House of Drumming.com

Gretsch wins for me because of how they sound in context. The frequencies come through in a way to reveal the cool character.

Lots of drummers sound good on other drums, but its not me. Not at this time anyway.

I understand what you're saying Josiah, but what would Gibson guitars be without the '59 Les Paul. It's kinda like the roundbadge drums and who played them and how many recordings, and i mean huge recordings they've been on. Kind of Blue, gretsch. Live at Birdland, Gretsch. But you're also the person that pisses on a lot of Jazz drummers for not playing a million notes per minute like gary novak so i take it with a grain of salt. The thing is, I don't think you really understand the history of american music and drumming.

Does anyone remember the Acid Jazz genre? I think it was perhaps a UK-only thing (or at least very UK-centric).

Anyhow, it seemed like everyone one played Sonor in that. It was when I was a lot more obsessed with drumming than I am these days and went to a gazillion gigs and clinics. The Sonors sounded quite good but I was never as blown away by them as I expected to be... DWs sounded good, Yamaha's sounded amazing, Pearl's sounded literally awful. Gretsch still sounded the best to my ears - but I guess it's not really 'best' or worst it's just what we all look for from a drum sound.

In my opinion, one portion of the old verses new argument that is sometimes left out is the aging of the wood and the metal(for cymbals). Wood continues to dry over time, and I feel the molecules as they are aging respond to the player. Take DW(hold on all you haters). All I always here about is "Keller shelled DW's. The new ones sound like crap". Did anyone stop to think that maybe they sound better because the wood has aged? This is a concept I read about in an interview with Yamaha Drum Guru Hagi. He was speaking of some drums he made that very day and said in 10 years the sound will REALLY be dialed in. At first I thought it was weird. I'm sure he wants to sell drums TODAY, not have people buy used kits or wait for a set to sit for a while. But I learned this first hand with my own kits. My Birch Yamahas sound better now 12 yrs later than the day I bought them. Same with my DW's. I think in fact after 7 yrs of owning the DW's they have only recently started to really have the sound dialed in. Take into consideration the technological advances in terms of manufacturing and resonance isolation and it is hard to not have a superior drum now. Ive always looked at high end instruments as not only tools, but an investment. Not really financially, but an investment into the devlopment of your sound and the sound of the instrument. Charlie Watts has said in print that when he gets a new cymbal he likes to bury it in the dirt and let it "marinate", sometimes for over a year.

come on people , it has been the same story since the marketing existed , the best part is to see a pic of donati or mayer near a 500$ drum kit in these magazines .

I think it's definitely true that drums will sound different as they age. Hopefully for the better, but I'm not sure. I've never kept any drums longer than about 7 or 8 years. The wood will dry out over time, and that should probably make it harder, or more brittle. I wonder if anyone has done a test with two identical drums, from different eras.

Have a set of yammy RC's that are 25 years old. They still sound great. Think they sound more punchy these days. They project well.

Mmm, I don´t know man.
To me is all about tuning, head and stick choice (plus maintenance, room acoustics, player technique, etc). The whole thing about aging -while it may be true- is just 1% of the whole equation.
BTW, can´t believe people judge a drum sound based on random club clips. "X used to sound so much better with X brand" WTF?

He mentioned having bought a purplish kit some years ago; that may be it.

Julián Fernández wrote:Mmm, I don´t know man.
To me is all about tuning, head and stick choice (plus maintenance, room acoustics, player technique, etc). The whole thing about aging -while it may be true- is just 1% of the whole equation.
BTW, can´t believe people judge a drum sound based on random club clips. "X used to sound so much better with X brand" WTF?

+1 It is silly. Most drums have the potential to sound killer, even crappy ones. But a lot of cheap snares, (including TAMA wood snares --beds unmodified) cannot sound good due to the strainer systems sucking.