laundromatt

[laundromatt]

A Long Overdue Update

My last post was well over a year ago, and much (truly understated) has changed. I got a new job, bought a house and my daughter has quickly been growing up.

Where do I even start with this update? For one, the purpose and driving aim of my blog has changed. No longer am I building from scratch, and there are several reasons for that. Might as well get started on listed them out:

1) I underestimated, and frankly, misunderstood the used percussion market

What I mean is that the mythical idea I held of people junking their perfectly functional equipment, or passing off their slightly out-of-character stuff no longer exists, if it ever did. With the plethora of outlets for people to not only sell their equipment, but to research what its value is, there are hardly jump-out-at-you deals out there. Additionally, most people who are selling their used or old equipment have true junk: bottom of the barrel beginner kits with brass cymbals and toy hardware are all over Craigslist and Facebook marketplace. What’s more, the equipment is bundled together and usually overpriced (a topics for a later blog). So the idea of accumulating things piece by piece over time is tough to do, unless you go to -->

eBay! Using eBay turned out to be a lesson in hard work. To be successful, you really have to plug away. There’s plenty of stuff out there, and the stuff that starts off as a deal hardly ever stays that way. It’s basically a job unto itself to find the stuff you want and time the ends of auctions to snag what you want. To go back to an earlier point, when a single bass/snare/tom shell was out there, it was usually relatively expensive, at least for my purposes.

2) Realizing the hobby of drums costs money...

Good cymbals are expensive! Drumheads, sticks, other consumables... also expensive! The more research I did, I realized that there is no market inefficiency in the music I want to play and the sounds I want to make. I had romantic views that my 18″ Z Custom crash might just be an underappreciated crash that surprises someone who wouldn’t think to use it otherwise. Well, that’s very silly and naive looking back! I learned a lot about cymbal anatomy, history, and subsequently, the different companies and lines started to make sense, and I found the large majority of cymbals on the used market are not to my taste. The ones that are out there cost enough that I’d rather hear it and play it before spending my money on it.

I threw my money at some blind cymbal buys, and the success rate was not high enough to keep as a viable strategy. I wound up with a 20″ K Custom Dark Ride (3/5 stars), 22″ Sabian AA Raw Ride (5/5 stars), 20″ K Custom Dry Ride (0/5 stars) and 14″ New Beat hi hats (4/5 stars). The New Beats were bought with the money from selling my 18″ Paiste Innovation crash on eBay, and the Dark Ride was bought with the money from selling my cocktail kit on Craigslist. The Raw Ride was a “treat yourself” over Christmas/New Years from Sam Ash Online Used Cymbal Archives. The Dry Ride was a dumb-assed move when I saw it for 160 + 20 shipping on Reverb. I got excited seeing a K Custom ride for that price and thought it was a mistake, but no, the Dry Ride is just a garbage, trashcan lid of a cymbal that I could have prevented with a little research...(foreshadowing of a future blogpost? YES).

3 I kept my old Tamas

The more I was on the lookout for equipment, the more I kept coming back to and comparing with my old Rockstar kit. I really grew into the idea of a small, bop kit, which is the opposite of my Bonham-sized Rockstars, but I eventually had the epiphany of converting my 18x16 floor tom into a kick drum. My rack toms (12 & 14 inch) would become the rack and suspended floor toms.

That’s all for now, and I am not proofing this post.

Up next I’ll talk about the follies of selling/buying used gear and online drumming communities. 

[laundromatt]

Ground Rules and Some Thoughts

On this journey, I figured I should lay out some boundaries as far as spending, acquiring, etc. goes. I find the more I think about this project, the more excited I get, and I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I’d like for this kit to be unique and personal, while also being a product of patience and TLC. Here are the rules, so far:

1. No individual purchases over $50

2. Acquire as many pieces/parts/accessories as cheaply as possible, while trying to maintain the integrity of a high-quality product. This means balancing bottom-of-the-line equipment with higher-end, used, but cheap equipment

3. No rushing! This project can take as long as possible, and may never actually come to a discernible end

I would also like to keep an on-going tab of the spending I make. Since the last post, I made 2 purchases: 2 shells and restoration products. I found the shells off of Craigslist and paid $30 for them:

I cleaned off the Pearl shell. Turns out it’s a Mirror Chrome Steel shell, which from some reviews online, is a low-end snare that most people enjoy. There were no heads or snare wires. The second shell is an 8x9 time with just the hoops and 3 lugs.I bought them from a guy named Will in Mississippi. Birdie and I went down to Hernando and made the exchange in a Shell parking lot. He seemed like a cool guy. We talked for a bit before coming home.

Family Dollar had a lot of the restoration products I was looking for. I picked up aluminum foil, WD-40, and some wire brushes to clean the tension rods. I’ve going by this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpmhLoOW3tU&index=1&list=PL6W6pllXpl2SSQ_BTknjuREhdiJoVgsNN

I’m super tired and no longer feel like typing this out, but here’s the tab:

Craigslist shells = $30

Restoration materials from Family Dollar = $10

[laundromatt]

Starting from Scratch

My drum equipment currently comprises one practice pad and a [air of Vic Firth 7As, one of which has chew marks from one of my greyhounds. Alright, I technically own a Tama Rockstar Custom kit, but it’s back in PA, and I don’t plan on keeping it. I have some cymbals, too, and I suppose they count, though they’re officially on the trading block.

I want to start over, to start from scratch as a drummer. I never learned to tune my original kits, and was generally lazy in picking up on the fine details. All I wanted to do was grab sticks and let them rip on the drums. Years later, I’m beginning to realize the importance of the aforementioned stuff I ignored, as well as the rudiments I neglected to practice, and I feel invigorated at the thought of playing again.

There have been a lot of changes, though. I have a family, and we live in a rented house with no room to put a kit, let alone play one. I also have the minimum amount of tools I would need to put together a kit from scratch.

And that’s exactly what I plan to do, and keep track of through this blog. I’m building a kit from scratch, starting with barebones drum shells and slowly, methodically adding pieces and hardware until I have my own kit.