Bo Eder
Platinum Member
Hey all,
So I wanted to share some pics of what I did this past weekend, and why I made such a big deal out of finding my used Tama Granstar Customs in LIPSTICK RED!
This year I'm the drummer for the Sacramento Freelancers Alumni drum & bugle corps, and what attracted me to them, was the fact they liked how I played, and they're good people - some of us have been acquaintances for a while now since we've all been involved in the drum corps activity for most of our lives. This is definitely not a project I'm making money on. They used to be a full blown drum corps, but some years ago went bankrupt and are now re-building. They have hopes that showing off their alumni like this, will attract people to the activity and perhaps in the future they can have a junior corps again (ages 14-21). They're even old skool in the fact that they're all playing the older two-valve bugles pitched in G, which I think are louder than what the kids are playing now. But it's fun being the lone kit player for about 30 horns. We're a work in progress, so I won't post any audio yet, but we got alot better overnight when we did the same show on Sunday. These pictures are from Saturday's performance for DCI West that took place on June 23rd at Stanford University.
It's funny how small my four-piece Granstar kit looks in perspective to everybody and everything around me. It seems so big in my practice room at home
But the reason I was so happy to find these drums and not subject my nice birch/bubinga Starclassics to this is because of the schlepping. My stuff is being manhandled as we move around most of the day. This weekend my kit got thrown onto a golf cart for the trip to the field, then back to my car. We rolled it on a cart through a dirt parking lot while getting to the field where the sun beat down on it for a little over an hour. A couple of times on my Rock n roller cart, my bass drum just rolled off on to the ground. And I did drop my new 13" snare once (bent the rim only, but I may replace the rims with die cast ones on both my new 13" snares). The drums even survived being left in the cases, in the back of my open truck, parked in an open parking garage in San Francisco at my sisters place! I left Los Angeles in the heat and got to foggy/rainy San Francisco and the drums held up like champs! Upon unpacking today at home, they look like they've suffered no abuse. I love these things.
I'm told we'll have a rolling stage at the next shows so that'll save the gear a bit, but the environment is tough!
The pictures in order: the guys warming up outside: How small and lonely my kit looks on the field of that giant arena; A picture of me after I set up; a view from the drivers seat looking at our director; and the view looking up at the crowd from the driver's seat. It was a cool weekend. We do it again in another week!
So I wanted to share some pics of what I did this past weekend, and why I made such a big deal out of finding my used Tama Granstar Customs in LIPSTICK RED!
This year I'm the drummer for the Sacramento Freelancers Alumni drum & bugle corps, and what attracted me to them, was the fact they liked how I played, and they're good people - some of us have been acquaintances for a while now since we've all been involved in the drum corps activity for most of our lives. This is definitely not a project I'm making money on. They used to be a full blown drum corps, but some years ago went bankrupt and are now re-building. They have hopes that showing off their alumni like this, will attract people to the activity and perhaps in the future they can have a junior corps again (ages 14-21). They're even old skool in the fact that they're all playing the older two-valve bugles pitched in G, which I think are louder than what the kids are playing now. But it's fun being the lone kit player for about 30 horns. We're a work in progress, so I won't post any audio yet, but we got alot better overnight when we did the same show on Sunday. These pictures are from Saturday's performance for DCI West that took place on June 23rd at Stanford University.
It's funny how small my four-piece Granstar kit looks in perspective to everybody and everything around me. It seems so big in my practice room at home
But the reason I was so happy to find these drums and not subject my nice birch/bubinga Starclassics to this is because of the schlepping. My stuff is being manhandled as we move around most of the day. This weekend my kit got thrown onto a golf cart for the trip to the field, then back to my car. We rolled it on a cart through a dirt parking lot while getting to the field where the sun beat down on it for a little over an hour. A couple of times on my Rock n roller cart, my bass drum just rolled off on to the ground. And I did drop my new 13" snare once (bent the rim only, but I may replace the rims with die cast ones on both my new 13" snares). The drums even survived being left in the cases, in the back of my open truck, parked in an open parking garage in San Francisco at my sisters place! I left Los Angeles in the heat and got to foggy/rainy San Francisco and the drums held up like champs! Upon unpacking today at home, they look like they've suffered no abuse. I love these things.
I'm told we'll have a rolling stage at the next shows so that'll save the gear a bit, but the environment is tough!
The pictures in order: the guys warming up outside: How small and lonely my kit looks on the field of that giant arena; A picture of me after I set up; a view from the drivers seat looking at our director; and the view looking up at the crowd from the driver's seat. It was a cool weekend. We do it again in another week!