Tempus Drums - Thoughts?

I know a guy called Mark Fletcher in the UK who uses a Tempus kit, I know he likes it very much and he is a jazzer through and through. I don't know if there's any clips of him using it but check him out anyway on youtube, he plays for a jazz singer called Liane Carrol, great player.
 
ex tower of power and current tom jones drummer herman matthews told me that that they were the first company he got with. but he said that they were very wild and too many overtones. i myself have never heard one but thats what he said.
 
I own a 8x10, 8x12, 14x15, 14x16, 18x20, 18x24 Tempus set and I cannot say enough good things about them.

They do not sound like wood drums. They are warm, dry, and punchy with few overtones. That video is a very good representation of their sound, which is that of a well-recorded studio drum, but they achieve this organically out of the box. Can they go high? Yes, actually their tuning range is greater than my Yamaha Oak Customs and my 60's Slingerlands. Can they do jazz? Oh hell yea! If you want the dry, defined jazz sound they can tackle that no problem. I play rock, pop, and play in a few cover bands, and these drums can handle everything I throw at them. They really are fantastic instruments.

They are also the best touring/gigging drums I've owned. They are nearly unbreakable, undamageable, and are totally impervious to temp and humidity changes. I've never had an issue tuning them and heads thick, thin, coated, clear, all sound good on them.

They are versatile and easy on the eyes.

I will say, I'm not the biggest fan of Paul's large coffin-like lugs, but the minis are pretty sweet. I bought mine when he was still offering just shells, so I have tube lugs, which look pretty badass.

Paul is a great guy to do business with and you WILL get what you pay for.

Are they perfect drums? They are perfect for me.
 
Great drums. Some very good recordings out there - Pink Floyd The Final Cut, Max Webster Universal Juveniles. Just YouTube those...

Gotta be careful though - you cannot judge these accurately with Evans heads which, for whatever reason, Paul uses as OEM. These beg for Remo heads - particularly Clear or smooth white Emperors, but Ambassadors work too.
 
Great drums. Some very good recordings out there - Pink Floyd The Final Cut, Max Webster Universal Juveniles. Just YouTube those...

Gotta be careful though - you cannot judge these accurately with Evans heads which, for whatever reason, Paul uses as OEM. These beg for Remo heads - particularly Clear or smooth white Emperors, but Ambassadors work too.

Ronn: What about Aquarian Modern Vintage heads (white coated)? I try to avoid Evans heads--I feel like those choke drums too much. I prefer Remo Coated Ambassadors or Aquarian Modern Vintage or Jack DeJohnette heads.
 
I don't personally own a kit, but I have heard MANY horror stories about Paul's quality control. The pictures I have seen of shoddy workmanship are absolutely shocking. (Somewhere on the web somebody posted a series of email exchanges -with pictures- between Paul and a disgruntled new Tempus owner that blew my mind. The kit looked terrible but Paul was going ballistic on the guy when he complained about it and asked for a refund. I wish I could find the web site, it was actually really funny.)

Again, I have never owned or played a Tempus kit, but when I was looking to buy a new kit, I passed on Tempus because of the negative word of mouth.

I would be happy to put you in touch with the people who spoke to me when I was considering a Tempus, if for no other reason then to give you some things to ask about.
 
To be fair, no builder with any length of service will have 100% satisfaction. Additionally, anyone who works in client service will tell you the dissatisfied are louder than the satisfied.

I would not hesitate to buy another kit or more drums from Paul. Yes, his drums have an unsightly seam, but shoddy workmanship? After owning one and seeing many kits and snares (I own two snares too) I have never seen a reason to question his workmanship.
 
I've two Tempus sets and i couldn't be happier!!
17x22, 8x10, 9x12, 14x14, 16x16 with matching snare 7x14
15x20, 8x12, 14x14
both carbonfiber in blue glitter.
I traded my DW Vlt/X-shell kit for the bigger set and it was he best thing i could do.
They have a great tuning range.
I put Remo coated Emperor's on the big kit and Remo coated Amb's on the smaller one. They sing, have lots of tone and can be punchy as well.
 
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To be fair, no builder with any length of service will have 100% satisfaction. Additionally, anyone who works in client service will tell you the dissatisfied are louder than the satisfied.

I would not hesitate to buy another kit or more drums from Paul. Yes, his drums have an unsightly seam, but shoddy workmanship? After owning one and seeing many kits and snares (I own two snares too) I have never seen a reason to question his workmanship.

I will say that I personally can put the OP in touch with three different people that had ...uh...very unpleasant customer service issues with Paul. Every company makes mistakes, but it is how the company responds to those issues that makes a difference.

I found one of the links, but I won't post it out of respect. The pictures and email exchange are shocking.
 
I have an old set of milestones which I had on the road for 10 years. Great sounding kit, versatile too. My kit was used on David Wilcox's Breakfast at the Circus album (layin pipe), which was his biggest commercial success. The kick is so recognizable, I hear my kick exactly when I hear the album.

In case you are not aware, Tempus bought out the milestone company, DW bought the die cast hoop machines. They were used by a lot of headliner acts in Canada, Max Webster, April Wine, The Good brothers to name a few off the top of my head.

They had a different process for forming the fibreglass, I believe it was press formed like a corvette panel as opposed to just wrapping around a form, like others did unsuccessfully.
 
Good Morning,

It's always nice to know that people are talking about you, isn't it? ;-)

I like to think that what I do and the way I do it speaks well enough for itself. And it is to be hoped that 26+ years in business, 6000+ drums built for umpteen hundreds of satisfied customers and many months worth of work currently on order would seem to suggest that I'm at least partly on the right track. It seems reasonable that I were someone who was only capable of shoddy workmanship and lousy customer service I'd never have survived long.

I will say that I know exactly who the two or three unhappy complainants are; the most vocal of them - and in my experience Ian is right; the displeased are typically much louder than the pleased - ultimately refused to return the goods with which he was dissatisfied, something which still strikes me as rather odd. I make no claim to personal infallibility - I do make mistakes when it comes to my business, some of them extremely regrettable - and my instruments aren't perfect, either, but I don't think of myself as being an unreasonable person. And I'm definitely not a fool.

But I'm not going to try and sway opinion one way or another here; if you'd like to sample/play my drums for yourself I'll be happy to try and connect you with either a drum shop or a Tempus owner in your area. If not, that's cool, too.

Thanks, folks.

PFM
 

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My kit was used on David Wilcox's Breakfast at the Circus album (layin pipe), which was his biggest commercial success. The kick is so recognizable, I hear my kick exactly when I hear the album.

I actually didn't know about that - many thanks for the information; one more I can happily add to the list of recordings which have been made with these drums. :)
 
Just read this and I feel that I should say something.
1) Tempus drums are excellent, especially if you are looking for a touring kit, these things are tough.
The finishes are awesome and the sound is great and they will last you a lifetime and your kids.
I have been trying to save for a snare for awhile now.
I played a gig and my Supra got stolen before we played, the drummer before us lent me his snare which happened to be a Tempus 14x6.5.
The thing was awesome and I was sold, just have to save.

Now for the real reason I thought I would say something.

2) I only know Paul from an email relationship, and I can tell you he is a very patient man. I have been going back and forth with him about a new snare now for a little over a year, and if it were me I'd be going nuts. Something always seems to come up before I can buy one of these things, but I still want one, so a month would go by and I'd email him, he would say no problem this is what I have and what he can do for me etc.

The guy is awesome, very patient and very professional, and best yet very understanding.
And he has a great product to back it up.

Anyways that's my 2 cents...
which I should save to get my snare..
 
Loving that! I'm a simple rock player, but I soooo much appreciate the skill there. Superb solos by both guys, but that drum solo blew me away. Not the chops, the composition & power, + the lovely dynamic of the solo ending. Wow. On another off topic point, I notice he uses really long sticks for a jazz guy. Me too, so I picked up on that. Very cool clip!
 
I LOVE my Tempus kit and will never part with it!!

The comment way above regarding lots of crazy overtones, i've never experienced this, but maybe it's my head choice? I use remo clear black dots and get a really fat punchy sound! The drums sound quite a bit bigger then they are. The bass drum is a 20" and it sounds huge!! I get many positive comments on the sound of my kit.

As for Paul, he's always been extremely helpful to me, i just don't get all the negative hype he's gotten from the few out there! Paul has even sent me a few things, free of charge (memory locks for my spurs and a badge for a snare i also bought second hand), and i bought the kit second hand. So add me to the "very positive customer service" column. I hope to, along with Ronn Dunnett, personally meet him in the future. He does a lot of posting at drumsmith.com and seems to be a really cool guy and extremely witty:)

As for the kit quality itself, it's simply superb! I'm saving to add a 16" floor tom and there will be no hesitation when it comes time to order.

I live in Canada where the temp fluctuations can range from extremely cold to rather warm in a matter of days. My kit stays in my truck without any worries. The same can't be said about my lino flooring in my RV, but that's another story. I wonder if Paul can send me some carbon fibre flooring?

Mark

PS: the last thing i'll add is, ask 5 different people and you'll get 5 different opinions. The best thing is to see and HEAR them for yourself then make your decision.
 
Any guy that can stay as positive and patient as Paul is, while laying up 1000s of drumshells with the foulest, nastiest, most disgusting raw materials in the world, has my 100% vote of confidence.

You have to be 100% committed to LOVING what you do, if you are going home with fiberglass and polyester resin covering you every night!

I used to work for a place that made acid-resistant, fire-resistant fiberglass ductwork for semi-conductor plants, and I would come home covered in it. I HATED IT!!!! I effin HATED it!!! Those who know me know that when I say HATE I mean it! I HATED myself for taking that job, and begged, begged, BEGGED God to get me out of there... and He did! After 2 months of working there, I got a call from McDonnell-Douglas Helicopter Company, asking me to come build helicopters for them...using FIBERGLASS!!! ...and carbon fiber, and Kevlar.

Gotta LOVE it!!

Kevin 'Kevlar' Carman
 
Any guy that can stay as positive and patient as Paul is, while laying up 1000s of drumshells with the foulest, nastiest, most disgusting raw materials in the world, has my 100% vote of confidence.

LMAO!! That's great... can I put that on a T-shirt? ;-)

In truth, though, that's pretty much the way I feel about those who work with wood and the materials required to finish it; man, that approach just bewilders me and I really have to tip my hat to anyone who has the skill and patience to work that way.
 
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