Arbiter drums?

[Jeremy Bender]

Anyone know anything about these drums? I saw one on ebay and it has a single tuning lug mounted horizontally to a hoop.

[jayp]

I checked out some arbiter flats on a paisc video seemed pretty sweet for a little practice or even a gig kit. and for like $500 its relatively cheap.

[Ian]

The drums you are talking about were made in England. They were expensive and only work with Remo heads. The two drummers for the Moody Blues play them (Gordon Marshall and Grahame Edge) and from the stage they sound fantastic.

I have only played one 6.5x14 heavy steel snare by this company and I should have bought it. The guy was asking around $400, which is steep, but it sounded $400 good.

The consensus is they are ugly, but good, if you like the limitations.

[Deathmetalconga]

The Arbiter Flats are a very innovative concept and . I'd love to have a set myself - even though I love deep drums and these are the ultimate in shallow shells! I hear they aren't made any more.

The single-lug tuning system also sounds like a great idea. I'd like to check out a set with those.

[goughy]

I believe in the original Austin Powers International Man of Mystery when they have there little music interludes breaking scenes the drummer is playing a set of those single tuning lug arbiters.

I read an ok review of them in MD many years ago.

[Garvin]

I owned an Arbiter Flats Pro kit a few years ago. This kit is very portable and decent sounding I suppose, but it will not sound like a traditional shelled kit. They don't sound horrible, but unless you absolutely have to be able to fit everything in one bag, you won't be 100% satisfied. The only reason I bought one was because I had to travel through Central America by bus. By the end of that tour I was sooooo ready for a normal kit again. I had to duct tape the bass drum to the floor every night (I spent like 100 colones on duct tape) They are made in Canada, and were developed by a guy who invented some kind of special valve or clamp for boats. That's where he came up with the one lug design. The one lug tuning is convenient, but uniform tuning doesn't make much of a difference when there is essentially no real resonance to the drum. If you can mic them, they'll be okay, but other than that, I wouldn't want to perform with these ever again.

[goughy]

He might be talking about the original shell versions of these drums, which used the same tuning system. The were reviewed in a MD many years ago now. I liked the idea of them.

I wouldn't like the flats though!