i love when you hear someone really rockin hard and then you look at their set and its like charlie browns xmas tree w/ like nothing to it, really limited drums or cymbals
if you ever watch stray cats on youtube the drummer has like a bass snare and cycmbal and thats it
i know most people are into the neil peart thing with the 5,000 piece drum set which is cool too just wondered if others think the way i do
Slim Jim Phantom was a killer drummer. He did was what necessary for The Stray Cats. Nothing more, nothing less. Personally I base my kit and cymbal set-up on the band / music I am playing. My rock band I use a 4 piece kit, I can use a 5-6 piece if need be, but it doesn't require it. For cymbals I have 14" hats, 22" ride and two 18" Crashes. But for my metal band I have a 6 piece kit, two sets of hats,ride, four crashes ( 2 16" - 2 18" ) few bells and a cymbal stack. For what we do, I require more sounds and accents.
I've had my monster set-ups, and will again some day. I love having numerous musical options between drums & cymbals. But I always suit the song.
About 80 percent of the gigs I play I'm already in charge of the PA so I just don't have time set up a big kit. You couple that with the fact them I'm pretty lazy about hauling gear my gigging kits are small. My goto kit is a Big R orphan set, 22 kick 12 rack and 16 ft, snare, ride, 1 crash and hats. In general that is the bare minimum that I'm comfortable gigging with. Although over the summer one of my bands has a standing sunday night gig at a club with outdoor seating. When it rains we get pushed into a tent with a tiny tiny stage. I literally can only fit my kick, snare, hats and one cymbal up there, makes for an interesting night but I get through.
I would love a monster set but could never afford it or have the room or want to set up and break down.
If I had the room I would look into setting up some kind of monster kit. But it would never leave the room so unless you came and visited me I would not be seen playing it. It would be so much fun to roll around and around and around.
But really I prefer the look (and portability)of smaller kits, so out and about you will only see me with 1 rack tom over my kik drum.
If less is more, nothing at all is the most....more or less.
I'll be playing every show from now on using the Club Dates; rock, jazz, whatever. But even with no cymbal stands, just one bass drum mounted cymbal, the hardware bag is still too heavy. :)
Mitch
I remember going to an audition for musicians Sea World was having. This kid and his friend took almost an hour setting up a monster kit, complete with a cage like rack system. The instructor had him play a few rudiments on the snare, he never touched any other drums or cymbals. I don't know if he got the gig, but he sure went through a lot of trouble for nothing. I believe a lot of drummers with huge kits, especially the guys in bar bands, think it looks impressive to have as much gear as possible on stage and that goes for other musicians as well. I never understood this concept, you can be much more creative on a small kit, not to mention the loading, unloading and small stages most small clubs provide.
An experienced drummer can get many sounds out of a 4 piece set-up by using dynamics and a well developed technique.Buddy rich is a good example of this as he never really used his second 16" floor tom.I personally prefer less as more usually creates over playing of fills which is not a bad thing depending on what style of music you are playing.
Wayne
