Drummer Fish.....what kind of shell do you think Alex was using on his touring kits? It damn sure wasn't rocker's! Thanks clubdate for re-posting that thread.

Al used a variety of shell material over the years. But with the FW kit he used Vistalite that was reinforced by foam so that DLR could stand on them and do stage antics. For the most part he used Remo Control Dot or the Ludwig equivalent Silver Dot all around his kit, even his snare and kicks.

I'll have to disagree with Roth not able to sing, people don't give him enough credit. :p

Big AVH fan since the early 80's chimming in. I saw this fair warning tour set when it was at guitar center in Los Angeles in 1998. The shells were vistalite I think and the set had to be coated heavy with something inside as DLR would stamd on the bass drums and they needed to be strong to accomidate him.

The set in question may be a good deal for that price but honestly though rocker II drums were just crap. Back in high school being an obsessed VH fan in the late 80's I bought a white simmons set along with two white rocker bass drums so I could emulate the 5150 tour set as I saw that concert in 1986. Why I picked white is beyond me but those bass drums were just junk. I got rid of those many years ago but believe it or not I still have the simmons set. 5 white pads and the kick pad. If you use an SDS-8 btain you can get that exact sound and also replicate the hot for teacher intro.

As for the recent VH, I miss Michael Anthony but it is what it is. DLR is not singing that great IMO but honestly I think Dance the Night Away is his worst song. He changed the melody for some unknown reason and it sounds terrible....

I was never much of a Van Halen fan but went a few years ago when Roth rejoined and Wolfgang joined.

Live, this band is up there with the best. Eddie really has become this mythical guitar god. I was in awe. Sounds silly but I was like a little kid. And Roth is an important part of the band. Yes he yaps too much but Sammy is boring.

Wow what a drum kit by the way. Nice piece of history there.

ps Rocker II's are very good drums too. Still Made in USA. As long as the B&W badge is there it's all good.

Thanks Larryz! It's good to know that the kit isn't trash. I didn't really know anything about rocker shells because I was a Tama guy at the time.

I think with re-finishing the edges, good clean, lube, shine, new heads and a perfect tunning job, they'll sound good enough....especially through a PA. Those power toms do have some serious volume but the bass drums 22's need some help. The heads are old and out of tune but they just don't have the "BOOM" my 26" maple classic's has.

S.L., i don't know what the shells were for all his early kits as i only started working for my old boss in 93 and had a few trips to the v.h. storage unit.

when i seen the old kits in the back they all looks like standard maple shells from the period those kits were used, except for the stainless kit. the exaust pipes from the kit were hanging on the office wall.

in my experience thru asking questions, al would order a kit from ludwig for every tour plus some extras. all the kits i seen looked like 4 ply and 6 ply ludwigs from the 80's on up till 97 when they went to the thin 9 ply shells. this incl the extra drums used in the studio or to experiment with.

the reason i went with my old boss to the v.h. storage unit was because al / the band was getting rid of alot of extra parts, road cases and stuff that built up thru the years. it was all sold off.

originally, it was all going to be thrown away (some really beat up hdwr was thrown away) but don't worry folks, no kits were trashed that i know of.

he added other types of drums to those kits like north toms, electronics, i seen alot of modified hdwr pieces, and he even reused drums to incorperate into other kits.

my memory isn't strong on this one, but i seem to recall the "lips" kit used at the US festival was a previous kit covered in what i guess were stickers. from what i read this kit was only used for that show.

Cool. Love the stories! Thanks for sharing them.

p.s.:

as a side note, i believe it was around 1997...perhaps 2000, al was approached my peavey to play their radial drums. those peavey drums was around from 94-02, so it was somewhere in there.

anyway, since brother ed played peavey it was talked about and al was sent a peavey kit (i remember seeing this kit at the other storage unit but heard the story later on)

al tried them and for whatever reason, at the 11th hour he didn't pull the trigger. he contacted ludwig at the last minute to get a kit for the upcoming tour and they made it happen.

also, al considered using ahead drum sticks. they made some sticks for him and he used them alot. i only know this because my old boss had a bunch of them.

i only seen a few with the v.h. logo on them, the rest did not. i have one stick used by al with the v.h. logo. i suspect he never endorsed them since he's still with regal tip today.