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His kick drum sounds like absolute ass! ive been noticing that on recent recordings. no definition. just poop.

You can judge this by watching that clip ? Shooted with a phone I guess, with the distortion and all that goes with that kind of clip ?
Don't get me wrong, I think that Vinnie's sound was better with G and Z, but how can we judge here ?

Hey Rodge, Im mainly talking about the tuning which i can get a clear picture of here. Towards the end of his time with Gretsch, for example albums like Oz Noy's twisted Blues and Jeff Lorber's Now is the time, he basically tuned his kick drum so low that it had no definition. I believe that was one of his main reasons for switching to Ludwig was his changed preferences in tuning. I think it's kind of like his Zen art of no response out of the drums. I personally prefer his tuning form his early days with Sting and his early Gretsch period.

gretsch-o-rama wrote:Towards the end of his time with Gretsch, for example albums like Oz Noy's twisted Blues and Jeff Lorber's Now is the time, he basically tuned his kick drum so low that it had no definition. I believe that was one of his main reasons for switching to Ludwig was his changed preferences in tuning.

His bass drum never lacked definition. He tunes fairly low, but not ridiculously so. I've played both his Gretsch and his Ludwig kits, and both sounded great. His switch had nothing to do with tuning preference. One reason had to do with Ludwig's combination of quality drums, hardware and pedals, whereas Gretsch is more of an a-la-carte situation.

Does that mean no more DW pedals?

circh bustom wrote:Does that mean no more DW pedals?

He's using Atlas pedals.

That's right, no more DW pedals. He's using Ludwig's hardware and pedals.

Paul Marangoni wrote:

gretsch-o-rama wrote:Towards the end of his time with Gretsch, for example albums like Oz Noy's twisted Blues and Jeff Lorber's Now is the time, he basically tuned his kick drum so low that it had no definition. I believe that was one of his main reasons for switching to Ludwig was his changed preferences in tuning.

His bass drum never lacked definition. He tunes fairly low, but not ridiculously so. I've played both his Gretsch and his Ludwig kits, and both sounded great. His switch had nothing to do with tuning preference. One reason had to do with Ludwig's combination of quality drums, hardware and pedals, whereas Gretsch is more of an a-la-carte situation.

Aye, sir! I appreciate that you have more familiarity with Vinnie and his gear but i disagree and his kick drum does sound like shit. So do both his gretsch and ludwig drums in recent years. But i am forming my opinion based on all my experience which is recordings(which i trust more) and videos. It's true i do prefer the dryer sound of gretsch. I also have recorded enough to have an educated guess on what drums sound like live on any given recording. I also know when you tune as low as Vinnie does it makes things a lot more difficult to get out and probably more chance of a repetitive stress injury. My opinion, sir!

ps. i did see him with herbie in 2010 and he did not tune that way and the drums sounded great!

Saying one drum sounds drier than another is very subjective. I think Gretsch drums actually have a rounder tone with a bit more sustain than Ludwig, which have a kind of "thonk" or "bark" to them. Vinnie really does love the Ludwig sound. As for your dislike of his recorded bass drum sound, I think it would be more appropriate for you to complain to the engineers/producers/soundmen involved.

I think both sound great, but to my taste the cool Gretsch character cuts through a little better in dense music and is just as cool on other stuff. Ludwigs I've heard have that thing too, but I feel they work better in more open sounding situations. I know there are many factors involved though, and it's just my taste.