This is my totally awesome drumset. It took me over 2 1/2 years to complete. This picture was taken in early 1993. It was one of my high school senior pictures. Pictured here is the basic portion of my set. I also have some other parts that aren't pictured here. The drums are all Tama except for two snare drums, one of which is Yamaha and the other is Ludwig. The Tama drums are all from the GrandStar Custom Series, except for the snare which is Artwood Series. They are all made from Birch Wood, not Maple like most drums, and have a Cherry Wine Stain Lacquer Finish. The Yamaha snare has a brass shell, while the Remo is steel. The cymbals are all Zildjian. They are all A series, unless noted otherwise. The heads are a mixture of Remo, Evans, and Aquarian, as described below. The sizes of all my drums and cymbals are given below. All drum sizes are given as Depth x Diameter. 

Big set, huh? I love it. Anyways, here are some more specifics about it. The toms come in 4 types. The Concert Toms only have heads on the top, the bottoms are open. The heads on these are Remo Black Dots, partly because I love the sound of them tuned up high, and partly because you don't how damn hard it is to find an 11" head. Next are the Rack Toms, which are shallower than most modern toms are. They use Aquarian heads, double-ply on the top, single-ply on the bottom. The third type is my Power Tom. These is the modern style deep tom found on most drumsets. This uses the same head combo as the Rack Toms. The fourth type is the Floor Tom, which is located on my left side. Basically, this is a power tom with legs, instead of attaching to a stand. This also uses the same Aquarian head combo as the rack and power toms. The Bass drum has an Evans Hydraulic in the inside, & the standard head with the Tama logo (I think its made by Remo) on the outside. My Yamaha Snare Drum, which is my primary snare, has Remo heads on both sides. The top has a coated Ambassador batter, and the bottom has a clear Ambassador snare. My secondary snare, the Tama, has an Evans coated Genera Dry on top, and a Remo clear Ambassador snare on the bottom. the Ludwig snare has a Remo coated reverse Black Dot on top and nothing on the bottom. I thought it sounded like crap as a snare, so I removed the bottom head, tuned it super high (to the point where the rim begins to really bend), and it makes a great Timbale.

In addition to these drums, I also have a cheap set of orchestra bells, which I rarely use, and a Latin Percussion Black Steel CowBell. My drumsticks are ProMark 747 Wood Tip Neil Peart (he's my idol) Signature Series. Occasionally, when the mood requires, I switch to my Regal Tip brushes. All tom, cymbal, & hi hat stands, as well as my double bass pedal are made by Tama (boy, they sure cleaned out my wallet on this set).

I did a couple of really cool things with my drumset. I used it on to do a 10 minute long drum solo at my high school talent show, during my senior year. Everyone loved it. It was an exhilarating experience. I have an MP3 version of it available below for download or streaming. Also, one time, probably mid 1992, Eric Reasons & I took my entire drumset down into Hines Park and set it up in a field about 200 feet from the road. I just drummed away off & on for over an hour. People were running through the bushes & tree from a baseball field to see what was going on. I felt like a famous celebrity. I let a few little kids take turns playing my drums. The whole time, cars were stopping in the middle of the road to watch me, creating a small traffic jam. I'm surprised the cops didn't come & kick me out. We took some pictures, but they came out so bad and so zoomed out, you couldn't even identify what the picture was of, even if you knew what it was.

So, here's the answers to some of the questions I'm asked the most.

1. I have been playing drums since I was 3 years old. Seriously, no joke. I come from family of musicians so I got an early start.
2. I chose birch drums instead of maple because birch gives you a more mellow and more controlled sound than maple, which gives you a louder and more powerful sound. Generally, this makes birch better for recording and maple better for live playing. Since I much more prefer recording over playing live, and because I want great sound in my recordings, I chose birch.
3. I only play a single bass drum with a double pedal because I find it impossible to get 2 bass drums to sound alike, and I find the much closer sound match from a single bas drum more appealing. I also chose it because I like to have my drums low on my right side, and 2 bass drums prevent me from doing this smoothly.
4. Yes I actually use all of the drums in my kit, and I don't mean once in a while, I mean all of the time.
5. I don't know why I bought 4 concert toms instead of 4 more regular toms, but I'm glad I did. I really love the sound of them, especially the 6".
6. Yes, the noise drives my neighbors nuts. Once upon a time, they even used to call over and complain, until we told them off. Now they don't bug us anymore. I'm sure they still hate it, they just don't tell me about it.
7. Yes, of course my favorite band is Rush.

So there we have it, all about my drumset. If you would like to know more about my music, go to my Music Projects page.

Drumsolo

If you would like to hear my drum solo from the 1993 talent show at my high school, here it is. It can be downloaded in MP3 format.

The solo is mostly original, however several portions were inspired by, and a few clips were borrowed from, the following drummers:

Neil Peart - Rush

Dave Weckl - Studio Drummer

Mike Portnoy - Dream Theater

Clive Burr - formerly with Iron Maiden

Aaron Comess - Spin Doctors

Tribute to the Professor

At the talent show two years earlier (1991), I had my first public performance. The people coordinating the talent show really wanted me to do a drum solo. So finally, the day before the show I agreed to do it. Always being more of a "play to the music" type of person, soloing wasn't one of my strong points. Not wanting to get up there without a plan and freeze in fear, I decided that the easiest way to come up with something in that short of a time was to borrow parts from a few different drumsolos done by Neil Peart. So, I ended up stringing some of his stuff together, threw on a small ending of my own creation, and came up with what I call "Tribute to the Professor". You can download it in MP3 format below.

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