THE ASH KITS

Sparkboss

Senior Member
Alas! The search has yeilded zero results for the key word ash. perhaps it was too broad and i fried the search engines brain? anyway..

I was lingering on a few different sites and the grain of this kit caught my eye, its a crush chameleon ash kit. I'm curious as to how people like ash kits, but i havent heard anything on them before, and haven't seen any decent reviews.

So it's time to throw it to the piranhas! Anybody experiment with these before?
 

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Also, these come in a cool red or orange finish too. Definitely a show piece!
 
I'm curious as to how people like ash kits, but i havent heard anything on them before, and haven't seen any decent reviews.
Here's a very recent review, & yes, we love English ash as a tonewood. Ash has a palate all of it's own.
 

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I like the hardware they used on that guru kit. It'll help keep the bass in place too heheh ;)
 
I f you can afford it at all,go with Guru,but if you don't have that kind of coin,Gretsch Catalina ash are a cheaper alternative..

Steve B
 
I f you can afford it at all,go with Guru,but if you don't have that kind of coin,Gretsch Catalina ash are a cheaper alternative..

Steve B

hmmm. So is Crush not that great of a brand? Quality vs price wise?
 
hmmm. So is Crush not that great of a brand? Quality vs price wise?

They're just relatively unknown. They started because a few members of DDrum left and founded their own company. They haven't been around that long and they haven't really inspired me with anything new or innovative. I can only remember one or two people having kits on this forum and none of them were high-end or particularly exciting (no offence, guys) so I have very little to say about them - which I think is probably true of most people on here.
 
They're just relatively unknown. They started because a few members of DDrum left and founded their own company. They haven't been around that long and they haven't really inspired me with anything new or innovative. I can only remember one or two people having kits on this forum and none of them were high-end or particularly exciting (no offence, guys) so I have very little to say about them - which I think is probably true of most people on here.

Aaah i see. I know looking at the prices they look like they've set themselved up amongst other moderately prices kits. I'd enjoy beating around on one though just to see how it feels!
 
I never owned or played an ash kit. Andy sings Ashes praises hi and lo. I've heard him say that it has qualities similar to maple, but with a palette all it's own. Go to the Guru site and listen to the vids with headphones and you can hear for yourself.

http://www.gurudrumworks.co.uk/videos.html

Vids part 1 and part 4 are a steambent ash, the most comparable Guru drum to a ply ash drum. The vids give me eargasms. To be fair, Andy and Dean have extracted every last bit of delicious satisfying tone-y goodness with their design, and the meticulous-ness of their craftsmanship is a rarity. Not all ash kits will sound this stunningly good.
 
I've heard things about inconsistent tone from ash kits (ply / lower-end types) but never really tried one. I would also go for the Catalina because I simply trust Gretsch more, and the Chameleons seem like pretty bog-standard kits.
 
I played a natal ash kit in big rock sizes.. Sounded awesome to me... Really low, a bit dry, quick decay.
 
Andy sings Ashes praises hi and lo. I've heard him say that it has qualities similar to maple, but with a palette all it's own.
In a nutshell Larry, yes, but I use maple as a reference because it's familiar to many. With Ash, the detail differences add up to a very different playing characteristic set compared to maple. The mid range bump isn't as pronounced, but it's still there. Depending on species & construction, ash has a longer note (that doesn't mean head sustain chaps ;). It delivers a bit more bottom end too, & a touch more bite.

I've heard things about inconsistent tone from ash kits (ply / lower-end types) but never really tried one.
There is some truth to this, but it's by no means limited to ash. Ash is a broad church. Many sub species, & of course, many quality variants. Being a big grain hardwood, you can expect differences in mass, & that equates to differences in sound too. If you layer up ply shells using sheet from different sources, then you can expect variation. That's why DW "timbre match". It's near impossible to test out thin plies for tonal character, but once built into a shell, you can get somewhere close. Of course, by the time you put the hardware on, the game changes anyhow, but bare shell matching is as good a guide as you'll get. With solid shells, it's easy to test the boards before you build the drum - just hang 'em up & tap them :)

I played a natal ash kit in big rock sizes.. Sounded awesome to me... Really low, a bit dry, quick decay.
That's funny, because ash is generally neither dry nor short in note. Must be the Asian species variation and/or the construction.
 
I played a natal ash kit in big rock sizes.. Sounded awesome to me... Really low, a bit dry, quick decay.

This could all be due to the way it was headed and tuned. It's hard to characterize any drum because of all the variants that come into play.

So Andy are you telling me that you hang the boards up and tap them before you bend them? Which implies that you reject some?
 
Everything in Guru is well hung Larry ;) ;) ;0

Seriously, yes we do. We don't reject as such, we select the ones we like. We do this at the wood supplier/mill before they even get to us.

I had that pic in mind where Dean, well hung as he is, was looking over a portion of a log. I assumed you cut boards from the tree, like a sawmill does. It would make sense that a sawmill would do that part for you.
 
hmmm. So is Crush not that great of a brand? Quality vs price wise?

Gretsch are a known quantity,and have been for years.Crush is a fledgeling new comer.

If you want to put your money on that horse in the race...hey it's your coin.

Just read a few reviews,and make up your own mind.

Steve B
 
Everything in Guru is well hung Larry ;) ;) ;0

Seriously, yes we do. We don't reject as such, we select the ones we like. We do this at the wood supplier/mill before they even get to us.

WHAT.??????................shut the front door,and butter my buns and call me a biscuit.:):)

Steve B
 
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