Big Drum sizes Bonham style. Is it a fad or here to stay?

  • Thread starter Thread starter capnkid
  • Start date Start date
capnkid

capnkid

Optimus Prime
I wonder if will get like this for kids trying to get into a band..... "Dude if you don't have the 26" Kick and the independent 14" mounted tom and the two floor toms you can't be in our band." "You're awesome, But your drums don't cut it." "We gotta have the look."
 
Well, larger drums have acertain sound that you're not going to get out of smaller drums, and smaller drums have a certain sound you're not going to get out of a larger drum.

I've tried both. I feel more comfortable playing larger drums - I feel funny sitting behind a 22" Kick drum... it feels like a little kid's drum to me. I played a pair of 20" Kicks for about 3 or 4 years, and then moved to 24" Kicks around 1985. I used 24" kicks until 1997, when I made the jump to 28" kicks. I suspect I'll be moving to 32" Kicks any day now if I follow my past trend. LOL


If you're looking for a kit for general recording purposes - you would definitely want to go with smaller sized drums.

There are drawbacks to using large sized drums - for one thing, stages in clubs have shrunk to virtually the size of a drumrise of the 80's.


Tim
 
I like 24" kicks... but I have 22", and they serve me well. But I'll still search for them (natural maple finish only) on eBay. As for toms... 12", 13", 14", 16", 18". When I get better, I'm gonna try to find 8" and 10" toms.
 
it matters on the music. I would love to get a big 26" kick. For some music, it just changes the feel. I love big toms, but i love little toms. My kit is 10,13,16,18,22 and i love having the big spread in toms. I tune the 10 high and the 18 low. Its great. For some of the classic/hard rock stuff (Zeppelin, Gov't Mule,...), big kicks rock. But I ordered it cause i also love the sound of a 22 and LOVE the sound of a 22 in the studio!
 
i think that really, it's going to depend on what fits the song and style of music. i wouldn't want to try to play heavy rock with a fusion kit.....and a bonzo vistalite kit just wouldn't cut it for the Miami Sound Machine. ;)

my pearl kit's a 10, 12, 13, 14, 16 and a 22 kick. my ludwig (vintage 60's) is 12, 13, 16 with a 20in kick (IIRC). the drum sizes might be similar, but the sound of the kits are completely different. the pearl punches and is more versatile.....whereas the ludwig nails both the bonzo sound (minus the really heavy kick) and that big band sound--two sonic places that the pearl kit flails miserably at. between the two kits and an arsenal of heads, i can get a very wide range of tones that fit just about anything i need.

that said, i'd love to have a 26in kick. they're just so cool.

and Tim, your friend wasn't the drummer for Stryper, was he? :D i remember that guy had these kicks that had to have been 26" across and maybe 4ft long? absurd. :p

now, who wants to talk about sabian rocktagons? :p :p :p


cheers,
wade
 
Tim, who makes you 28 inch kicks? I had ludwigs that big in the mid 80's, I've been checking ebay and can't find any of these big double bass kits that I remember everyone having back then.

I'm running 12, 14, 16, 18, 2 x 22 with deep shells. Hell, I'm using a 9 inch deep snare or an 8 inch deep one. (depending on my mood) I like the 22 inch kicks because I don't have to angle my toms, (I prefer them relatively flat) if I had 26 inch kicks, I would have to have the toms facing me or they would be way up in the air.

mrface, The guy from Stryper was triggering the entire set, if I remember correctly. The sound of the drum was irrelevant
 
A larger kick drum does sound very different. I have a 26" kick on my 1965 Slingerland kit (it came with a 22" but I found a 26" 1965 Slingerland marching bass drum that I rewrapped to match my kit (plus added spurs). You can listen to my kick drum here:


Ludwig is making a Bonham-style Vistalite kit right now (clear acryllic). I've seen 24" bass drums from Tama and Yamaha. Another option, is to get a 26" (or 28") marching bass drum and modify it with spurs and tom mount. Yamaha and Pearl have a popular marching series. I can't say it would be worth the price though.
 
citizenkeith said:
A larger kick drum does sound very different. I have a 26" kick on my 1965 Slingerland kit (it came with a 22" but I found a 26" 1965 Slingerland marching bass drum that I rewrapped to match my kit (plus added spurs). You can listen to my kick drum here:


Ludwig is making a Bonham-style Vistalite kit right now (clear acryllic). I've seen 24" bass drums from Tama and Yamaha. Another option, is to get a 26" (or 28") marching bass drum and modify it with spurs and tom mount. Yamaha and Pearl have a popular marching series. I can't say it would be worth the price though.
Click to expand...

wow, quite a sexy bass drum sound. I'm building a drumset right now with a 28" kick, i cant wait until its finished. And as for turning the marching drum into a bass drum, a concert bass drum would work too right? Would there be any difference in sound between turning a 28" marching drum into a bass drum as opposed to a 28" concert bass drum?
 
Kasey said:
Would there be any difference in sound between turning a 28" marching drum into a bass drum as opposed to a 28" concert bass drum?
Click to expand...

Sometimes concert bass drums are deeper. My marching drum is 14" deep. I like shallower bass drums because they seem to speak faster, but I know most people like 16" or 18" depths. Aside from that, it should work fine. :)
 
Farview said:
Tim, who makes you 28 inch kicks? I had ludwigs that big in the mid 80's, I've been checking ebay and can't find any of these big double bass kits that I remember everyone having back then.

I'm running 12, 14, 16, 18, 2 x 22 with deep shells. Hell, I'm using a 9 inch deep snare or an 8 inch deep one. (depending on my mood) I like the 22 inch kicks because I don't have to angle my toms, (I prefer them relatively flat) if I had 26 inch kicks, I would have to have the toms facing me or they would be way up in the air.

mrface, The guy from Stryper was triggering the entire set, if I remember correctly. The sound of the drum was irrelevant
Click to expand...


I built my drumset in 1997. Well, I play with about the same level of flatness, the thing is - I just use 1 mounted tom between the two kicks, so th kick doesn't get in the way.

I also have a full set of the Chrome rototoms from the late 70's/early 80's that I break out periodically for fun. :p
Sorry, but I just got hooked on the sound of rototoms in between Jos Zoomer from Vandenberg and Terry Bozzio from Missing Persons.



Tim
 
Kasey said:
wow, quite a sexy bass drum sound. I'm building a drumset right now with a 28" kick, i cant wait until its finished. And as for turning the marching drum into a bass drum, a concert bass drum would work too right? Would there be any difference in sound between turning a 28" marching drum into a bass drum as opposed to a 28" concert bass drum?
Click to expand...


Originally, they didn't make bassdrums for drumsets, they just made bassdrum legs that clipped onto the hoop of the 14"x28" Scottish marching drums. That's why all of the old Bigband players had 28" Kicks way back in the early days. it started out called the "Kick" drum, because the drummer literally kicked the drum. because there were no bassdrum pedals at that time.
For about the first 50+ years of the evolution of the drumkit, they didn't actually make a bassdrum for the set, probably until sometime in the 1930's....but these were still normally in marching sizes like 26". I think the modern kicks really evolved from the be-bop kits.


As far as I've been able to tell, the use of the drumset came out of places like New Orleans...you know, the old Dixieland Jazz groups, and perhaps from the British Dancehall music....like their "straw hat" crooners (think of the kind of music you'd hear beiong played on an original Grahmophone(. I've never been able to pin do who was the very first drummer to use a kick drum and snare drum with cymbals on some kind of stands.
 
citizenkeith said:
A larger kick drum does sound very different. I have a 26" kick on my 1965 Slingerland kit (it came with a 22" but I found a 26" 1965 Slingerland marching bass drum that I rewrapped to match my kit (plus added spurs). You can listen to my kick drum here:


Ludwig is making a Bonham-style Vistalite kit right now (clear acryllic). I've seen 24" bass drums from Tama and Yamaha. Another option, is to get a 26" (or 28") marching bass drum and modify it with spurs and tom mount. Yamaha and Pearl have a popular marching series. I can't say it would be worth the price though.
Click to expand...
wow. :eek:

Your drums sound incredible. I like that song aswell. Its cool. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top