My Unix Bubinga Stave Kit - Chocolate Thunda!

zambizzi

Platinum Member
The Madman from Montebello strikes again! This is a continuation of this thread, started by Frank a couple of weeks ago.

I got them in last night, unpacked, and spent a lot of time tuning and re-tuning. To be entirely accurate, I spent the first hour just looking at them. I was so struck by how beautiful they were, I had to force myself to start setting them up instead of just turning them around with my hands and ogling over them. These drums could be hideous and the sound alone would justify them...but they're not, they're a work of art...much nicer than any other piece of furniture that I own.

The sizes (diameter x depth x thickness)

22"x18" (7/16") bass
16"x14" (3/8") floor tom
12"x9" (3/8") tom
10"x8" (3/8") tom
14"x6.5" (1/2") snare (not pictured)

Frank forgot to pack the legs to the kick drum and is shipping them out via expedited mail this morning, so I should have them in a few days. Meanwhile, I used two 5lb. dumbbells and a couple pieces of foam to hold the front up. Sexy, eh? :)

They feature Frank's own quick-release lugs - top-shelf quality and should make for very quick head changes. The heads on the toms are coated ambassadors over clears, the kick has a coated PS3 over a clear PS3 batter.

The matching snare is finished and should make its way to me sometime soon. I'll post pics once I have it.

I'm going to outfit it with die-cast hoops and the Tama Star-Cast (aluminum) mounting system for the smaller toms. For now I'm using the Pearl Optimount brackets I already had.

The sound:

If a set of high-end, boutique, maple plywood drums are a like a fine chocolate bar, these drums are a hand-whipped, hot fudge sundae covered with caramel, whipped cream, and a cherry on top (in a silver bowl). Was that helpful? Probably not. But seriously, the sound far exceeded my expectations.

I took quite a leap; maple ply shells to solid bubinga staves...so it's unclear to me after just a few hours with them, what characteristics are due to the wood type or the shell construction, specifically. The first thing I noticed is how crisp and clear the note is. When the head is struck there's an initial, super-fat, super-low, super-warm, super-LOUD tone that then resonates all the way up through the mids and tops off at a nice clear ring. It's everything you'd want from maple but much more...deeper and fatter on the low-end and more expressive and "musical" on the high-end. It struck me that all the high-end ply drums I've had are missing many of those tones. I've gotten quite used to my practice room acoustically, and for the first time I felt like the sound of my drums really *fills* the room. The kick drum is so fat and punchy, it gave me the feeling that the walls were actually moving! I dare not stand in front of it while someone else plays it...I'm not sure I'm done having children yet. The next thing that occurred to me is the wide tuning range these drums have. I can tune as high or as low as I want...it's really going to take a long time to figure out my ideal sound since the "sweet spot" is so much wider than other drums I've had. I couldn't get them to choke as I messed with them...I'm sure I'd have to crank it beyond a playable tension to spoil the sound.

That being said, I don't have them tuned all that well yet and will post some sounds once I think I've got them sounding more to their potential.

So, enough BS, here's some eye-candy!
 

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tooooo sexxxy....

really. so great. so sexy. this is porn as it's meant to be. can you make high resolution pictures, then I can put it as a wallpaper on my desktop...
 
It's gorgeous! I don't know what else I can say. I can't wait to hear the sound clips.

And yes, your chocolate descriptions really help...
 
Vinnie my friend,

You have no idea what you just did :)
You go check your PM.

That is the main advantage of stave, they have a huge tunning range, even more noticiable on a snare. Thank's a lot for those kind words.

P.S. Can I use that text to put as a testamonial on my website.
 
Druel, Druel some one please get me a bucket. Unix I think may be contributing to marital strife. :) Congrats Zambizzi. I can't wait to hear !
 
The craftsmanship is UNBELIEVABLE.. Really nice kit.

I will own a Unix kit someday!
 
Congrats Zambizzi on this new nice fine art buy et bravo à François pour son travail et le mérite qu'il reçoit.

Very nice piece of work !
 
~~~~~~Elegant~~~~~~~
 
Thanks guys! And...thanks Frank! Feel free to use it as a testimonial, it's all true!

Yeah, the 10" is sitting on an old snare stand just because I had nowhere else to put it. I'm going to Guitar Center tonight to buy a clamp of some kind to mount the 10" on the other Optimount I have here, so I can get it snug next to the 12".

The snare is finished, I think...and should be here soon. I can't wait to rub my rudiments all over it...

Here's the setup I'm going to try tonight.
 

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Looks really great!

I was wondering what was up with the ten inch tom. Makes perfect sense now. I'm sure you're real excited and rightfully so.

Beautiful kit!
 
I can't wait to rub my rudiments all over it...


Are we allowed to say this here?
 
Looks really great!

I was wondering what was up with the ten inch tom. Makes perfect sense now. I'm sure you're real excited and rightfully so.

Beautiful kit!

Thanks Fred! I wanted to do something to remove the symmetry from my fills, this 10" is the perfect monkey wrench. Hopefully I can squeeze them in there together while still keeping my ride low and close.

I also might use the 16", 10" and 12" in a jungle setup w/ one of those Gretsch conversion kits.
 
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