I have played drums since I was 6 years old. My very first set of drums was one of those small Sunlite beginner kits. I had that for about a year and then I graduated to a big kid drum set. It was an EXPO II and it was bright red. The cymbals were PowereBeat. Pretty legit huh? I loved those things. Even won a talent show on them when I was in 3rd grade. I played "That Thing You Do". I remember the first time I sat behind them I felt like a straight up rock star. My first set was a toy compared to these. When I sat behind them I felt like I was behind a MOUNTAIN of drums, and it was so awesome. So that's where it all started for me. I had those for about 5 years until I got my first "name brand" kit. My dad heard about this cool place called the Memphis Drum Shop so he decided to take me by there one day. I remember walking in and there were drums EVERYWHERE. Straight up drummer's heaven. I wanted to play on every single drum in there, but I didn't. (I didn't want to be THAT kid.) So we walked through the first room and into a bigger room with MORE drums, and there they were, sitting up on a drum riser with a plexiglass sound isolating screen around them (which for some reason made them look even cooler). It was a 5 piece CHROME (Yeah I know...I was 13 ok!) Pearl Export series kit. The lights were hitting them just right. They were so SHINY! I knew they were supposed to be mine. I just stood there in awe of them. I finally walked around some more with my dad to check out all the other cool stuff in the shop, and it was all cool, but not as cool as that chrome Pearl Export kit. Of course, I ended up standing right in front of them, gawking, and maybe even drooling a little bit. I'm sure my dad figured out what I wanted for Christmas pretty quickly. We went back a couple times and every time I made a b-line for that kit, until one day it wasn't there. Man I was bummed, but I'm sure you can guess what happened. I went into the living room on Christmas morning and there they were! Sorry to tell my whole life story, just got caught up in some memories (sniff sniff). But hey, if it wasn't for those memories, I wouldn't be writing blogs about drums would I?
Ok, on to my gear. For the last 3 years I have been playing on a Pearl Reference kit, which I also bought at the Memphis Drum Shop and had a similar experience when I saw it in the window. It's a granite sparkle 4 piece kit and I love it. I hope to never sell it. It's pretty sentimental to me. (First tour, first music video, etc.)
Here are the sizes:
10x7 rack tom (which I use for decoration on a shelf in my house)
12x9 rack tom
16x16 floor tom
22x18 Kick drum
This kit sounds so amazing. The drums are so heavy. It's crazy. I used coated Evans G2's when I got them and used those for about 2 years. I am using Remo Pinstripes now and love them. I always had those on my older Pearl kit but the Reference kit came with coated heads so I just stuck with those for a while. Pinstripes just sound so good. They have such great attack and sustain at the same time. They sound KILLER on these drums.
For my snare I use a 14x7.5 Mapex Black Panther.
It's a hammered stainless steel shell and let me tell you, it is LOUD, but it sounds great. I have been using an Aquarian High Energy head on it. I really would prefer to use a different head, and I have, but when I started touring a lot, I was going through heads like crazy and I remembered using this head before and how durable it was, so I decided to use it again simply because I'm poor and can't afford to replace my heads every show, or every 3 shows like the big dogs do.
Anyway, I don't want to make this so long that no one will read it :) So I'm going to leave it at that for now. I will come back and talk about cymbals, pedals, sticks, and all that good stuff later on. Make sure you subscribe!
Peace,
Casey
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