[equipment] So This Is The New Gear

After completing my two-and-a-half week quest to replace the drum gear that was stolen from my car, the real test was a pair of Diver gigs over the weekend.

First, the Yamaha hardware for the cymbal/tom stands. I'm still waiting on one short boom attachment, so I had a bit more bulk than I'd like in the interim, but by and large, I was pretty happy. Even with single-braced stands, they felt more solid than the old Premier double-braced stands, which suffered from the three-hole platform loosening up and the tom arm posts not fitting all that snugly. From the outset, things were just a little off, but a few adjustments between sets and I felt like mostly everything was in the right place. I'm still slightly concerned that I can't get the ride cymbal low enough, but it's not too far off, and I might be able to tweak it so the tripod legs are set wider, bringing the whole stand down a little lower.

Or I can cut down the boom attachment some more. I cannot stress how important it is to get a pipe cutter from a hardware store to trim off excess metal from your stands. Obviously, you don't want to overdo it, in case you want to change things later, but if you're pretty comfortable with your setup, it helps a lot. Not to mention, less metal means less weight.

The Pearl Power Shifter Eliminator double bass drum pedal demands it's own commentary. I've never been that good at knowing how I should set my pedals, so the eight million adjustments you could make to this one had me a bit flummoxed. I don't think I had the tension set right on Friday night, as I actually felt a little soreness where my leg meets my hip. I tried loosening it up quite a bit for Saturday, but somehow managed to leave things in a state where I lost all action from the pedal in the middle of a song and had to play out the rest of it just using the auxilliary pedal. And I didn't bring the allen wrenches that came with it, which left me unable to adjust the beater height. I'm sure it's a lovely pedal, but it's got a steep learning curve.

The cymbals were probably my biggest concern, because I bought most of them separately, and hadn't really had the chance to play them both loud and together. The Paragon hi-hats sound great, with a nice dark tone that's a bit of a switch from what I had before. The weird thing is that they're just not nearly as loud as my old Quick Beats. I actually like my hats a little less prominent in the overall sound, so that's not a bad thing. It will just take some getting used to.

I knocked it out of the park with the 16" A. Custom crash. Right in my sweet spot, as far as that size cymbals go, bringing me back to my old Sabian crash that fell victim to a crack in the line of duty many, many years ago. The 8" A. splash is right on, as well.

Over on the right side of the kit, I'm still getting used to the new sounds. I got the same model of ride that I had previously, so it's not much of a change, but the new cymbal has a slightly different character. A little more projection when I lay into it, which is good, but makes it a little trickier to control at lighter volumes. Rides take some time to "learn" how to play, and this one's no different. The 18" K. Custom Session crash has a wonderful fundamental pitch to it, but the overtones hit me a bit lower than I'd prefer, or at least that I'm used to. I'm saying I'm on the fence on that one, but it will probably win me over.

Perhaps the better test will be rehearsal tomorrow night, when I'm a bit more of a controlled environment, both musically and in terms of being able to get in there early and hit the things in a quiet room.

The cumulative effect is that I feel like I've been able to "refine" the kit. I had an established vision for what everything was supposed to look and sound like, and built around that, rather than messing with the gear that I had to come up with an acceptable setup. It's like the gear equivalent of playing a song after you've recorded it, when you know how it's supposed to go. This is really "my" instrument now, on some weird level, where it wasn't really before.