Ronnie Vannucci Jr from the Killers and his choice of Hats

SGT_Drummer

Senior Member
Below is an excerpt from a Modern Drummer interview with Ronnie Vannucci Jr from the Killers about his choice of hats on the "Day & Age" album.

Hot Drums & 22" Hi-Hats?
MD: Are we hearing your new Craviotto set on Day And Age?

Ronnie: Yes, it’s all Craviotto. I was hung up on vintage gear for a long time, and I had a ton of stuff in my garage. I used it all on Sam’s Town. At the end of the day I settled on Ludwig drums and various snare drums—Supra-Phonics, a 6 1/2x14 Leedy Black Elite, Radio Kings, and a Craviotto I had. But Day And Age is all Craviotto.

MD: Tell me about your fixation with huge hi-hats. You’re playing 18" hats on the new album!

Ronnie: I don’t like a glassy, thin hi-hat sound. I like a deep chick. Plus I like hi-hats with a little bit of body too.

MD: So 14" hi-hats sound too glassy?

Ronnie: Yeah, depending on the brand. For me 14" hats can sound too mousy. On Sam’s Town I used these great 1950s Zildjian 15" hi-hats. They sounded terrific by themselves, but by the time you miked them and put them on the track, the only way you heard them was if you turned up the highs. That’s another reason I didn’t want to record with a hi-hat mic. I wanted to be able to play balanced enough so I didn’t have to use a lot of moving faders and EQ.

On Sam’s Town I used my mouth to overdub the “chick, chick, chick, chick, swoosh” over the hi-hats on some songs. You can hear it on the title track and on “For Reasons Unknown.” Live, I wanted to get a different hi-hat sound, so on the first gig for Sam’s Town I had an old 18" A Zildjian ride from the ’40s and a K Constantinople crash that I put together for a pair of hi-hats. That was the winning combination. And there was one track where I used two 22" K Constantinople rides, one high and one low, for the hi-hats.





Which leads to my question... 22" HI-HATS!!!!?!?!?!?!?!? does anyone know of anyone else who uses 22" hats? i'd never even fathomed hats that huge.

i wish he would have mentioned which track he used those on so i could pick them out.
 
those are huge hihats!. In the school band we have a 17" concert hihat thats not too bad. but 22"! theres gotta be a point where it starts to sound terrible
 
go Ronnie!

that's awsome doing something like that and they sound great on the couple new songs i have heard, myself, i think the minute we stop trying to be creative (outright crazy at times) is the minute we stop being musicians...

22" hats? wonderful idea!
 
I have a couple of 18" vintage A cymbals that I use as crashes, concert crash cymbals, and high hats. Larger hats sound wonderful when you can justify the sound with the music, and when you can find a high hat stand with the spring power to be responsive with that much weight.

When I read this article, I tried out my larger crashes and rides as hat pairs. I didn't come up with any gems, but it was fun to try out. 18" seems to be about at big as I want to get, if just for placement reasons.
 
SGT, I'm trying to figure out your signature. I don't know if you've divulged the secret elsewhere, but I think I've figured some of it out. I don't know about the last three words, though...

"IDHAGSIAMOUOTS - President"

...is it, "I don't have a group so I am making one up on this signature" ???
 
Thomas Pridgen usually ues 18's these days, but I've heard on a couple of gigs with The Mars Volta he has experimented with 20s and 22s
 
SGT, I'm trying to figure out your signature. I don't know if you've divulged the secret elsewhere, but I think I've figured some of it out. I don't know about the last three words, though...

"IDHAGSIAMOUOTS - President"

...is it, "I don't have a group so I am making one up on this signature" ???

HAHA, you almost got it... should I tell.... hrmm... on the spot lol.
 
Thomas Pridgen usually ues 18's these days, but I've heard on a couple of gigs with The Mars Volta he has experimented with 20s and 22s

i actually have a pretty funny story about ol' Thomas Pridgen. I was a HUGE TMV fan back in the day. Then as their music got more trippy than actually musicy I started to fall away, then I found out Jon Theodore was fired and I stopped liking them completely. SO a couple of months ago I started watching some religious drummers like Aaron Spears, Thomas Pridgen, Gerald Heywar, etc. and I honestly did not like Mr. Pridgen's playing that music. It seemed very generic and repetitive to me. So I decide to look up some TMV vids on you tube about 3 days ago, and there was on of them on the Letterman show. I was kinda curious who the drummer would be and then BAM! there's Thomas Pridgen. I was taken back, literally. But I listened to the whole song and was amazed at some of the stuff he was pulling off. So now I'm a Thomas Pridgen fan lol. He is definitely a worthy replacement of Jon Theodore.
 
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