Drum Hacking...
The other day I took one of my RIMS mounts and mounted it onto my Remo Ashiko Drum (actually I think it's a 12" Djembe) anyway, it's one of my hand drums and I don't use it a bunch because I don't have a stand for it, so instead of buying another monstrous Djembe stand that takes up a lot of room, I thought I'd put this RIMS mount on it. So the actual RIMS doesn't go around the drum, so I just took out my drill and decided I'd drill into my drum. Now I'm able to mount my Ashiko off of a cymbal stand with a tom mount and I'll be more likely to use it in my drum set configurations, either as part of my constantly morphing Emmaus Way setup or as a percussion element to my recording and live drum setups...
My other hack was with this Oriental Tom (the heads are tacked on) that I received from my first drum teacher when he passed away. This thing has calf heads, and has a real dry sound...not real great with sticks, and marginally okay with brushes or blasticks...I was looking through my stack of drums and saw my never used "Laptop" drum (a single pre-tuned head with a Rhythm Tech "Active" Snare screwed on the bottom. Yesterday, I took the snare off, and experimented with putting it on my Oriental Tom and ended up using bungee cords to fasten it onto the drum, then I added a part of a broken head that had tambourine jingles affixed to it (wedging it between the bungee cords beneath the drum) and now I have a cool sounding snare drum/ tom type thingy...I still need to tweak the the bungee cord setup, but I think it'll work. I'll probably try the drum out on Sunday when I play at Emmaus Way (with Jeff Crawford this week!).
And finally my last hack that happened a few months ago...I got my Remo PTS student snare back from Perry (the Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers) when he moved to Raleigh, and frankly that thing just sounds awful. So, I went to work on it. Eventually settling on wedging a snare beneath the top head, with a towel deadening the head and helping keep the snare tight against the top head. Then, to add some extra sonic goodness, I put a cheap 10" plastic tambourine inside the drum, and it just sits loosely inside. So now the drum has a great "beat box snare" sound, with a little bit of jingle depending on how hard you hit it. It will make a great side snare, or loop drum. Plus it sounds good with sticks, so I'll be able to use it on gigs where I hit a little harder than normal. I doubt it will ever be used as a "main" snare, but as a second snare, it sounds pretty cool. Just a bit louder than my Remo PTS Toy Drum that got a similar treatment.
I hope to get some pics posted...but don't hold your breath it might be a while...
dale
--
Dale Baker
919-402-8048
In lieu of my "Facebook" profile:
www.dalebakerdrummer.com
My other hack was with this Oriental Tom (the heads are tacked on) that I received from my first drum teacher when he passed away. This thing has calf heads, and has a real dry sound...not real great with sticks, and marginally okay with brushes or blasticks...I was looking through my stack of drums and saw my never used "Laptop" drum (a single pre-tuned head with a Rhythm Tech "Active" Snare screwed on the bottom. Yesterday, I took the snare off, and experimented with putting it on my Oriental Tom and ended up using bungee cords to fasten it onto the drum, then I added a part of a broken head that had tambourine jingles affixed to it (wedging it between the bungee cords beneath the drum) and now I have a cool sounding snare drum/ tom type thingy...I still need to tweak the the bungee cord setup, but I think it'll work. I'll probably try the drum out on Sunday when I play at Emmaus Way (with Jeff Crawford this week!).
And finally my last hack that happened a few months ago...I got my Remo PTS student snare back from Perry (the Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers) when he moved to Raleigh, and frankly that thing just sounds awful. So, I went to work on it. Eventually settling on wedging a snare beneath the top head, with a towel deadening the head and helping keep the snare tight against the top head. Then, to add some extra sonic goodness, I put a cheap 10" plastic tambourine inside the drum, and it just sits loosely inside. So now the drum has a great "beat box snare" sound, with a little bit of jingle depending on how hard you hit it. It will make a great side snare, or loop drum. Plus it sounds good with sticks, so I'll be able to use it on gigs where I hit a little harder than normal. I doubt it will ever be used as a "main" snare, but as a second snare, it sounds pretty cool. Just a bit louder than my Remo PTS Toy Drum that got a similar treatment.
I hope to get some pics posted...but don't hold your breath it might be a while...
dale
--
Dale Baker
919-402-8048
In lieu of my "Facebook" profile:
www.dalebakerdrummer.com
