Winter 08-09
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Good Day! Tending to the long overdue updates…
A couple of shows worthy of note: The Ken Clark Organ Trio is performing in Portsmouth NH on December 21 at one of our favourites — The Dolphin Striker. We consider that week to be ‘holiday week’, so no doubt there will be some Hammond B3 versions of some Xmas favourites that night… (You won’t have to twist Ken’s arm too far to get a performance of “The Grinch” that night!) Check out the Dolphin Striker @ www.dolphinstriker.com
A bit further on, I’m excited to be playing with my own jazz group – the Tough Love Trio – on February 28 at the Acton Jazz Café in Acton MA. We’ll be playing the dinner set, starting at 7pm & finishing up at 8:30pm. Do hope you can join us for this one! The Acton Jazz Café is one of the most highly regarded venues for live jazz & blues in New England. In addition to offering live music every night, they have a full bar & restaurant. Great food, drinks, & atmosphere, and just 24 miles west of Boston. Check out the AJC @ www.actonjazzcafe.com
A couple of new additions to the drum den:
1.) An Eames 12” x 18” 9-ply bass drum, in Cherry Wine, to match the other drums in the ‘Workhorse’ kit. Once again, I’ve gone 2 inches shallower than ‘traditional’ in depth, as this provides additional articulation (as proven by my 12” x 20” bass drum) – in addition to the nice round tonality so desired from a bass drum. Using solid heads (no front port), & a playing technique that refrains from “burying the beater”; I’m able to get the best of both worlds out of these 12” deep bass drums. Joe MacSweeney (he IS Eames Drum Co.) is once again the “bomb diggity” of craftsmen, and produced an absolutely gorgeous instrument – both sonically & visually.
2.) An MDK 6.5” x 14” snare drum in natural mahogany – finished with tung oil. This drum was beautifully crafted by Craig Winston of MotorCity Drum Kitchen. The idea was to begin with a ‘vintage’ Mahogany-Poplar-Mahogany shell, but instead of using the traditional Maple reinforcement rings, I had Craig install Birch re-rings. One of my old favourites is a 5” x 14” WFL snare drum from 1958, which is the Mahog-Pop-Mahog shell with the Maple re-rings. I thought about this snare drum, & what I’d like to hear differently if presented the opportunity. The first idea was to get a bit more air in the chamber, thus the new MDK is 6.5” deep. The second idea was to use Birch instead of Maple for the reinforcement rings. I’m very familiar with Birch as all of my Eames drums are made of Birch, so I know that Birch (to my ear) provides a bit more…attack. That species seems to have more top & bottom end in the frequency spectrum than Maple – which is more of a mid-range sounding species (again, to my ear). So I figured that Birch might be a nice counterpoint to the warm ‘fatness’ of the Mahogany shell. I’m pleased to report that this experiment was a success! As well, Craig did an amazing job on the bearing & beveled edges, & also finished the drum with a vintage Ludwig air vent badge. Excellent work Craig!
And for those who simply cannot get enough of my obsessive-compulsive rambling about drums…
Regarding my Eames cherry wine “Work Horse” drum set, I’d previously mentioned (gear page) that my 8″ X 12″ mounted tom utilizes the Yamaha Y.E.S.S. system. According to Yamaha, “This rod clamp system allows attachment of the drum to the tom holder without the need of a hole in the drum shell for the rod to pass through. The YESS clamp is attached to the shell at the nodal point with two bolts so as to allow the shell to vibrate freely without degrading the shell’s dynamic range and sustain. The nodal point is the location on a shell with the least amount of vibration allowing for the mount to have minimal affect to the resonance of the shell.” Well, after several years and countless gigs using this YESS system, I’ve decided to abandon it and go back to using only the traditional Yamaha tom bracket. I’d had Joe @ Eames Drum make a black 8″ X 12″ for me several months ago, and decided to opt for the traditional Yamaha bracket as opposed to the YESS bracket I’d been using on my other kits. Joe mounted the bracket a bit higher on the shell – I suppose using the so-called “nodal point” of the shell that Yamaha talks about (debatable if one truly exists, in my opinion.) One change we did make, however, is the use of nylon washers between all the contact points. These nylon washers act as ’spacers’ and separate the square metal bracket from the shell ever-so-slightly. The drum sounds wonderful and does not leave me craving for ‘enhanced resonance.’ This was such a success that I’ve decided to dispense with the YESS mounts altogether, on all of my kits.
My reasons for abandoning what is supposed to “enhance resonance”:
1.) Enhanced resonance is a matter of opinion. The difference in sound between the traditional bracket (using nylon spacers) and the YESS system is very minimal in most cases. And once the band kicks in, the difference is essentially zero. Believe me; if there was a major loss of sound going back to a traditional bracket, I wouldn’t do it, even in light of point two:
2.) A drum that utilizes the YESS system is being suspended by only 2 screws at this so-called “nodal point.” Translation: the drum wobbles & dances way too much. Playing anything more than a few quarter notes on said tom-tom results in a wobble festival that is fairly aggravating. The connection with the traditional tom bracket feels much more secure and stable. Additionally, many live sound engineers insist on using ‘clip-on’ microphones for the tom-toms. Frankly I was never comfortable with the added weight of a microphone clamped to a drum that is suspended by only 2 screws.
Look Steve! A Comment! Woo!