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Ray Ayotte's New Drum line - some info & a kit recently finished

Posts: 2713 Threads: 555

RAYA DRUMS - Ray Ayotte's new line of drums. They are beauties. Some new stuff going on here in the world of drums. I thought the folks here would be interested.

The following is paraphrased from an email Ray sent me today.....

The drum set in question is the new RAYA Nesting Travel Kit. It is a design he evolved over time.

The bass drum is 18x17, and it splits at 12 1/2" and 5 1/2". The short part has the spurs attached. What you see are the adjustable tension stainless steel clamps. There are three for the bass drum and three for the floor tom. The 6 ply shells come apart at the seam, without affecting drum head tension.

The 18x17 accepts the 14" floor tom, which splits and accepts the 10" rack tom. The snare is 14" and fits on top of the floor tom inside the bass drum.

The four drums weigh in at 29 lbs - superlight.

The sound is unbelievable. The snare is 6ply with no rings, and 8 tension. It sounds incredible.

The finish here is semigloss sheen tung formula and process.

It's completely natural, Ray’s Tung oil process - food safe, repairable and non-toxic to apply. Infinitely better for the builder’s health than poisonous lacquer fumes. He’s learned to control the surface sheen of the finish, from a matte to gloss finish and he can do this in stain colours, bursts & fades. The finish is gorgeous.

Ray has designed stainless steel claw hooks for his RAYA DRUMS. The claw hooks are curved to fit the different diameters of each hoop.

Note badge on side of bass drum.

Later, this drumset will have a tom holder platform sitting on top of bass drum instead of floor stands for cymbals and tom holder.

The 4 drums fit into a 20x20x20 ATA flight case. At the moment Sam Cartwright (Ray built these for Sam) is in Finland touring thru Scandinavia.

contact information.

RAYA Drums

[email]ray.ayotte@gmail.com[/email]

1-604-241-2410

Steveston in Richmond (Vancouver) BC Canada

He can also be reached thru Facebook.

Website not up yet, but will be www.rayadrums.com

The new RAYA Nesting set is incredible sounding. Cartwright will attest to that. Unbelievable - exactly what Ray had hoped for. Small sizes - the splitting as he worked it out has ZERO negative effect on the sound.

The 18x17 splits into a 12 1/2 and a 5 1/2, Sam also has another 5 1/2 bass module to make a 18 x 10 short kick. The 18x 12 1/2 can be used without the front module. Note the second row of lugs. Just remove head and claws and rods from the 5 1/2 module and away you go.

The floor tom, which is short, also comes with a longer module. And the 14" tom module will fit the snare drum for a 14x9" snare!

Pretty nice stuff

RAYA DRUMS - These were built by Ray Ayotte for Samuel Cartright

[IMG]http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z208/kona1084/RAYS%20DRUMS/SamcartwrightdrumsFRONTVIEWRAYA.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z208/kona1084/RAYS%20DRUMS/SamcartwrightdrumsdriversseatRAYA.jpg[/IMG]

Posted on 14 years ago
#1
Posts: 10714 Threads: 579

Gary, thanks for posting this,, hopefully Ray is here to stay with this endeavor!! Hey did you get a chance to play this kit?

Your drummers not much good is he!? What you need is someone that's as good as me. ! John Henry Bonham !!
Posted on 14 years ago
#2
Posts: 5176 Threads: 188

Cool drum set! The sizes and design are very practical for guys like me who play one nighters on the small stages.

Can you tell me if there are some kind of liners that the drums go into before they nest? I hate the idea of scuffs!Mister T

"God is dead." -Nietzsche

"Nietzsche is dead." -God
Posted on 14 years ago
#3
Posts: 126 Threads: 40

http://www.rockdrummingsystem.com/underground/drum-manufacturers/ayotte-drums.php

..................... A little History...............................

Ayotte Drums are a Canadian drum manufacturing company founded by Ray Ayotte in 1982. Ray led the Ayotte Drum Company into popularity with his innovative and creative drum designs.

In the year 2000 Ayotte Drums and Ray Ayotte parted ways, some people think that Ray was fired, and some people think that Ray didn’t like working with the board of directors for various reasons. Later in the year Ray started working for Taye Drums (another Canadian custom drum company).

Ayotte Drums are most known for their wooden hoops on their drum kits. Many drummers refuse to play on anything other than wooden rims once they have been able to play a drum kit with them. Ayotte claims that every drum, although entirely hand crafted, are within 3/1000 of an inch to the original drum specs.

Ayotte Drums are well known as an affordable high-end drum kit manufacturer. They are one of the few companies that actually make their own drum shells in house, which makes them stand out as a premiere drum company.

Thanks for the post and pictures

Posted on 14 years ago
#4
Posts: 2713 Threads: 555

Yes - I had a chat with Ray about Ayotte drums. He was involved with everything at Ayotte up to 1999. The parting of the two I won't get into, but lets just say it was very personal & good reason for Ray doing so. I would not be comfortable talking about anything like that here I'm sure you can understand.

Posted on 14 years ago
#5
Posts: 18 Threads: 3

I bought an Ayotte drumset in 1993. I still have the kit and I love it. It's still my main kit. I would like to add more drums to the kit. Is Ray still building drums these days?

Posted on 13 years ago
#6
Posts: 2713 Threads: 555

No - he's not been with Ayotte for a while now.....then he was President of Taye drums until 2007.

He has his own (not Ayottte) brand now.......the brand is RAYA.

Yes - the Ray Ayotte "era" Ayotte drums are very good drums.

From pasbart

I bought an Ayotte drumset in 1993. I still have the kit and I love it. It's still my main kit. I would like to add more drums to the kit. Is Ray still building drums these days?

Posted on 13 years ago
#7
Posts: 6288 Threads: 375

Sure are pretty, Kona !!

Kevin
Posted on 13 years ago
#8
Posts: 18 Threads: 3

Yes I was aware of Ray leaving Ayotte and being President of Taye drums until 2007. I had heard about Raya but can't find much info about them.

Does anyone know how I can find out information on my Ayotte drums. I'm guessing 1993, but I'm not sure. I've been emailing Ayotte. But they never reply.

Posted on 13 years ago
#9
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