Abe Cunningham

Drum4fun

Member
I'd love to see Abe Cunningham added to drummerworld.

I am not a particually huge fan of New metal, but with the Advent of bands such as incubus, korn, limp bizcut etc - the deftones are one of my fave's.

Abe has such a wicked fusion going on in his drumming and really brings the drumming to life in the deftones.

A great example of someone who thinks out of the box with almost all his beats.

anyway, just wanted to G up Abe - keep up the good work abe!

cheers,
 
Re: Abe Cunningham - Deftones

My friend is a big fan of Abe can't say I am but that doesn't mean I don't like him but one thing I like about Abe is the way he move's his hole body when he play's the drums he's good to watch
 
abe cunningham is a totally underrated drummer. i wish he would stick to single bass but then he uses his double bass pedal (iron cobra powerglide if i'm not mistaken for those who are interested) like a single, say for quick triplets or something and maybe he just likes the fact that it is easier to pound that way live rather than trying to pound out a triplet on a single bass set -
(And don't say 'bonham could do it' because bonham is so deified it's impossible to tell what's truth> people saying on the pearl drummers forum that 'they recorded loads of their songs with the drum mics in the room ABOVE the room bonham was drumming in because he played so loud! and he had everything tuned real low so he was definitiely SMACKING those drums [ie - s*** technique] etc'. fact is bonham, like abe cunningham, went for quick a high tension to help with resonance and used a refined wrist-with-a-little-finger motion to get his playing how he did. more of his talent is in hte particular grooves he came up with and also managed to make the drums in rock sound intelligent, in a way that a lot of the players of the day played only what i can describe as in a 'dumb' way ()and i hate that ().) -
abe cunningham's particualr drum sound, his style, his patterns, his not overplaying that borders sometimes on overplaying but never gets so unsatisfying as that...wonderful drummer. to me, the drummer dave silveria could have been had he not decided to go for a dumbed down drum sound (less articulate) a simplified style and a disgusting smacking technique. i thought really that give nthe operation he had to have on his writst, maybe that was why the drumparts had 'simplified' but from what i can see it's becuase he's just decdied to be like morgan rose etc nad smack the hell out of things. poor.
well done abe. he really plays with passion live. when he plays the opening drum pattern to 'around the fur' (which he does on a single bass pedal, not between his two feet - ie why bother having a double pedal at all when that's the closest thing to 16ths that he does on the bass), he has this way of nodding, looking pleased but getting enough sexy energy into it and looks like the music is moving him. very impressive
 
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I do like the deftones and also his playing. also love the sound of his drums on the beginning of my own summer (don't know on which album it was but it was on the matrix soundtrack).
 
The guy's a good drummer. I haven't listened to him in a long time. I always liked Chino's voice but the guitar tone got on my nerves.. that and the slightly formulaic new metal writing. I think that Digital Bath off White Pony is a particularly interesting piece of drumming.
 
Deftones is such a good band. I was sorta disapointed from B sides and Raraties though, i liked it when they were heavier.

:D
 
He's just awesome, his drum sound is incredibly cutting and powerful. I've seen him live once and he's an animal on stage and a very hard hitter but it sounds so good.......that was such an inspiration!!
It took time for me to like the deftones, I always tought that they were just another boring nu-metal band in the vein of Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit. But after taking time listening, cuz i was really loving the drum sound, I started to feel how great it was, Passenger and 7 words
 
The drumming on the White Pony album was inspiring, to say the least. It seemed like at every live show I went to after that album came out, every drummer played the RX Queen drum beat during sound check. That really says something. The thing about Abe's drumming, though, is that it isn't timeless. It doesn't stand alone. Outside of the Deftones, he's just another rock drummer.
 
Abe Cunningham is my hero. He is absolutely amazing. Every song on every Deftones album has excellent drumming.

He plays softer and more expressive things like on Digital Bath where he plays a trippy, intricate groove (Listen during the verse, as far as i can hear, its completely one handed. Also the chorus sounds one handed minus the flams)
And then as far as heavy goes, the chorus to Minus Blindfold is as heavy as it gets. I like that he doesnt resort to just laying double bass over the entire thing and call it "heavy". If more metal drummers were as creative as Abe Cunningham, we'd have less crappy metal.

Not to mention that he plays like a freaking BEAST.
 
karltheweed said:
Abe Cunningham is my hero. He is absolutely amazing. Every song on every Deftones album has excellent drumming.

He plays softer and more expressive things like on Digital Bath where he plays a trippy, intricate groove (Listen during the verse, as far as i can hear, its completely one handed. Also the chorus sounds one handed minus the flams)

It's more linear than one-handed. No unisons, but certainly not the kind of thing you'd want to be playing with just the one hand... not exactly Def Leppard!
 
He's ridiculous. Genius. Perfect for the deftones. It makes it so Raw, and in your face. His pedal work is amazing (I thought he only had a single-bass drum pedal?)
 
I can't say I am much of an expert on Deftones, but sampling the tunes on iTunes, I recognized the song "Digital Bath" from White Pony album, and I must say that is some tasty rock drumming. With the linear patterns, he sounds kind of like a heavy metal Carter Beauford.

Great sounding drums too. Why can't more of those type of bands have quality recorded drum sounds?
 
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I would love to know if anyone knows what heads he uses for everything???

Id appreciate!

Al
 
Abe has been one of my favorite drummers since before i even started playing. What initially one me over was how much passion he played with. Once i started playing drums and understanding them I realized what a great drummer he really was. Watching the Deftones (who are my favorite band) live at Taste of Chaos this year was a real treat for me.
 
His Style of Playing is so Unique, at least to me. I dont know of anyone like him. Every hit is crisp even if it is the slightest tap all the way to the rim shots. I love Every Deftones Album so I guess I might be a little biased but digital bath, around the fur, root, Teenager, and Korea stick out for me, but again there are many more.
I have a Deftones live at Hawaii DVD and they have accoustic sessions on there and even Abe playing on the 2 lil bongos is so mesmerizing.
You can say I'm a little obsessed.
 
STu, you nailed it, heavy music Carter beauford, that`s exactly what i think. Seen those guys live 7-8 years ago, in all the live outdoor shows i`ve seen it was the best sounding ever, big fan of deftones.
 
Blue said:
I thought he only had a single-bass drum pedal?)

I'm pretty sure he uses a double pedal on "When Girls Telephone Boys"... as for elsewhere I can't say I've noticed anything that might require a double bass pedal.
 
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