Build problem with Tune-Bot

UPDATE: The Tune-Bot team responded with lightning speed to my email about the problem discussed in this post. They are sending me a new pin. 

My beloved Tune-Bot has started to fall apart after a few weeks of use in a very safe studio environment.

Here are some shots. Essentially, the little pin on the clip has broken, so the bot doesn't clip properly anymore.

Bummer!

I've contacted their customer support to see what they say.  Meanwhile, I"m concerned it will fall apart soon.

Tune-Bot Review:10 Bullets

I've had a few weeks now to play around with Tune-Bot, so I finally feel comfortable committing some thoughts to paper. In short, Tune-Bot is not a silver bullet, but it will help you make your drums sound better once you follow the Tuning Guide and learn how to deal with some of its idiosyncrasies.

I'm not gonna write a proper review since there are some excellent video reviews on YouTube. For example, the Drummer Connection guys (the ones with the clear acrylic drums) really did a fine job in their review. I feel it represents the product's strengths and weaknesses accurately. If you are trying to make a decision to buy one, watch their video. My little article here is for the folks who already bought one but maybe feel a bit frustrated. I was certainly frustrated at first, but then I read the Tuning Guide, played around, and got Bot-Religion.

So here are some tips once you've got your Tune-Bot:

1. Don't whip it out of the box and slap it on a drum without reading the manual!
2. The best manual is the Tuning Guide. Print it out and use it!
3. Using the Tuning Guide, choose target frequencies for your drums (page 2).
4. Decide which top/bottom ratio you want to try first. Then try them all! Just for fun.
5. It's handy to have a pencil and calculator on hand (or a smartphone, if you prefer)
6. Don't start tuning while your band mates are around. You'll drive them nuts. Your first experiments should really be on your own, in a nice stress-free environment (since sometimes the learning process can be frustrating enough).
7. Don't start using the Tune-Bot until you've got the head roughly tuned by ear. I mean, I have a pretty bad ear, but even I can get a drum into the ballpark, and then Tune-Bot helps me detect the variations that I can't hear on my own.
8. When checking individual lug frequencies, always place the drum on the floor or on a throne! 
9. Filter mode is your friend! Use it! When tuning a metal snare, it's indispensable! On my first pass with the bot I somehow missed out on the filter (translation: I didn't read the manual). I got readings all over the place and was cursing myself for buying a useless piece of garbage. Then I found the manual, and I found the filter.
10. Don't follow the Tuning Guide blindly! The guide is a GUIDE, but you need to also trust your ears. That is, if you are trying to get the entire drum tuned to 124 Hz, you may only be able to achieve that by honing in on lug frequencies that differ from those listed in the guide. And regarding your ears, you may find that you'll learn to recognize differences that you may have missed before. I'm convinced that the Tune-Bot trains your ear as you use it.

Blue Badge Beverley Drums, Vintage (early 1970s)

After playing my buddy's Rogers Holiday, I became determined to score a vintage kit of my own. After drooling over kits on American eBay for weeks and fretting over the risks and costs of shipping overseas, I decided it would be easier to find a kit locally, here in Europe where I'm living (Hungary, to be precise).

Pretty quickly I made the move on a rather obscure kit out of England called Beverley. Or as it is written on the blue badge: BeVeRLeY OF ENGLAND.

Before making a move I read dozens of posts about Beverley drums on various sites to convince myself that "Blue Badge Beverley" kits from the late 60's are professional kits. I read great comments about the supraphonic-like aluminum Beverley 21 (or Cosmic 21) snare, one of which was included in the local offering.

Here's the kit in a nice little track from my current band. It features the main kit without the 13, but with the Cosmic 21 snare. The 12" had a Renaissance Remo head, while the 16" a coated Ambassador.

So here's the word on my Blue Badge Beverley, after a couple of weeks in my possession. It was sold to me as a 1968 kit, though I have no way to prove that. UPDATE: This kit seems to be at least a 1974 kit. The oval-shaped "lokfast" tom mount seems to have only been introduced in the 70's:

These lasted until roughly 1974 when they were replaced by the more substantial ones (confusingly called Lokfast), which we’re probably all familiar with. These had an oval down-tube, knurled L-arms, and a massive cast receiver block on the bass. 

source: http://www.drummagazine.com/gear/print/the-rocky-history-of-premier-drums


Set-up and sizes
12 x 8, 13 x 9, 16 x 15 (yes, 16 x 15!), 22 x 14, with a 5 x 14 Cosmic 21 snare
The 13 actually has a stamp on the inside that says International Size. I consider that pretty cool!

Shells 

The drums are Premier 3-ply birch with beech re-rings. All, that is, except for the 12", which is a Premier mahogany shell with beech re-rings. Clearly they are matching drums, wrapped at the same time. Don't ask me how or why the 12 is mahogany, though it makes sense according to my research. That is, Premier started to move to mahogany around this time, so I guess somehow this kit got made with a mahogany 12". Go figure. Anyway, all of the shells are perfectly round with no signs of any problems whatsoever with the bearing edges.  The Cosmic 21 snare is aluminum (or aluminium, if you prefer).

Interestingly, the floor tom seems to have a sandwich layer of darker wood, presumably mahogany. I've yet to find info about Premier using a sandwich shell of birch-mahogany-birch, but you can clearly see a dark ply in this photo.

Update: Here's a link to a site that mentions a middle-ply of "darker wood" on Olympic (Premier) shells: http://www.vintageolympic.co.uk/faq.html#q2


Wrap 
The wrap itself might officially be known as Hairline Silver, but I'm not sure.

Update: A fellow VintageDrumForum user informs me that the name of this wrap is Silver Star.

Whatever it's called, it's certainly silver and textured and very cool (clearly a subjective view, though). I had read on one forum that Beverley kits had thin wrap. This is certainly what I would call a light wrap, or maybe soft is a better word. It's not a hard plastic wrap, but almost more of a fabric-like wrap. Instead of cracking, this wrap scratches like a thick industrial wallpaper, you might say. The wrap is a bit bubbled in a few places, mainly on the 12". But you have to look closely to notice.


Badges, Serial Numbers
My band mate noticed that at a certain angle you can see a serial number printed on the each blue badge. I'll have to write them down and post them here.


Chrome.

Probably the most surprising thing about the Beverley is the chrome. Even close-up there's hardly a spot on the chrome. On some sites I read that Beverley was first known for music stands, so I guess it makes sense that the chrome is top-notch. Even the Cosmic 21 is almost flawless, but I've seen some 21's in rough shape online.

Hoops/Rims
So far this is the weak spot. The hoops are rather light, and the 12" hoops are out-of-round where the drum seems to have been dropped. The 13" is also slightly dented. I think I read somewhere that these are 2.3mm hoops, but they are not as solid as the steel rims on my new Natal, for example.  I replaced the 12" with standard Gibraltar 2.3mm hoops and it's sounding fine. Update: I also changed the 13 and 16 just to keep everything the same. Naturally I've stored away the originals.

Lugs
Somewhere on a forum someone described Beverley lugs as "space age", and I'd have to say that's fair. We're talking Sputnik 1957 space age. The one practical problem I discovered with the otherwise stylish and well-chromed lugs is that they are positioned close to the hoop and have an upward pointing "tail" that makes it hard to finger-tighten the rods. In other words, my fingers don't fit in the space between the lug and the hoop. And it's not like I have fat fingers.

Tension rods
It seems Beverley drums always came with slotted-tension rods, and mine is no exception. The original rods are in excellent shape. I got a Sonor key, so I can manage alright.  Some guys suggest that the Sonor key is not ideal on English slotted rods, and I'd have to say I agree. The Sonor key works, but it's not a perfect fit.

Strainer on the 21
The strainer is a bit flawed. You have to pull the knob up a bit before pulling the lever, and sometimes it slips off during play. Not good. I need to spend some time debugging it, you might say. UPDATE: A little teflon lubricant fixed the strainer! Easy as that.

Tom mount
Originally I had trouble figuring out how to position two rack toms mounted on the kick, but with some suffering and experimentation I managed to figure out how to get the best out of the rather old fashioned hardware. I guess this is why Keith Moon preferred  Rogers Swiv-O-Matic to any of the mounting available out of the the UK at the time?

Sound... 
Fantastic! Watch the video and listen to "Raven Girl" and decide for yourself (see above).

Beverley in the USA
My research tells me that these kits were sold in the late 70's in the US as Premier Powerhouse 6500 and Premier Kicker 6400. Same as the Beverley kits from the same period, as far as I can tell, with some variation over time (kick spurs, for example).

• Premier Powerhouse 1975 from Vintage Drum Guide 
• Premier Kicker 1977 from Vintage Drum Guide 
• After the demise of the Beverley name, it seems the kits became marketed as Premier Projector (catalog ZIP from drumarchive.com)
• Projectors have Beverley kick-drum sized lugs on all drums, including toms (the lugs have one type of insert for kick and one for toms in order to allow proper spacing between rim/hoop and rod)
• The later Soundwave is not the same as Beverley

Playlist on YouTube
I started a playlist of videos featuring vintage Beverley drums.
Feel free to add to it!




Here's some random banging showing the toms with wide open medium tuning and the Cosmic tuned somewhat lower than I play it now (not intended as a solo).

Natal Aluminum Snare

Some quick comments on my Natal 5.5 x 14 aluminum snare.

• Solid build
• Nice matte finish
• Full bodied sound for a 5.5" drum

My buddy has a 6.5 Supra in the same practice space. Clearly the 6.5 has extra body and that typical Supra "crunch", but the Natal totally holds it's own. It's not a Supra clone, but it has that characteristic alu sound.

I used it for an unamplified gig the other day and it provided the perfect mixture of cutting high end with plenty of body. I actually chose it over my beloved George Way Indy Bronze for this gig. I can also note that it stayed in perfect tune together with the help of a few Gibraltar nylon lug locks.

I can also directly compare it to my 5" Beverley Cosmic 21. The Cosmic, like the Supra, has more of that crunchy sound, but lacks some of the roundness of the Natal. The Natal feels louder, you might say. I should really try to do a head-to-head comparison and post it to YouTube!

In short, it's a fine drum and a totally valid option for anyone looking for a solid aluminum snare.

Update: I just found this video. It's very important to note that the factory Aquarian (Taiwanese) head featured in the video is a beastly thick monster. I changed to an Evans HD Dry to get the sound I wanted. Compared to the drum in this video, mine is more open, with a much sharper crack. Just so you realize what a beast the head featured in this video really is, I put it on my 1982 Tama Imperialstar 6.5" and the Aquarian turned my ringy loud roaring steel drum into a tame super-dry puppy dog.  To put it another way, the Evans HD Dry is dry, but this factory Aquarian is far drier than any head I've heard. It really dampens the drum.

I'm not familiar with the standard Aquarian line, so I'm not sure which Aquarian USA-made head this Aquarian Taiwanese head is copying.  Again, it's a strange choice for a stock head by the folks at Natal. But whatever. Not a deal breaker by any means.

Rogers Holiday: The slippery road to becoming a vintage junkie

A few weeks ago we had a monster jam session with a handful of guitar players, two bassists, and three drummers playing on two kits. Just for kicks. One kit was the Ludwig Maple Classic mentioned in an earlier post. And the other was a Rogers Holiday that has set me down the path to becoming a vintage junkie. That's all it took - one jam session with a quality Dayton-era Rogers Holiday with a 22" kick and I became addicted to beavertail lugs and bread-and-butter and speckled paint versus smooth and Cleveland versus Dayton all that other wonderfully geeky stuff associated with Rogers Holiday. Yes, the kit was THAT good. Frankly, it blew the Ludwig out of the room. At least the kick.

So here's a summary:

• The kick absolutely blows away any other kick I've played recently. 
• It's got a clear Powerstroke 3 with no other muffling, and it just roars. 
• Open yet punchy. 
• Deep but with attack.  
• And the 14" depth makes it lively and easy to play compared to the trendier 18" depth kicks you'll find on most modern kits.
• The toms don't exactly sing. 
• Both the 13*9 with Coated Ambassabor and 16*16 with Coated Emperor have a short sound. They are not dead, but they are not lively. 
• Naturally other tunings could change their character, but I'm confident that a vintage Rogers is not the kit for someone looking for a lively sound with lots of high-end attack. 
• In a way the toms really remind me of my Pearl MHX, though my Pearl is somewhat more resonant, with more attack.

Yep, I still love Rogers Holiday!  Such a fine kit, fully deserving of its status as a legend.

I want a Holiday!
Holiday in the Sun?
Holiday in Waikiki?
Nope.
Rogers Holiday.
So fantastic!

Short Stack? Yes!

Perfect Positioning

I'm loving the short stack toms on my new Natal Maple kit. I'm a small guy (5' 7" / 170cm) and the short stack toms are like a dream. I'm thinking "why didn't I make this move earlier?" because I've simply never been more comfortable behind a drum kit. I'm able to get totally perfect positioning. If you're small, you might want to try short stack.


Sound sample. Rough mix, unmastered....

Natal Maple "US Fusion X" short stack kit - rough mix - unmastered by aaronburrconspiracy

But are they loud enough?

When I first unpacked the kit, I admit I was thinking "look at the eeny weeny little baby drums" (cutesy voice optional). But when I gave the ten inch a solid whack, my fears were put to rest. True these toms are not as loud as "normal" sized toms, that's almost certain. For example, when I put my 1983 Tama Imperialstar monster steel snare with the kit it does somewhat overpower the toms. But "not as loud" does not mean "not loud enough". During a very loud rehearsal the cute little toms came through with a nice punch that one of the guys called "focused", which I think is a perfect adjective in this case. 

The stock snare that came with the kit blends best in terms of volume, but I haven't made really found a characteristic sound for it yet. It's my first 5.5" maple snare, and I'm still trying to figure out what to do with it. More on that in another post.

In early August we'll head into the studio, so soon I'll be able to post some audio samples. Stay tuned.... errr... update: see above!

It's not the cost that counts...

Quite a few years ago I went to school with a fine drummer named Jeep MacNichol. Jeep is perhaps best know for his work with The Samples, but nowadays he's doing his own thing as Mr. Anonymous. I hit Jeep up for some info on his gear, and he came back to me with some surprises.

His words reinforce the old truth that good sounds aren't made by drums alone, but rather by drummers with chops who are recorded properly. It's not the cost of the kit that counts, but the skill and knowledge that goes into playing it and recording it. Here's what Mr. Anonymous has to say about the drums and recording technique used on his new album, Champion Sound:

I purchased a used Gretsch Catalina kit on ebay ... 18" kick, 14" floor, 12" tom, 14"x 5 1/2 " snare. We recorded the kit with just 3 mics and modeled the micing EXACTLY like Rudy Van Gelder used to track the drummers on all the blue note albums in the 50's and 60's. He had a great approach for capturing the sound because in working with a lot of those drummers, he wanted to capture the sound as a single instrument. He was quoted as saying something like "...a jazz drummer thinks of his kit as a single instrument and sound rather than the individual elements like the hi-hat and the snare and the tom, etc...and my job is to capture their intent and what they want to say on the instrument as a whole rather than separating the sounds of the individual parts of the kit."

So we put one mic pointing between the hat and snare, one mic about 4 feet in front of the kit pointing directly at the drummer's chest, and one mic about a foot in front of the kick...we also had one overhead pointing directly down on the kit...and all the mics were ribbon mics and mixed through an analog board and slammed with compression.

So check these tracks and tell me that you ever would have thought this was a simple Catalina Gretsch! 

Some fills at the top of this track show what the kit - and Mr Anonymous - can do.



And this one has some particularly nice action around 2:30.





Here's the humble kit.

Listen to more tracks here.

And I'm throwing this in since it's pretty cool. 

In response to It's not the cost that counts..., my friend and super-microphone-geek Eszter pointed out that the ribbon mics used by Mr Anonymous to create such a fine drum sound from a simple Gretsch Catalina kit were probably much more expensive than the kit itself. And she pointed out that you need quality pre-amps and other generally expensive gear to make fine recordings.

So I leave the question open: Does cost count? Can you make inexpensive drums sound good without expensive mics and recording gear?  If you save on the drums, do you need to make up for it with quality mics and other gear? 

This is all getting very geeky.  I'm starting to scare myself.

Ludwig Classic Maple? As good as they say?

My friend Bali is a much bigger drum geek than I am. You can tell by his gear. Dig this. He's got a Ludwig Classic Maple in Silver Sparkle with 13x9, 16x16, 18x16, 22x14.  He tells me it's from early 2000s. He's also got a 14*6.5 Supraphonic snare.  Not bad for a kid from Budapest.

How does she sound? Pretty fine!
Check out this demo video we made or check it out on this fine track from The Walrus, featuring Noel R Mayer on vocals and Balázs on his fine Ludwig drums with Ambassadors on top and bottom . 




This is a great song if you are into classic Anglo-American rock sounds. Maybe one of the better songs you've never heard. And now you know all about the drums.  And you are happier because of it.

My Buddy's Tama Starclassic Maple

I share a practice space with a great drummer here in Budapest named Bence Bátor.  Bence plays a mid-2000's Tama Starclassic Maple.  Every so often I get to use his kit, and I gotta tell you, I just love it.  It's a standard 10*8, 12*9, 16*14 set-up.  What I love about these drums is that you don't have to hit hard at all, and POW, they just come alive. He just fit the kit with Vintage Emperors, and man, it's just a joy to play. I love my Pearl MHX, but you really have to whack it to get the life out of it. Not the Starclassic Maple. It's a much livelier play.

You can hear Bence and his kit on these tracks.  Some really great sounds on some fine tracks.


On this next one the drums are dampened quite a bit to create a "certain" sound that works quite well even if it doesn't illustrate how well the drums resonate.



He also has an 8 inch deep Tama Bubinga snare which is certainly one of the finest drums I've ever played. I'm pretty sure he's playing it with an Evans HD Dry on the tracks above. Top stuff.

Here's a video I made of his kit using my Tama Mastercraft (Imperialstar) snare from 1983

Pearl MHX - Masters Mahogany Classic

Since 2004, my main kit has been a Pearl MHX - Masters Mahogany Classic. I've got a 22*16 kick, 13*9 rack, and a 16*16 floor. I was after that vintage sound, like so many others, and I think I pretty much got it (but see below for a caveat).  Over the years I've earned lots of praise for this kit from bandmates, other drummers, and sound guys/gals.

Funny enough, there's not much about MHX available online. Personally, I love this kit. Deep? You bet! Almost too deep!  Sometimes I had Evans EC2, which made them lower than low. But that wasn't ideal. Ambassador and Emperor have probably been best, or maybe EC1, which I also have used over the years. Once I used Remo Fiberskyn, but that also deadened the sound a bit too much.

But is it really "vintage"?

I should note that this kit has 45 degree bearing edges, which means it has more attack than true old school vintage drums I've played, like my Beverley or my friend's Dayton-era Rogers Holiday. I've learned only recently never to underestimate the importance of the bearing edge! While this drums has a deep, rich tone that might be called vintage, I would hesitate to call it a true vintage sound since it really does have that extra explosion on stick impact (AKA attack).

Update: Die Cast or Triple-Flanged?

My MHX kit has Pearl die-cast MasterCast hoops. I set up my Beverley mahogany 12" (with Gibraltar triple-flanged) and compared it head-to-head to my Pearl MHX 13" with MasterCast hoops. Both had coated ambassador with top and bottom tuned to the same note. On the Pearl, the die-cast hoop clearly cut down on resonance. The Pearl had the attack that the Beverley was missing, but the Pearl clearly rang down more quickly. My conclusion is that the die-cast hoop makes the 45 degree edge sound somewhat more vintage (that is, short), yet the 45 degree edge gives some of the attack that drum with rounder edges just won't have.

So, here's a track that shows what she sounds like (with a nice little Ringo-fill intro).



The snare on this track is an old Tama Superstar birch.

Anyway, I've loved this kit, and if you ever have a chance to grab one, go for it.

UPDATE: After many years of being a one-kit guy, I recently hit a midlife crisis and picked up my Natal Maple kit and an old Beverley. So I sold my trusty MHX to a friend. Nothing against her. I just found my Natal more playable and a better match for what I'm doing nowadays. Besides, I couldn't justify keeping an extra kit on top of my wardrobe!  I guess some of you out there know the feeling?

Geo. H. Way "Indy" Bronze snare

I just picked up a George Way "Indy" 5.5" x 14" bronze snare, and I've gotta tell you that it is an impressive piece of craftsmanship!

First of all, it looks downright CLASSY. That's the best word for it. Ronn Dunnett and his team did a fine job on the design.

Here's the picture from the eBay listing. It does not do the drum justice.

And the sound? We checked it out with no less than four professional drummer buddies of mine, and we were all blown away by the punch. For a 5.5 this puppy has some serious low end, even with a simple Ambassador at medium tuning. Ronn Dunnett confirmed that some of the extra low-end comes from the thin shell (though interestingly he doesn't advertise the exact thickness of the shell). Anyway, the 6.5 must be really something! They say Bronze is warm, and this drum is no exception. It has an absolutely pleasant and characteristic tone that I can't capture in words. I'll add some sound clips when I can!

UPDATE: Here are some samples!




One thing that impressed me is that the Indy really seems to stay in tune. I hit pretty hard, and tend to hit a lot of rim shots. Some of my other snares tend to get floppy and sloppy as the set progresses. But the Indy did well in its debut gig. I kept checking it and only needed to make a few minor adjustments as we moved along. Big bonus!

When I ordered the drum I did some research and found that it's not exactly "Made in Canada"... rather assembled in Canada, if you know what I mean. But now that I've held it in my hands and heard it, I could care less if parts came from Taiwan or wherever. It's just a fine drum. Period.

If you see one of these, grab it.  Really fantastic!