Hi! Steve here. If you’ve been to one of our recent gigs you will have
seen I have a new drum kit, which made me reflect on the background stories to
the drums I’ve owned.
My 1st
drum kit: Stratford Besson ‘Shaftesbury’
I started drum lessons back in 1979 I think, with my parents
expecting it to be one of those many passing fads that teenagers have... not
realising I’d still be playing after all these years. After a while I’d saved
up enough hard-earned cash from working on a milk round (paying around £6 for a
Saturday) to buy the blue kit you see in the photo, for £160 from someone in
South Hornchurch. I was so excited I
probably would have bought almost anything I could afford, and being
pre-internet I knew absolutely nothing about it except it was manufactured
during the 1960’s as some of the drum ‘skins’ really were animal-skin rather
than plastic. You can also see the vintage from the skinny cymbal stands in the
photo. I was very proud of my drums, but they couldn’t look more different to
the drums of the 1980’s which were getting ever larger and more ludicrous (see
Capelle below) with cymbals sky-high and steeply-angled tomtoms. These days it’s gone full-circle and yet again
we have lower, flatter toms and cymbals (much easier to play fast)- my old kit
would have fitted in perfectly. After around 5 years learning the ropes I sold
it, hopefully whoever has it now gives it the respect it deserves.
In writing this article I thought I would find out more
about its history. According to web sources Stratford Besson originated in the
mid-nineteenth century in France before locating to London in the mid-1930’s,
and being bought by Boosey & Hawkes in 1948. It became a sister brand to
Ajax and English Rogers (sister in turn to the famous US Rogers brand). My kit
came with 2 Ajax cymbals (I can still remember the sound of one of them!). Most
of the components were interchangeable and from the same factories. Interestingly,
I found online a collector had a rusty Besson 1930’s snare drum (see photo),
with identical ‘marine pearl’ coloured wrap and badging to my 1960’s kit,
although improvements were made over those 30 years to the metalwork. The Besson
brand disappeared at some point but has recently resurfaced in France,
specialising in brass instruments exactly as it first started. Whether it’s
fashions or factories, strange how history repeats itself.
Melanie Tri-Fantom
Also in my photo, you can see at some point I also added a
curious black triple-tom arrangement manufactured by British brand Melanie. At
the time Remo’s ‘Roto-toms’ were fashionable and this seems a simpler
competitor. I still have it! I’ve never really found much use for it though as
I could never find a comfortable position for them. Apparently they were
popular with some reggae artists such as Sly Dunbar.
Quite simply it sounds amazing, I'm looking forward to recording with it soon! With the addition of Duncan's arty skin it looks pretty cool too!
If you've read through this far then thanks for listening!
Steve
As a side-note, the Fantoms were supplied with a rugged
stand made by the French brand Capelle, who most famously supplied some outrageous
looking drums in their ‘Turbo’ range. A music shop in Hadleigh had them and I
can still remember coveting a scarlet set similar to the photo. They also made
a very unusual inverted-spring kick drum pedal I tried and admired. They had
the wild look I was aiming for, but were far too expensive for a school-kid.
Perhaps for the best as reviews suggest the extra size has little impact on
sound, and the Capelle brand seems to have disappeared.
My 2nd
kit: Pearl Export II circa 1987
Well, what to say about this kit? The Pearl Export was the
best-ever selling drum kit of all time, I believe because Pearl (from Japan)
were innovating hard while the competition slept, pouring R&D money not
only into new design features but also to their purpose-built factory in
Taiwan. The Export was perhaps the most solidly made kit you could buy then at
that price, and the investment paid off with a good ‘booming’ sound despite
being made from cheaper wood. The funny thing with being so popular is I still
keep seeing them everywhere! Pearl has recently reintroduced the range at
around £500, which is amazing value as I seem to recall they cost the same
price back in the 1980’s! I bought my kit from a friend (hi Stuart if you see
this!) who bought it new. I’ve always looked after this kit and as it sounds
great I expect to get many more years use from it. At the time of writing it’s recently
returned from a month rehearsing in my office basement up in the City,
culminating in a pub Xmas gig with colleagues.
My 3rd
kit: Drum Workshop (‘DW’) Design Series
So,
after about 25 years I finally decided to get another kit! Well, I guess some
people get a sports car in their middle age. It’s my first ever kit bought
brand new, and the choices open to you these days are staggering. Everything is
so much better made than it was years ago, competition and clever design has made
it a buyers’ market. They say that 80% of what you hear with a drum kit is down
to the heads (skins) and tuning, so I thought long and hard deciding what was I
after to improve the remaining 20%. In the end I decided I wanted the warmth
and long decay that maple shells would offer, wanting that 20% of the sound to go
‘boom’ as much as possible, and my budget suggested either the Gretsch Renown
or this kit. DW have always been innovative since forming in the US in 1972 and
take great pride in delivering something special for their customers (they are
principally known for their special order custom kits), and the final two
things that made me settle on the DW: firstly this kit might have to last me
another 25 years, so I wanted the solid build DW are well known for (the
shipping weight of the kit with stands was a whopping 75kg), and secondly DW
are known for their shell technology meaning a deeper, longer resonance. Whenever
I’ve seen and heard a DW kit in the flesh I’ve been impressed and deciding
between the Gretsch and DW I felt was
that the brand appealed: I wanted something less ‘corporate’ than the historic
brands. In the latest twist DW have bought Gretsch drums and hope to improve build quality.Quite simply it sounds amazing, I'm looking forward to recording with it soon! With the addition of Duncan's arty skin it looks pretty cool too!
If you've read through this far then thanks for listening!
Steve
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