JimmyM
Diamond Member
A little background...I'm 60, very recently separated and of course not doing well on money at the moment partially due to a heart condition that resulted in two stents and 3 months off my day job that's supposed to pay me temp disability but so far I haven't been able to collect. Have made money playing music since I was 16 on bass, guitar, and vocals, and spent over 20 years doing major 50's-60's-70's shows with original artists of their days on bass and background vocals. I took a day job during Covid, but it didn't work out, and I'm going back to playing music full time and already have a handful of prospects. But my first instrument was the drums, starting when I was 6, and I got pretty good for a kid but haven't played regularly since my teens, and my wife couldn't take the sound of drums so I never pursued putting together a cheap drum set to get my chops built back to some degree. Doing it now, though! I live in a small, 70-year-old house that my grandparents originally bought as a retirement house all to myself. Requires some maintenance and a major deep cleaning top to bottom, but it's solid, locks properly, and I can do a lot of the stuff myself.
Anyway, enough about me...so I'm not starting from scratch, but it's quite humble except for the snare. The two toms and kick are CB700's from the 70's, and the bottom heads are missing on all of them, which is fine by me...they fell out of favor but I like no bottom heads and a lot of fantastic drum tracks have been cut with bottom heads off. The snare is a Ludwig 8-lug 6 1/2" by 14" wood model from the 50;s originally done in black/gold Duco, but I unwisely stripped it to bare wood when I was 12 (what did I know?). Fortunately, it still sounds great, and clearly it's the only thing that classes up this humble beginning of a practice kit.
What I don't have are any cymbals, stands of any kind, or a bass drum pedal. A few days ago a longtime pro drummer friend in the area told me that he had a Tama single kick pedal or a DW5000 double pedal without beaters, both otherwise in fine working condition, and his wife had been wanting him to clear them out but he didn't want to hassle with selling them. I never used a double pedal kick or played on a two-kick kit except briefly, so I graciously accepted the Tama.
So I'm making arrangements to pick it up tomorrow, and he tells me that the he supposes he'll just take the double pedal to Goodwill and be done with it. So I'm like, "If that's all you plan to do with it, you can think of me as your own personal Goodwill who picks up your donations for you!" And he said OK!
So now I'm getting the Tama single pedal, AND the DW5000 double kick pedal tomorrow! Beaters? Hey, even I can afford beaters...in felt and wood Very fortunate to have a friend like that, and just wanted to let everyone in Drummerworld know how lucky I got to move another big step closer to the finish line!
Anyway, enough about me...so I'm not starting from scratch, but it's quite humble except for the snare. The two toms and kick are CB700's from the 70's, and the bottom heads are missing on all of them, which is fine by me...they fell out of favor but I like no bottom heads and a lot of fantastic drum tracks have been cut with bottom heads off. The snare is a Ludwig 8-lug 6 1/2" by 14" wood model from the 50;s originally done in black/gold Duco, but I unwisely stripped it to bare wood when I was 12 (what did I know?). Fortunately, it still sounds great, and clearly it's the only thing that classes up this humble beginning of a practice kit.
What I don't have are any cymbals, stands of any kind, or a bass drum pedal. A few days ago a longtime pro drummer friend in the area told me that he had a Tama single kick pedal or a DW5000 double pedal without beaters, both otherwise in fine working condition, and his wife had been wanting him to clear them out but he didn't want to hassle with selling them. I never used a double pedal kick or played on a two-kick kit except briefly, so I graciously accepted the Tama.
So I'm making arrangements to pick it up tomorrow, and he tells me that the he supposes he'll just take the double pedal to Goodwill and be done with it. So I'm like, "If that's all you plan to do with it, you can think of me as your own personal Goodwill who picks up your donations for you!" And he said OK!
So now I'm getting the Tama single pedal, AND the DW5000 double kick pedal tomorrow! Beaters? Hey, even I can afford beaters...in felt and wood Very fortunate to have a friend like that, and just wanted to let everyone in Drummerworld know how lucky I got to move another big step closer to the finish line!