Big kit envy

Groov-E

Silver Member
Hi guys !

You guys ever get big kit envy ?

I play 1 up 1 down, often 1 up 2 down.

I feel I get everything I need from my setup, as I groove more with kick snare and hats/ride than the rest and hats/ride placement is my priority.

An added bonus and secondary consideration is that is keeps costs "relatively" low.

I worked somewhat hard on getting my instruments melodically intertwined, but I sometimes get the feeling a long 32nd not fill simply going down on a 8-10-12-13-14-16 setup with some easy double bass sauce would get the girls going more than throwing myself down a 16th note triplet fill stairway or single pedal 32nd note working with what I have.

Anybody else gets that feeling ?
 
Never for me too. Big kits , larger than 2 or 3 toms, don't attract me whatsoever, if anything the opposite, especially aesthetically.
 
I have enough drums to go either way, but I just set my big kit up as a small 4-piece and I must say it just feels better to me, and I focus on what I'm supposed to be doing more. So I have all sizes, but I'm digging the 26/15/18 set-up.
 
For the sheer novelty factor, hell yeah.

I've definitely looked at some of the larger set ups over the years and thought they'd be a hell of a lot of fun to play. It'd be something completely different than my usual one up, one or two down for me too.

I'd have to draw a line at the Bozzio kit though. I genuinely wouldn't know what to do with that many things to hit.
 
For the sheer novelty factor, hell yeah.

I've definitely looked at some of the larger set ups over the years and thought they'd be a hell of a lot of fun to play. It'd be something completely different than my usual one up, one or two down for me too.

I'd have to draw a line at the Bozzio kit though. I genuinely wouldn't know what to do with that many things to hit.

DW had one of his kits set up at NAMM a couple of years back and literally the crowd was in a love-hate relationship with it. It's awesome for what it is, but then you think, "that guy must have a lot of time on his hands...."
 
I have enough to go three up two down but prefer 2 up 1 down.
 
Not at all. I'm thinking back to the Tama kits of the late 70's, early 80's, where they had six to eight running toms, two floor, double bass, nah. Biggest kit I owned consisted of four running toms and a floor, and that was plenty big by my standards, even today.
 
I have enough drums to go either way, but I just set my big kit up as a small 4-piece and I must say it just feels better to me, and I focus on what I'm supposed to be doing more. So I have all sizes, but I'm digging the 26/15/18 set-up.

Taken in another way, you have more wood in those three drums than most drummers using a 6 piece kit!

For the sheer novelty factor, hell yeah.

I've definitely looked at some of the larger set ups over the years and thought they'd be a hell of a lot of fun to play. It'd be something completely different than my usual one up, one or two down for me too.

I'd have to draw a line at the Bozzio kit though. I genuinely wouldn't know what to do with that many things to hit.

Hell yeah indeed! As for Bozzio, too much of a good thing can have the opposite effect for my taste. Great drummer, but I would be overwhelmed.

Biggest kit I owned consisted of four running toms and a floor, and that was plenty big by my standards, even today.
.

Well to me that's a big kit, like an Omar Hakim or Carter Beauford setup, give or take a tom or two.

The real first-world problem with 1 up 1 down is that when you want so scratch that big kit itch, you have no alternative, whereas Bo simply puts up a couple more power toms.

I tell ya, the struggle is real.

;-)
 
Unless you are a prog rock drummer, you dont really need more than a 5 piece kit. My Catalina kit is a 7 piece, but I can get by with a 5 piece for anything but Dream Theater type stuff.

The above is why I ever end up setting my extra toms up. I'm still mostly 1 up 2 down, but commonly 2 up 2 down. My 8" rack tom doesn't get mounted that often anymore, but if it does, it goes left of the hats. I have no problem playing it in that position, but usually have to move the 2nd snare. I used to just leave my kit as a 3 up 2 down, but really like my ride over the bass for other genres. I guess I just need more kits like others on this forum. I'd really like to get a high end kit, so if I can just live with a smaller kit, I'll save myself a ton of cash and the constant annoyance of keeping that many toms in tune.
 
Biggest kit I owned consisted of four running toms and a floor, and that was plenty big by my standards, even today.

Well to me that's a big kit, like an Omar Hakim or Carter Beauford setup, give or take a tom or two.
It was a big kit. I'm in the final planning stages of a new kit and am at a crossroads as far as running toms go. I'm not crazy about ordering my kit with just two running toms, and three running toms doesn't agree with me at all, so I feel committed to go with four running toms again, but this time around I want two floor toms. Add in the fact I'm going with a double bass setup this time around, and the kit is suddenly, BIG.
 
It was a big kit. I'm in the final planning stages of a new kit and am at a crossroads as far as running toms go. I'm not crazy about ordering my kit with just two running toms, and three running toms doesn't agree with me at all, so I feel committed to go with four running toms again, but this time around I want two floor toms. Add in the fact I'm going with a double bass setup this time around, and the kit is suddenly, BIG.

Wow! May I ask which kits you are comtemplating ?
 
I had a couple of big kits early on, but after the novelty wore off, I would invariably end up with 3 toms stacked in the corner of my drum room and I would go back to 1 up, 1 down.

15 years ago, when I was gigging a lot, people used to say to me all the time, "Man, you make that kit sound a lot bigger than it really is." I never got tired of hearing that.
 
My kit is 2 up 1 down and 3 cymbals.. My thought on it has always been that when i master this setup ill add something else.. til then it just seems silly unless i need a specific sound..
 
Unless you are a prog rock drummer, you dont really need more than a 5 piece kit. My Catalina kit is a 7 piece, but I can get by with a 5 piece for anything but Dream Theater type stuff.

I don't think Ed Shaughnessy and Louie Bellson would consider themselves Prog Rock drummers, but what the hey ;)
 
Wow! May I ask which kits you are comtemplating ?
Hey, GE. I have it whittled-down to a DW Collector's Series Exotic. I've wanted a high-end kit my entire drumming life, forty plus years. Having always owned cheap used kits, with cheap hardware, mismatched drums, the cheapest quality of pedals, and colours I loathed, I have decided the time has come where I spoiled myself.
 
Taken in another way, you have more wood in those three drums than most drummers using a 6 piece kit!

;-)

But more wood in less drums is always cool. And looking at this kit the way it is now, it's not much of a struggle. It's really comfortable - it's true that 95% of my playing only involves the snare, bass, and hi-hat. But I do like having the option to turn this into a behemoth kit with 6+ toms, it's novel, and a cool way to get attention. However, when I do play it as the behemoth kit, everyone forgets that I'm only playing three drums most of the time ;)
 

Attachments

  • 4-piece-front.jpg
    4-piece-front.jpg
    70.3 KB · Views: 390
  • 4-piece-rear.jpg
    4-piece-rear.jpg
    70.6 KB · Views: 396
Back
Top