x6
12x7
14x10
20x18

Tama Starclassic Performer 14x5.5 Snare Drum - Transparent Black

Also, sitting behind the set is another workhorse snare I often use:
Pearl Virgil Donati Signature Snare 14x5

Cymbals:
Sabian (except for one Wuhan)

20" HHX China
20" Legacy O-Zone Ride
17" HH Dark Crash
9" Prototype Splash/China
14" Legacy Hats
10" Legacy Splash (top hat), 9" Terry Bozzio Radia Bell (bottom hat)
21" Legacy Ride
18" Legacy Crash
12" Wuhan China
18 HH Thin China

Hardware:
Pearl

Eliminator Pedals and Hi-hats
ICON rack (customized here and there)
Spring cushioned throne
Gyro Lock Snare Stand (it was a gift but if you gig a lot, which I do, you may not want to consider it because it's really heavy)

Heads
Evans

Coated G Plus tom batters
Clear G1 tom resos
Coated G1 snare batter
Hazy 300 snare side
Aquarian Superkick II bass batter (I was trying it out but will go back to single ply EMAD when it needs replacing)
EMAD Resonant (without the muffle rings) on bass reso


Again, all the artwork on the heads was done personally by me. It makes things more interesting than just the plain, blank heads. My designs don't get worn off at all because I apply them to the backside of the head, not the top of the batter that you play on. The actual design is inside the drum and never gets touched. I have done commissions for my work in the past and definitely welcome any more if anyone is interested. Fair warning, though, it may take months for me to complete anything because my schedule is really hectic. I'm in my last couple semesters of a Bachelor of Arts and Science degree in Physics and Religious Studies (odd combination, I know) so my artwork unfortunately has to take a backseat to my schoolwork as well as all the gigging I do.

And, yes, that is in fact a panda spitting a rainbow on my snare drum:p. If you check out my gallery you'll see that I have a pretty healthy obsession with pandas, haha.

Hopefully that addresses everyone's questions. Thank you so much for all of your really generous comments! I really appreciate it!! And, please, don't hesitate with any more questions, comments, or picture requests you may have!
 
Oops, I forgot to answer this one!


Welcome to the forum Matt. Great looking and innovative kit you have there. I listened to some of your stuff. Very clever & skillful plus a great sound, especially the snare. I'd like to ask, what genre of music do you play using the style of drumming on the video's? I can imagine an experimental style of jazz rock or similar but I'm struggling to think of anything else.

I play pretty much all styles of music. That phrase gets bandied about pretty liberally but I play gigs with bands ranging from big band, small jazz group, pop cover tunes, musical/comedy revues, pop-punk, math metal and everything in between. Most of my income comes from playing Real Book jazz stuff at dinners, cocktails, luncheons, etc and playing music and comedy revue shows with a local theatre company (this music has covered pop, R&B, musicals, movie themes, disco, country etc).

That said, I do have some projects of my own that play more experimental stuff that incorporates the odd times, fancy footwork, and ostinato independence. I love stretching out and playing really weird, modern jazz with small jazz groups. It's a lot of fun to take a corny old jazz standard like Blue Monk or something and turn it on its head into something really strange and wild.

The kind of independence, coordination, ostinato stuff I work on really applies to everything I play. These skills are applicable to all drumset playing, even if you're just playing a boom-chuck rock beat or straight ahead swing. First of all, it gives me the physical facility to comp any rhythm I want with any appendage or sound source I want. It also gives me the cognitive facility to come up all of the different phrases, textures, and ideas that I might want to play or interact with my band mates.

This playing is directly applicable, however, to solo drumset playing. My heroes are among the likes of Terry Bozzio, Grant Collins, and Chad Wackerman (just to name a few). The independence and coordination they use to create ostinatos and multi-layered, drumset compositions absolutely blows me away. It really is on the cutting edge of musical expression and technical possibility on the drumset. If I could one day be a tenth of the musician that Terry Bozzio is, I would be a very happy man indeed.
 
That's a really really really nice kit!!!!!
I like your rack system, it's the same idea as the Gibraltar Stealth hardware, isn't it?
And then that finish........ lovely!!
But what is that thing in your bassdrum in the first picture??

You say you play all kinds of music, also math metal. Is that the Dream Theater stuff with odd time signatures?

Bram
 
When I read the thread title, I thought, "Well, this sounds interesting." I was right.

Cool videos too. It really helps to see the kit in action. What I like about it is there are a lot of components to it, but the way you have it set up makes it quite compact. In fact, I noticed you don't twist your torso at all to play anything out to the left or right. I also like how you are maximizing the use of every limb. Anyway, very cool stuff.
 
Thats another one of the standout kits I've seen here. Gorgeous drums and your artwork is tasteful, it could so easily have detracted from the beauty of the shells.

I love the symmetry idea, its great to see people working on it.

Just out of curiosity, do you play open handed all the time? Or do you cross your hands on the left sided hi hat to play the standard way at all?

Thanks for posting the pics


Sean
 
Hey Matt, thanks for taking the time to explain everything. One thing I don't get is how the artwork goes under the head. Do you 'paint' it on the bottom or do you put a piece of paper (or whatever) and 'glue' that to the drumhead?
With the first option you would be able to recycle the artwork instead of having to make new ones every time your heads need to be changed. The second option will affect the sound I'm afraid.
But anyways, you have inspired me a lot. I might do something to a clear head I've got around here somewhere maybe soon...
 
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