Recent content by alparrott

I've almost never used an actual matched pair of hi-hats. I've owned a 13" K/Z set, a pair of 16" crashes I used as hats, and currently own a series of 14" cymbals that I mix and match (including a 14" Sabian extra thin crash, two Zildjian Z-MACs in different weights, an A Custom top and an A...

Buy a small mixer or headphone amp and go in-ear. Anywhere you can hook up a monitor you can hook up in-ears.

On an emotional level, my Guru snare. On a practical level, my little red folding wagon for carting gear. On a musical level, the pittance it cost to download LiveBPM on my phone.

If it weren't for our church livestreaming services every Sunday I wouldn't be playing at all. On the plus side, I already had plexiglass all around me :ROFLMAO: We have a lot of kids homeschooling near us so no playing at home; no gigs; I haven't even set my own drums up in months. I have two...

Should make for a very dark and sloshy hat. I'd try it.

My formula is more in the tuning and playing than in the size. As lots of you old-timers know, I've had a few snares in the past five or six years, and currently I own a 5x14 Ludwig Standard aluminium, a 6.5x14 Ludwig Black Magic, and a 7x13 Guru walnut stave. I use a single-ply head...

PDP uses a 10.5 mm tom arm. You can get one here: https://www.guitarcenter.com/PDP-by-DW/105mm-Tom-Arm-Accessory-Clamp.gc

Mine was a Westwood. But there's dozens and dozens of these stencil brands that came from the same factories at about the same time.

I've also been using these for a few years and for $49 they're pretty unbeatable, especially with Comply foam tips. Buy a small mixer (I have a small Yamaha MG10C 10-channel mixer) for under $99 and you're there.

Back in my stupid younger prog days I used to play a huge drumset and mount it on a rack - just the thing for quick changeouts at the club 🤨 After one show, a friend offered to help me break down the kit and I told him to "disassemble the rack", meaning just pull the rack tubes apart. When I...

I let go of a 1960s vintage Ludwig Pioneer in blue deco when I was getting a divorce and deep in debt. I sold it to a music store for peanuts and they resold it for over $400 if I recall correctly.

Back to seriousness... I figured out a way to put one of those magnetic cell phone mounts in a piece of tubing. I can multi-clamp it to my hi-hat and stick my phone to it. Great for setlists, camera angles, liveBPM, etc. I also multi-clamp an 18" gooseneck directly to my kick spur in order to...

I have an A Zildjian 19" medium-thin crash I bought in 1988 that I still use for everything. It does well at all kinds of music and I use it extensively in my classic rock covers band.

I rotate between my Guru 7x13" walnut (I believe it's the last one made) and my Ludwig Black Magic 6.5x14". Both sound amazing and work for nearly anything I do.

I'm also down to three snares: My Guru 7x13" walnut, my Ludwig Black Magic 6.5x14", and my Ludwig Standard 5x14" aluminium. The Standard stays in its case the most now, as I find the other two do everything I want beautifully. I think I played it on a couple of jazz gigs last year and a...