Ludwig Breakbeats question

Bonzo_CR said:
I have gigged a Breakbeats kit several times with a rock band in small venues. I'm not a basher but it has held up just fine.
I was always struck with how good it sounded for such small sizes.
I do use a different snare, but otherwise it is stock apart from the kick heads (PS3 batter, Aquarian Regulator reso).
Here's a short video so you can see how it sounds:
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Ok, that does make me feel a little better about it.

Does anyone have issues with the floor tom being 13" besides the legs possibly being too short?
 
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roncadillac said:
Ok, that does make me feel a little better about it.

Does anyone have issues with the floor tom being 13" besides the legs possibly being too short?
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The 13" floor tom sounds pretty good all things considered. It especially sounds good tuned high with Ambassador coated heads.

But you can get a decent rumble out of it tuned low to medium. As with the entire kit, it doesn't project quite as much as larger kits do. But that's no surprise.
 
IBitePrettyHard said:
The 13" floor tom sounds pretty good all things considered. It especially sounds good tuned high with Ambassador coated heads.

But you can get a decent rumble out of it tuned low to medium. As with the entire kit, it doesn't project quite as much as larger kits do. But that's no surprise.
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I generally don't tune that low anyway so that isn't a concern. I just wasn't sure if a 13" felt weird but it doesn't seem like it bothers anyone.
 
roncadillac said:
I generally don't tune that low anyway so that isn't a concern. I just wasn't sure if a 13" felt weird but it doesn't seem like it bothers anyone.
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I dig the 13. It can be moved in closer than a 16. It helps add a tightness to the whole setup. There isn't really much twisting to reach the center of the drum.
 
MrInsanePolack said:
I dig the 13. It can be moved in closer than a 16. It helps add a tightness to the whole setup. There isn't really much twisting to reach the center of the drum.
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I play a 3 piece much more often then a 4 piece so this ease of access to the floortom is critical for me and why I've really dig 14s, sound like the 13 would do fine.
 
I often mix a band where the drummer has a breakbeats kit tuned low with pinstripes. It sounds awesome, like a deep rock kit, just softer. He uses small cymbals to match - can crash them hard without actually getting too loud. They play 70’s covers - Fleetwood Mac, Linda Ronstadt, etc. and the kit sounds perfect.
The drummer is one of the top professional drummers in my city. He has many kits, but gigs with the breakbeats in small to medium venues.
 
I use to gig my Sonos Safari for small venues-always got compliments. That little kick cuts through the music well. I put those Pearl air suspension foot mounts on tom legs to get more tone. Those breakbeats are a great learner kit for a newbie too.
 
I absolutely love my Breakbeats kit!! I initially bought the kit for ease of transport around the city. After a few gigs with it, I found that I really enjoyed playing it and began using it on almost all of my gigs. You can crank it up for jazz gigs and tune it low for rock stuff and it speaks well throughout the entire tuning spectrum. It is a surprisingly good sounding little kit!!

I've seen some of the comments about the riser that comes with it being sub-par, but to me that is a relatively cheap fix. I think I shopped around on Amazon and bought a few different ones before finding one that I thought was sturdy enough for gigging.
 
Small kits are so surprising to players for convenience , small footprint, and so darn fun to play, and the audience always surprised such a small kit sounds so good. Working on my double pedal the smaller kick sounds perfect- fast decay for lots of licks . Trying it on my 24 in kick doesn’t sound as clear and clicky.
 
If you're simply looking at the smaller sized kits, at least look at the PDP New Yorker. I've not played one, but I've read up on them and they get great reviews--big sound, sturdy, appears to be designed ergonomically by someone who plays drums.

I'm in the process of turning a FrankenTama kit into a bop with a 16" FT. I picked up a used Pearl Jungle jig assembly to use with it.
 
Old Dog new Cans said:
If you're simply looking at the smaller sized kits, at least look at the PDP New Yorker.
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+1. Having played both 16" and 18" bass drums ..... I gotta go with the 18". So much so, that I have two. A Yamaha 9000 series 18x14, and a RMV 18x16. So yeah, I'd look into the PDP New Yorker .... and also the Yamaha Stage Custom Bop kit (18, 12, 14).
 
harryconway said:
+1. Having played both 16" and 18" bass drums ..... I gotta go with the 18". So much so, that I have two. A Yamaha 9000 series 18x14, and a RMV 18x16. So yeah, I'd look into the PDP New Yorker .... and also the Yamaha Stage Custom Bop kit (18, 12, 14).
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Not that my little Gretsch kit isn't solid, but I in hindsight I think maybe I should have gotten the Yamaha, if for nothing else, I think that the accompanying hardware is probably a bit higher quality. I was torn between the birch and the mahogany of the Gretsch, although I doubt if the mahogany in the Gretsch is actually true mahogany - not at that price point. But the Yamaha is birch, which according to my reading meant that it was going have more of a mid-range punch. Whether or not that's truly the case is a matter for debate though - the Gretch got me where I was trying to go.
 
I've played most of them: Sonor Safari, Sonor Bop, Gretsch Catalina Jazz, Ludwig Breakbeats, the Tama one with 12/14/18.....by the time Pearl came out with the Midtown (I'm a Pearl artist), I just wasn't interested anymore. All of them are good. The best bass drum pedal mount was the one on the Safari though. That was solid and worked every time, and I could remove it like a floor tom leg for transport. The little drums are like go karts - they are fun, but you always turn to the adult-sized stuff sooner or later. So pick whichever one you like, and go for it - they'll all hold up to anything, and they'll all sound good if mic'ed up. Heck, Emmanuel Capplette (spelling?) uses a 16" bass drum.

But I'll give you this - I love using a 13/16/22 because I can literally use it for everything, and it can handle everything. Over time I discovered that I wasn't saving any more floor space by having the little drums, I was just saving on car space and being a lazy schlepper because the little drums weighed a little less (but my hardware was the same). So I would say, if you have light hardware, transporting little drums, as opposed to bigger drums (like a Charlie Watts four-piece) the difference is negligible. I was able to get an entire Gretsch Catalina in the trunk of my wife's Toyota Camry (I'd have to use the back seat if I carried the 13/16/22), and that was really cool if I had three other passengers to carry.

And the volume thing, that's really attributed to how good your technique is. It's nice playing soft on bigger drums because they still fill the bottom up when you play soft.
 
I don't gig with mine but the risor is just fine. Never had an issue ripping chops on it. It's loud and punchy. I can play super fast on it, and it sounds great in a PA. Being a 16 kick It really does excel in the jazz tuning but you can tune it pretty low. Is it going to sound like a 22/24? no. But with a mic you can add some low end pretty easy.

My biggest complaint is the VOLUME of the kick. Everything else is great, but when jamming with a loud band you need a mic. For solo playing, practice, recording, and mic'd gigs youd be fine. For jamming with a very loud band and no mics the kick gets lost a bit.

I don't think i'd use a double pedal on it often either due to the small kick but you could.
 
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