The overarching idea with the current configuration of the drum kit is that I wanted lighter, primarily single-braced hardware, in order to cut down on the overall weight for transport. The downside of that is that a single-braced, small-seated drum throne is just not pleasant when you're playing a 3+ hour bar gig. I had been noticing it more and more recently, so I finally upgraded to a Pearl Roadster throne, the one with the little cutout where your tailbone hits.

(And finding that link now, I think I may have paid too much for it, dammit. Must check Musician's Friend for price guarantees.)

The other consistent problem with bigger thrones -- and the reason I didn't just swap out the Tama First Chair I've got in my rehearsal space -- is that they're a royal pain in the ass to fit into any sort of case. Fortunately, the seat on this one would fit into a case for a 14" tom. Then you can double it up in the case with a snare drum, and the trick is to find a way to neutralize the mounting bracket on the bottom so it sits flat.

My solution was a 3" deep spring-form cake pan in the bottom of the case. Anything deeper and the snare drum wouldn't fit on top. So far so good on that front.

Anyway, last night was the first gig with this particular throne, and wow, what a world of difference. No discomfort at all. Now I just wish I could say that about my playing.

With nearly a month between gigs, and two recent gigs on a fairly brightly lit stage, I'm going to clean the buildup of stage gunk and venue smoke off of my drums. They're getting kind of nasty. I'll probably do it again in January once the smoking ban goes into effect.

I also finally "finished" the signage on the front of the kick drum, or at least ordered what I need to finally finish it. The original idea, back when I was in multiple bands, was to affix "NOTABBOTT DOT COM" across the top, then have the name of the band attached underneath with velcro, so I could swap it out depending on which band I was playing with at the time. The second part never actually happened, and of course, I'm only in one band right now, but after exhausting all the DIY options I cared to investigate with no luck, I ordered an office nameplate that should do the trick.

Hopefully, this will give slightly better indication of what the name of the band is. And yes, the tag reads "/diver" and will redirect to the Diver site. Because I'm that much of a geek.

Now I just need to make the Diver site not suck.

Dammit, Musician's Friend is no longer carrying the Sabian Paragon crash pack, a 16" and 18" Paragon crash with a "free" 10" splash cymbal thrown in. This would have been a perfect addition to the practice kit, which currently sports two cracked crash cymbals and a Paiste effect cymbal, but I was waiting in order to space out bigger purchases.

That'll teach me to not make impulse buys.