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SABIAN 16" HH Medium-Thin Crash

I recently got this cymbal during christmas. it was on sale for $136 CDN, so it was a pretty good deal. When i brought this home, it sounded AMAZING. The decay is fairly short when played with a whole drumkit, and the tone is just perfect. Even my friends think its awesome.

I also got a dw 5000L boom stand for 70 CDN, and I think this thing is great for the price. Large rubber feet, thick bass tube, 2 adjustments on boom, and it is strong, yet lighter than all my stands.

Rhythmtechs Laptop pad. I just got this and its one of the coolest pads ive used. Pros: you can hear your ghost notes and drags with a more realistic snare sound than on the RealFeel when going through GLS stick control. Cons: for apartment use late at night it still might annoy your neighbors if the walls are thin. It really sounds like a snare drum.

Schalloch Cajon At a clearance price of $60 I figured this was going to be the cheapest way to get a cajon without building one myself.  Which is always a good idea in theory, but not always in practice   And seeing as how this item is not on Schalloch's own website I assume the clearance is discontinuation based.

SOUND

Sounds good to me.  Honestly my ears are untrained for cajon study, but I do know what they are supposed to to.  

The bass tones are big and room filling (but very dry/short) when you hit them right.   There is very much a sweet spot for bass, and your hands shape makes big difference too.   In that regard, its a rather unforgiving instrument.  But once you find that spot, its lovely.  I personally prefer the bass tones with a tighter snare wire setting, as they rattle less and just add some speaker like distortion.  

The slap tones are again, a matter of dialing in the sweet spot, but is more forgiving than the bass.   I found that backing out most screws along the top and one down the left hand side about one turn, aided the slap tone greatly.   It amplifies it, makes it easier to 'nail', and brings in more snare sound without adding it to the bass tones.   Once found, a good slap is dry, dark, and with a nice dirty edge to it.  

BUILD

This is often where less expensive instruments show their 'worth'.   And this is certainly no fancy instrument.   Its sides, top and bottom are 3/8" thick with the front (playing surface) and back (resonant side with 5" hole) being 1/8" thick.    Somewhere along the way, the wrong information was passed along and the playing face was listed as 4/5" thick.   Ignore that.   The whole thing is internally framed with 1/2" square stock.   It has 3/4" thick wide rubber feet, and a textured top.   I could lean back while sitting on it, and neither one of us lost our balance.  With the feet it stands about 18" high.   I'm 6' tall with a 30" inseam and its the perfect sitting height for me.  

The snare system uses two guitar strings, each going down and then back up the inside of the playing surface for a total of four strings across it in a W pattern.   They are hard mounted at the top to part of the framing.  At the bottom they are looped around two bolts that pass through the bottom of the instrument, and up into a "free floating" piece that is held in place by a vertical beam.   That "free floating" piece and the bolts are how you adjust the tension of the strings.   By turning the bolts from underneath the instrument, the strings get pulled down, and tight, or get released and loosened.   You actually have a little room to adjust each side individually.   This came in handy when one of the four lengths of string was a little loose, I could just pull that side down tighter, and balanced out the string tension.

OVERALL

I'm glad I bought it.   It seems plenty solid and while too much adjusting of the screws on the playing surface may eventually wear out parts, I honestly don't think I have any more tweaking to do.   It really sounds great now that I've set it up.   I also tried it with a bass pedal while sitting on it.   A little awkward having to use your heel on the pedal, but it was loud and attacky with my felt Iron Cobra beater.   I'd probably want to use a puffier, lambswool beater if I were to use it like this.   But as a stool/bass drum while sitting at congas?  Very cool

Somethings I may have wanted different.   A pad on top.   Great idea, but adds to the cost.   Its not at all uncomfortable, but I think if I were planning on sitting on it a while I'd actually install something permenant.   And nylon washers under the snare adjust bolts.  They are just tensioned into the wood on the bottom.   Using a differently headed bolt and nylon washers wouldn't have effected cost, and would've made it more resistant to damage over time.  

While I like the sound just fine with the snares, I'm one for options.   I pretty much disengaged the snares and liked the clean tone alot.    So I think I may take a page from Meinl's new cajon (which costs twice as much as this one) and install a snare system that can be turned totally off.   Probably a headset/drum muffler style one.  

Side view showing thickness of playing surface:



Back view showing hole and some internal framing:



Bottom view showing feet and snare adjustment bolts:



Inside-front-bottom view showing the snare tension works.   You can really only see two of the wires as two run parallel to the vertical support.  Also note the EXTREMELY handy little rubber thing glued on to hold the allen wrench for the snare adjust bolts.



Inside-front-top view showing the strings mounted:

DW 9000 Titanium Ltd Edition

I was lucky enough to pick this up on ebay (used by Darrin Mooney Primal Scream)

The pedal is a delight, smooth as silk, and doesn't feel like your pushing anything. The first few times I used it I couldn't believe I actually had a pedal under my feet. It is very fast and built like the proverbial brickhouse. So I'm now one of only 500 drummers to own one, at a bargain price of $375! And Darrin is a top man, very down to earth and helpful.

Nice review Joker.  I fully agree with your analysis of the these cymbals and plan to buy the 18" crash and maybe a 16".  The 18" reminds me a lot of an old 18" K Custom a buddy of mine has.  I checked out newer K Custom crashes and can't seem find that same sound.  But the Evolution did it for me during a visit to my local GC and I immediately put it on my list of gear to buy.

Interesting article in MD about a Sabian cymbal-maker who worked on the Evolution line with Weckl.

thx for the info, bart,

didnt know about the "cold press" process, but hopefully, for our harder hitting gents, the thinness wont scare them from a great sounding crash.

Just got a new Tama Stainless Steel shell snare. The company's website describes it as between dark and bright, but that is very misleading. This thing is powerful! The 1.2mm steel shell gives the sound a great chance to project, and project it does. Compared to my ageless 80's swingstar toms, I almost wish I had a volume control on the snare. My bandmates have unconsciously turned their amps up and the PA system in one of our rehearsal spaces is sometimes at 11. At a small gig recently, the sound guy was hesitant to mic the drum. And this is when I'm not laying into it with full force.

Tama has made a drum that combines bright, quick attack with incredible volume and projection. The danger with metal shells it that overtones could take over and turn every shot into an annoying tingy hum. This snare adds thick Mighy Hoops and a bulge around the center of the shell which cuts the overtones and actually makes the snare slightly dark. The throw-off is stable and releases quickly and smoothly. It comes stock with Tama-branded Evans Genera heads, which means I won't have to change them for a while.

The only drawback would be the volume. The snare is unsuitable for some softer jazz (unless it's big band) and blues, where you'll be thinking more about controlling your volume rather than listening to the music. While you can clearly hear each minute stick tap and the lightest rolls (which is a plus), this snare can drown out everything else on the kit (and the stage) with just a little bit of power.  The good thing about this is that you don't have to lay into the snare as hard to get a good sound, thus sparing your hoops, your sticks, and your body some undesired wear and tear. Having been used to a POS ancient (not ageless) Swingstar aluminum snare that I'd have to hit with a hammer just to hear the thing, the transition to the Stainless Steel snare has required some adjustments in my playing style, but all for the better.

The big plus is the price. At about $350 Canadian, the snare is an affordable and extremely stable drum that I know will stay with me for many years to come. Overall, if you're looking for a quick, sharp, and LOUD drum to add some powerful punch to your rock and metal backbeats, especially in a louder band, the Tama Stainless Steel snares (as well as their other various metal-shelled snares, I'm sure) offers a serious piece of hardware to your kit.

wow,

crazy wack!  cool snare, Felix.  clips, mebbe?

It looks like it is covered with those jiggly "google eyes".

IT'S CREEPING ME OUT!!  

He probably would make you up a set Jamez.  He could use the dough I think.

Tuning a floating shell- well it's as weird as the drum.  You can crank on the bottom and then hear a difference on the top and vice versa.  It's pretty bizarre.  You get it in tune and the drum sounds totally wide open and you think "man this is great" so then you play around with it some more and are like "wow, this is great too".  It's a different sound for sure.  You would think you would hear the eyeball rattling around- not so.  The cut is warm- very maple but without the body and sustain of a solid craviotto- more like the dw ply sound.  And for my purposes, those drums are too much for my tastes anyways.

Congrats on kicking the nic!