Gear you could afford but never owned

I don't want a pickle
Just want a motorcycle

I had to edit and delete part cause I answered the wrong question.
 
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+1 Steel drums....now that is a cool idea

Ever since I heard Othello Molineaux play with the Jaco Pastorius big band, and then Andy Narell's stuff (along with a lot of touristy Jamaican steel band albums), I've always wanted to give it a try. A high-end polished tenor pan is a thing of beauty when you see the craft that goes into making them. One day....
 
Ever since I heard Othello Molineaux play with the Jaco Pastorius big band, and then Andy Narell's stuff (along with a lot of touristy Jamaican steel band albums), I've always wanted to give it a try. A high-end polished tenor pan is a thing of beauty when you see the craft that goes into making them. One day....

I asked some folks in the drum corps back in the day why they never used them in competition.
It turns out they are hard to keep tuned and require a great deal of maintenance.

Speaking of Andy ,I knew his drummer Paul van Wageningen.
Died in 2012 from a brain tumor.
Only in his late 50's.

I played with his brother(Marc,who was hit by a train along with Dave Garabaldi about a year ago).

Life ,what a trip.
 
I asked some folks in the drum corps back in the day why they never used them in competition.
It turns out they are hard to keep tuned and require a great deal of maintenance.

Speaking of Andy ,I knew his drummer Paul van Wageningen.
Died in 2012 from a brain tumor.
Only in his late 50's.

I played with his brother(Marc,who was hit by a train along with Dave Garabaldi about a year ago).

Life ,what a trip.

I did not know that about Paul. He played great on those Andy albums!

We had a Jamaican steel band that played at Disneyland a long time and I hung with them for a bit (none spoke real good English), and they carried small ball peen hammers to tune their drums. It was a daily task.
 
I did not know that about Paul. He played great on those Andy albums!

We had a Jamaican steel band that played at Disneyland a long time and I hung with them for a bit (none spoke real good English), and they carried small ball peen hammers to tune their drums. It was a daily task.

The steel bands I've seen played literally all day long, so it isn't surprising that they would need relatively frequent tuning. The steel band in Antigua setup and played outside the ship the entire time it was docked. I don't think they took a break. I've seen some at other festivals, and they kept up the beat all day, no breaks between songs, they would sort of rotate a little, but for the most part they played continuously.
 
Actual drums.
I only have an e kit.
But I don't think its worth getting real drums in this apartment.

First things I bought were e-kit, sticks, headphones, double pedal, throne, and book. Practice pad was given to me. That's still all I have a year later.

Here's what I actually need but have been too lazy to buy so far:
Amp (so far I play for myself at home)
Music stand (I've been stacking my pedal case on a chair and using it as a stand)

I would like a cajon and bongos. For park days mostly.
 
Ever since I heard Othello Molineaux play with the Jaco Pastorius big band, and then Andy Narell's stuff (along with a lot of touristy Jamaican steel band albums), I've always wanted to give it a try. A high-end polished tenor pan is a thing of beauty when you see the craft that goes into making them. One day....

Ah, so there is some jazz stuff with steel drums...I gotta check that. My buddy had a steel drum, I cant imagine how they make the little patches which are tuned to notes. Heck, this could be a whole other thread. Beautiful metallic bright tone, now Im gona listen to some.

already found so much great stuff....new obsession found!!
 
A Trick double pedal. I'd bee searching for one for a while after having the use of one for a whole week. Loved its versatility & when I found one in good condition at the price I had the cash for, I didn't pull the trigger.

So I guess you could call this a missed opportunity, but later on, I found a DW5k double for half the price and actually liked it better. Probably because I'd been using the single version of that for a long time so the familiarity was on point.
 
A double pedal, Trick or non Trick :)

Just not my thing I guess.
 
Re: Steel Drums

Sorry to thread-jack but I've got to correct everybody calling them "Jamaican": they actually originate from Trinidad & Tobago, although they have since been co-opted all over the Caribbean to varying degrees. But don't be fooled by the plinky novelty things that are sold to cruise ship tourists; in T&T they take steelpan very seriously and indeed there are over a hundred steel orchestras in that country alone, each comprised of different voices roughly analogous to the string orchestra: from the single tenor pan with its 32 notes which can be equated to the violin, down to the bass pan which can be anywhere from 4 to 12 full-length barrels of 3 notes each. And then there is the rhythm section: drum set (sometimes two!), timbales, congas, cowbells, tambourines, scratchers (like a Dominican guira), and iron (brake drums), all beating out a dense polyrhythm.

In Trinidad as well as other places across the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora where Carnival is celebrated, there are competitions called "panorama" where steel orchestras up to 120 players perform intricate 8-to-10 minute arrangements of local popular songs (calypso, soca). It's vaguely similar to drum corps, to put it in more familiar terms.

To get an idea of what a 120-person competition steel orchestra sounds like, enjoy this piece which was composed and arranged by a prodigy of the instrument and a fantastic jazz player in his own right, Len Boogsie Sharpe. Fun fact: the drum set player here is Richard Bailey, who drummed on Jeff Beck's "Blow by Blow" and "Wired"!

Anyway, sorry to get pedantic but I'm deeply involved in steelpan (imagine drumming and driving an orchestra of over a hundred of these!) so I love telling people what it's really about. And part of that is making sure folks know they aren't "Jamaican steel drums". Trinidadians are very proud of the instrument... and with good reason!
 
Re: Steel Drums

Sorry to thread-jack but I've got to correct everybody calling them "Jamaican": they actually originate from Trinidad & Tobago, although they have since been co-opted all over the Caribbean to varying degrees. But don't be fooled by the plinky novelty things that are sold to cruise ship tourists; in T&T they take steelpan very seriously and indeed there are over a hundred steel orchestras in that country alone, each comprised of different voices roughly analogous to the string orchestra: from the single tenor pan with its 32 notes which can be equated to the violin, down to the bass pan which can be anywhere from 4 to 12 full-length barrels of 3 notes each. And then there is the rhythm section: drum set (sometimes two!), timbales, congas, cowbells, tambourines, scratchers (like a Dominican guira), and iron (brake drums), all beating out a dense polyrhythm.

In Trinidad as well as other places across the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora where Carnival is celebrated, there are competitions called "panorama" where steel orchestras up to 120 players perform intricate 8-to-10 minute arrangements of local popular songs (calypso, soca). It's vaguely similar to drum corps, to put it in more familiar terms.

To get an idea of what a 120-person competition steel orchestra sounds like, enjoy this piece which was composed and arranged by a prodigy of the instrument and a fantastic jazz player in his own right, Len Boogsie Sharpe. Fun fact: the drum set player here is Richard Bailey, who drummed on Jeff Beck's "Blow by Blow" and "Wired"!

Anyway, sorry to get pedantic but I'm deeply involved in steelpan (imagine drumming and driving an orchestra of over a hundred of these!) so I love telling people what it's really about. And part of that is making sure folks know they aren't "Jamaican steel drums". Trinidadians are very proud of the instrument... and with good reason!

Thanks for the great info Mustion!! Fabulous! Oh and its my cousin Len :) We call him L-Boogsie jk oc
 
Re: Steel Drums
To get an idea of what a 120-person competition steel orchestra sounds like, enjoy this piece which was composed and arranged by a prodigy of the instrument and a fantastic jazz player in his own right, Len Boogsie Sharpe. Fun fact: the drum set player here is Richard Bailey, who drummed on Jeff Beck's "Blow by Blow" and "Wired"!

Holy crap on a cracker talk about the unexpected. That was fairly amazing sounding. Hard to believe that it's all percussion there. Right on and a big thanks for that.
 
Holy crap on a cracker talk about the unexpected. That was fairly amazing sounding. Hard to believe that it's all percussion there. Right on and a big thanks for that.

And imagine, all of that music is taught by rote. No sheet music distributed, but instead the notes and rhythms are called out section by section. It's unreal.

Here's a video of what a band like this looks like, from the inside at least. While this is a smaller-sized orchestra and it's in Toronto and not Trinidad, it is noteworthy for this particular crowd because of who the drummer is... the one and only Larnell Lewis.
 
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Paiste 2002 20" Novo china. Always wanted one, but i have a couple of Zildjian chinas that do the job nicey and i feel that i don't need to buy another cymbal. Drums is something else though ;)

Anyway, i can pretty much afford what i want, but i don't need it, so i don't buy it. Doesn't mean i don't want it :p
 
China cymbal

I like them and I'd like to have the choice/extra voice for certain accents but I have a feeling it wouldn't get used much, plus it would be another cymbal to take to a gig where I only hit it maybe a handful of times in a set.

Plus gig-wise I'd need to sacrifice one of my two Crash cymbals as most venues I play have two cymbals stands, three if you're lucky.

Maybe one day I'll get one but I'm not rushing to add one to my setup.
 
A black beauty.
A doo-rag and balloon pants.
 
- A high-end Sonor kit. Have had several of their lower lines, Force 3xxx etc. One time I asked to switch my order from a Tama SC Performer kit with a Sonor Delite, unfortunately the Tama kit was already shipped and as I got them I didn't want to go to the trouble of changing them. Several years later, I had a Sonor Prolite on order, but decided to change it with a Mapex Black Panther Black Widow kit as I had to wait too long for them to ship it with my extra ordered floortom, the Mapex was already a 6 piece setup in stock. Still really regret that choice, as I sold the Mapex one year later on, think I would have kept the Prolites. And that was just before they upped the prices quite significantly on them as well... :(

- Ludwig Black Beauty or Supra Hammered Bronze. Could afford them both earlier. I know they are highly regarded, but every time I got the chance to try/borrow one, the hardware didn't stand up to my standards of high energy/heavy playing, quickly detuning rods etc. Maybe I've been unlucky, but never had that problem on more expensive Tama or Pearl snares, so can't really say I see the big magic about them. Sound good, yes, but so do so many other snares as well.
 
A purpose-made drum rug. I have re-purposed many 6x4 rugs that got the job done for far less. And the one time I did use one, I realized it was little more than one of those grey U-Haul packing blankets with a 2x4 sewn into one edge, hardly a rug. And those go for $50+...
 
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