How many Drums in your Favorite Kit? How many Cymbals with that Kit?

Drumdame

Drumdame

Silver Member
It would be interesting to hear how many drums in your favorite kit you own? and how many cymbals are you playing with that kit?

For me... I play a 5 piece drum kit that's including the snare and 5 cymbals plus hats.

The reason why I started this thread was when I saw my brother last I had asked him how many drums were in his kit and how many cymbals did he play with that kit. He actually said it was a 10-piece drum kit with 22 cymbals.

I'm not sure that I would know what to do with all of that.
 
Most commonly I play a standard four-piece kit (one up, one down) for gigs. I carry three cymbal stands but sometimes mount two splashes upside down on them, so either three or five cymbals.

At home I add a fourth cymbal stand so it's something like this.

Screen Shot 2024-02-15 at 6.49.19 PM.png
 
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22" bass drum, 14" snare, 10/12" rack toms, 15/18" floor toms, 10" aux snare - so 7 drums altogether.

15" hi-hats (I'll count this as 1), 21" ride, 17/18" crashes, 18" efx crash, 16" fx-hats (I'll also count this as 1), 18" China, 6" splash, 10" trashformer - so 9 cymbals altogether.

Also, bonus round for my kit - triggers! I have a Roland SPD-SX sample pad (9 pads), BT-1 Bar Pads (x2), KT-10 Kick Trigger Pedals (x2) - so 13 triggers altogether.

I like to consider this setup the drum kit equivalent of a "workstation" type keyboard, where it can cover just about any style I want, which I love. For me, versatility is key and I've spent years fine tuning my setup to work for wide a range of styles as possible.
 
I would imagine most drummers "equip themselves" for the volume demands and range they want to be or most often find themselves in
(or dream aspire to be in..)
I mean no one wants to carry more than they have to nor carry less than they need..
 
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Drumdame said:
It would be interesting to hear how many drums in your favorite kit you own? and how many cymbals are you playing with that kit?

For me... I play a 5 piece drum kit that's including the snare and 5 cymbals plus hats.

The reason why I started this thread was when I saw my brother last I had asked him how many drums were in his kit and how many cymbals did he play with that kit. He actually said it was a 10-piece drum kit with 22 cymbals.

I'm not sure that I would know what to do with all of that.
Click to expand...
The kit in my avatar has 5 toms one bass drum, one snare and 11 cymbals, I have more cymbals but ran out of rack space. Then I pretty much did the same setup with my electronic kit. I also have more pads and more cymbals but same deal ran out of rack space. but I would just gig with a 5 piece for both unless I was going to be there for more than one day for example playing Thursday, Friday and Saturday.. that and if the stage space allows. The biggest kit I played on stage was my very first gig where I combined my friends kit with mine (both black) so I had double bass, 6 toms, two snares and ten cymbals. It looked really bad ass and got a lot of attention.
 
I travel light. Four piece Yamaha Live Custom: 22x14, 12x8, 14x13 floor tom and 14x6 T.L. custom cherry snare drum. Four cymbals: 3 x ride/crash varying in size from 18-22" and 20" Chinese cymbal. Sometimes I leave the Chinese at home and mount a splash or Chinese splash upside down on top of a crash cymbal.
 
jda said:
I would imagine most drummers "equip themselves" for the volume demands and range they want to be or most often find themselves in
(or dream aspire to be in..)
I mean no one wants to carry more than they have to nor carry less than they need..
Click to expand...
How many drums and how many cymbals?
 
me? 4 or 5 drums 3, 4 or 5 cymbals
I already post in post #3
4 drums 4 cymbals ?
Two 60s sets with color variant Aqua and Red with floor tom variant 20 12 14 and 20 12 16 and I have a 1 newer 5 pc 18 10 12 14
 
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jda said:
me? 4 or 5 drums 3, 4 or 5 cymbals
I already post in post #3
4 drums 4 cymbals ?
Click to expand...
Sorry about that drum buddy, I didn't realize that was you at the top of the page.

Sometimes I only look at the pictures and read the write-ups without looking at the names.
 
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Two bassdrums, 4 toms (one floortom), one snare. Two crashes, Hats, Ride, China, and a small mini china over the toms. Had this setup for quite a while, might add on to it with a third crash or another small efx cymbal over the toms, but otherwise it's my favorite. I can do a show with less of course, but nothing smaller than a 5 piece (one bassdrum, 3 toms)with two crashes, Hats, Ride and China.

If a backline kit provided is only a 4 piece, hopefully I already know in advance and I bring my own kit (or just toms on a stand). If not I might have a small seizure 😂.
 
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Toms are two up, one down, and kick and snare. Four cymbals: hats, two crashes and ride. However, I'm beginning to really like the four drum one up one down set up with hats, crash and ride for gig portability
 
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My current setup in my home studio to cover a variety of song types is 1 up 1 down with a side snare but I have 8 cymbals up.....however 3 of which are splashes from 6" to 12", 2 primary crashes a ride and a china......
 
famous Bostonian likely at Lennys-on-the- Turnpike in the 60s
Alan Dawson 4 pc with 4 cymbals

gretsch dawson.jpg

rare Getty picture of Jim Keltner
either on his or someone else's set @John DeChristopher could ask him about this particular picture when and where etc

Gretsch Keltner.jpg
 
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