I’m proud to say that one of the most consistent comments I get from sound engineers and fellow musicians is how good my kit sounds, it’s taken a long time and many drum kits and lots of frustrating hours spent learning how to tune the drums properly to get there, but I believe a great sounding instrument is just as important as being able to play it. Below is the setup I’m very happy to have ended up with.
Main Kit
My main setup for live and studio work is a 5 piece Pearl masters maple custom kit with platinum mist finish in the following sizes:
22″ Bass drum
10″ x 8″ high tom
12″ x 8″ mid tom tom
14″ x 12″ low tom tom
14″x5″ Ludwig 1963 Supraphonic or 14×5 Pearl Masters Maple Custom
All of these drums apart from the snare are made of multi ply maple and give a lovely warm sound and great punch when tuned properly. Please click here for some great tips on tuning drums; it really is an art form! It takes experience and a good ear to tune drums properly. I offer a mobile drum tuning and set up service. Please email or call me for more info
My drums are all mounted independently to increase resonance and cross talk using top of the line Pearl hardware.
Like most drummers I like to experiment with different gear and new sounds and it’s taken many years of sweat and toil and a large pile of cash to end up with a setup that I’m truly happy with!
Cymbals are a very personal thing and it can make or break your sound, I must have gone through at least 50 cymbals before finally settling down!
My current cymbal setup:
1 x pair of Paiste 13″ Dark Energy Hi Hats
1 x Paiste 22″ Dark Energy Ride Cymbal
1 x Paiste 17″ Dark Energy Crash Cymbal
1 x Paiste 2002 19″ Crash Cymbal
1x Paiste 2002 10″ Splash Cymbal
For Teaching
I only use top equipment in my studio to teach from, you won’t find ant rickety beat up kits here! At the moment I am using a state of the art ATV Electronic Drum Kit which sounds fantastic and is super responsive to pick up every nuance of your playing. It uses full size birch shells which look great too.
Whatever gear you’ve got you need the know how to make it sound the way you want, the more you learn it seems the more there is to learn. Drum Lessons can be a great kick start for your interest in drumming whether a beginner or more experienced.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding gear, tuning your drums or to learn drums in the Northern Beaches or Hornsby area of Sydney area even if you don’t have a kit yet and just fancy giving it a try before splashing out on your own set.