Estimating Drum Sizes from a Photo

TheElectricCompany

Senior Member
What size do you guys think the champagne bass drum on the end is? The seller has said the kit is a 13/16/22 but I'm almost positive that kick is a 24, and the floor tom might be an 18. I don't think the seller is misleading me but I also don't think I'm crazy.

For reference, the silver sparkle is a 12/14/20 and the sky blue pearl is a 12/16/22.

What do y'all think?
 

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I think you're right.

If you're in contact with the seller, ask him to take a photograph of one of the 16" floor toms nested on top of the floor tom and one of the 22" bass drums nested on top of the bass drum.
 
I think that anyone with that many kits know what sizes they are :)

If anything, I would imagine the more drum kits you have, the easier it would be to get confused about which kit has which sizes. I mean, I wouldn't. But I've known drummers with just one kit, and they don't know the sizes. I've encountered many Craigslist postings with incorrect sizes listed.
 
Second guessing myself now, maybe its a 22". Why does everything have to be so hard. This is agony, please confirm size so I can move on with my life, I got bills and sh**
 
Second guessing myself now, maybe its a 22". Why does everything have to be so hard. This is agony, please confirm size so I can move on with my life, I got bills and sh**

I'm actually gonna make it worse. Look at the champagne rack tom. It's got large classic lugs, which should have about an inch of space between them on a 13x9. There's hardly any space between the lugs on this drum, is there? Compare it to the 13x9 (second from the top) black diamond pearl on the far left.

The silver and blue Ludwigs have small classic lugs, as was standard on 12x8 drums. It looks like someone replaced the lugs on a 12x8, right? Then why is the champagne wider than the silver and blue drums?

The champagne rack tom looks like a freaking 13x8.
 
Might be a camera lens issue, distorting and stretching stuff towards the edges

I've seen that mentioned on other forums. The Supra on the left looks huge but it also seems to be set a little closer to the camera than any of the kits. Probably not close enough to the camera to appear that big, though. The champagne kit is slightly behind the sky blue pearl kit, which I wonder if that could help counteract any distortion.

I also wonder if the type of camera matters. If it's a "real" camera is the distortion not as severe as a picture taken with a cell phone lens?
 
New thought!

The seam on the floor tom isn't perfectly in line with the lugs as it should be. It could be nothing, or it could be a second seam, which only an 18-inch drum or larger would have. My Ludwig 18x16 has two seams and only one of them is under the lugs.
 
I agree it looks like the champagne sparkle is big, but after following all of the other overthinking going on I also agree it's probably lens distortion. Otherwise, that Supra is what, 16x4"?

I think if you *respectfully* double checked with the seller, making sure you mention the appearance in the photo is throwing you off, you should get the answer you're wanting.

Of course, I suppose it also depends on how serious you are in buying one of his kits. If you're just tire kicking I'm not sure it matters too much.
 
I agree it looks like the champagne sparkle is big, but after following all of the other overthinking going on I also agree it's probably lens distortion. Otherwise, that Supra is what, 16x4"?

I think if you *respectfully* double checked with the seller, making sure you mention the appearance in the photo is throwing you off, you should get the answer you're wanting.

Of course, I suppose it also depends on how serious you are in buying one of his kits. If you're just tire kicking I'm not sure it matters too much.

That's the thing, if it's really a 24 (with a rail) I'm ready to put my money down... BUT, that's if the price is right and I get the okay from my wife. I don't want to bug the guy with unnecessary questions if I'm ultimately kicking tires.

I figure spit-balling with other drummers first helps me figure out if it's just me or if it's really worth pursuing with the seller.
 
What size do you guys think the champagne bass drum on the end is? The seller has said the kit is a 13/16/22 but I'm almost positive that kick is a 24, and the floor tom might be an 18. I don't think the seller is misleading me but I also don't think I'm crazy.

For reference, the silver sparkle is a 12/14/20 and the sky blue pearl is a 12/16/22.

What do y'all think?

Here are my guesses, from left to right.

Black Diamond Pearl: 8x12*, 9x13, 16x16, 14x22

Piano Black: 8x12, 16x16, 14x20

Silver Sparkle: 8x12*, 14x14, 14x20

Sky Blue Pearl: 8x12*, 16x16, 14x22

Champagne Sparkle: 9x13, 16x16, 14x24


*note that these toms have smaller lugs than what can be seen on the rest of the accompanying kits
 
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Taking Mr. Wolf's advice, I went ahead and emailed the shop. I had been nervous about doing that because it's a vintage drum shop, so they know their stuff. If it was just a guy on Craigslist I would've made him get the measuring tape out immediately.

I just didn't want to sound like your typical know-it-all customer.

I'll let y'all know what I hear back!
 
My guess for the champagne sparkle is 13, 18 (but more likely a 16), 24.
 
Also, its a 10 lug drum, as opposed to all the others which are 8.

Great point. Even if the blue kit has 10 lugs, as a 22 should, they're spaced in an entirely different manner than the champagne kit.

Edit: after looking at it more closely I don't think they're spread out differently, I was just ignoring the distortion of the photo again.
 
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I tinkered with the photo a little to try and eliminate any potential distortion at the edges. I don't have any photo manipulation software so I just used Microsoft Paint. I compressed the segments of the photos containing the Supra and the champagne kit by each segment's percentage of the whole photo compared to yadda, yadda, yadda... When you do that, they look like very different. If my method was good I guess it's safe to say it really is a 13/16/22. Bummer.

Here they are side by side.
 

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