What's a piece of drum gear that you like the IDEA of having it, but you have reservations or simply no use for it?

PorkPieGuy

Platinum Member
I may have posted this question before, and if I have, forgive me and feel free to ignore.

Does anyone have any gear that like the idea of having it, but when you get right down to it, you have too many reservations or you simply don't have a use for it? I know I have a few.

1. I love the idea of having a Ludwig Vistalite kit. My reservations are volume (they are LOUD drums, and I play a lot of quiet-ish environments) and I question the durability of gigging with a Vista kit. I love the look of them, but I just don't know if they are practical for me right now.

2. I would also like to have different metal snares. I'd love to have a Supraphonic, one of those Ludwig Heirloom in steel, and maybe a Black Beauty and a Copper-phonic. I'm just afraid at how loud they would be. My little 13" Pork Pie Keller-shelled maple snare is way too lively for me to use, so I just stick with my 14 x 5.5 Pearl Masters. It's a terrific snare drum, and does what I need it to do. It would be nice to have some of these metal-based snares, but I just don't think they would work well in some of the venues I'm playing right now.

How about you? What's something you like the idea of having, but you know that you probably won't use it much or gig with it?
 
A Pearl Music City Custom solid-shell snare drum in 14"x5.0". They're handcrafted in Nashville. They're also a thousand dollars. They sound superb but not so much better than my Pearl Session Studio Select snare that the cost would be justified. Also, they're lovely works of art. I don't deem them practical for gigging and so on.
 
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An A&F kit.

I love the aesthetic - they sound great under studio conditions tuned super low and fat....but that's not a sound I really ever need.

A vistalite with drumlites in it would be super cool too if I liked how they sounded a little more.
 
My contribution to this thread would be my Gibraltar rack. I've used it in the past, but went to a much smaller kit with fewer cymbals thus negating the need for it. I haven't used it in over 12 years now.

But I hesitate to actually get rid of it. I feel like I'll use it again in the future but I can't imagine under which circumstances where it would see the light of day once more.

And the wife has put her foot down and told me NOT to sell it. Strange, right?
 
Double pedal - Loved the idea of being that blast beats player. Reality, there's only about three songs I like that move that fast, so no real use for them.
Fancy $$$$ pedals with adjustments for even your garage door - Reality, still intrigued by them, but I've consistently played better on the simplest pedals.
A big snare collection - Reality, I like my bronze and aluminum enough and they are different enough I can't seem to get into any others I bought, so stopped buying and stuck with the two.
A second and even third rack tom - Reality, I'm way too comfortable with my setup now to try and fit one in. This took time, but the ergonomics of 1U with ride over BD are just too comfortable.
A set of congas - Reality, not with arthritis setting in.

That's all I can think of at the moment!
 
There’s a ton of stuff, I’m a drummer after all , and most of us lust after gear and always in search of the perfect sound....

With that said the first thing that came to mind was a double bass pedal. I’ve never really had a need for it at all, it wouldn’t fit my style of playing but I think it would be fun to mess with but my practice time is valuable and there’s so many other things I could better direct my attention to. I actually did have a student who was a “ metal head” and I was able to help become a much better double bass player by using the Ted Reed Book and a right foot lead approach. In a few weeks he was pretty darn good ( better than me!) I guess I have the knowledge but would just need to put in the hours to get good at double bass drumming....
 
There’s a ton of stuff, I’m a drummer after all , and most of us lust after gear and always in search of the perfect sound....

With that said the first thing that came to mind was a double bass pedal. I’ve never really had a need for it at all, it wouldn’t fit my style of playing but I think it would be fun to mess with but my practice time is valuable and there’s so many other things I could better direct my attention to. I actually did have a student who was a “ metal head” and I was able to help become a much better double bass player by using the Ted Reed Book and a right foot lead approach. In a few weeks he was pretty darn good ( better than me!) I guess I have the knowledge but would just need to put in the hours to get good at double bass drumming....

I almost said this. I don't have a double pedal, I really have no practical use for one, if anything I'd just set it up on my practice pad and work on Stick Control, but since I don't ever play double bass, what's the point of that? But for a lot of people, its super useful.
 
China crashes
 
I'd love to find a way to put my roto-toms in place easily. Spacing those in is such a challenge. I'd like a set of chimes, same issue, how do i squeeze them into a bar band kit set up?

An electronic pad or two would be fun, for effects. In addition to the space issue, then there's the brain to situate, power, and feed to the mixer. And the issue of relying on the sound guy (when we use one) to have it at an appropriate level. More work for him. For bar band stuff, its just so much extra work for what I'd get out of it.
 
- Tama Bell Brass or some kind of Cast Bronze snare (Oriollo, Gretsch etc.). I just love how it sounds on recordings, but I know that a snare that's even louder than my Starphonic Bronze have no place on the smaller gigs I play, even though it's loud/heavy music. I can't see myself use all that money on a snare that I can play only on a select few occations, but I still desire one....

- I really like the sound and feel of darker cymbals, K Custom, HHX etc, but most of them are simply not going to cut through in my metal bands, and I know that I would probably end up hitting them way too hard to make them audible, and breaking them in a short time, if I were to get some.
 
A 3-sided Tama rack setup and just load it up with cymbals, toms and my SPD-SX.

And while I’m at it, I’d load the SPD with lotsa sounds and sequences that make my bandmates groove even better.
 
Arbiter Flats - I once had one of those because it showed up locally for a hundred bucks. Carrying your drums in your cymbal bag is great but they sounded like slapping a phone book with a wet towel - except for the snare which sounded like a jar of screws rolling down the stairs. Miced they were actually not so bad but the hardware was pretty flimsy.
flats.jpg
 
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