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Issue #8___\__\__\__\__\__________/__/__/__/__/ Aug 97

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                    TABLE OF CONTENTS
                 What is in this issue?
         Contents:
           1. Feature Article:
                Bass Drum Muffling

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               *** FEATURE ARTICLE ***
              (Replacement For August 97)

NOTICE:
     The following article was never sent out to
the subscriber list.  Though it may be a helpful
article for some students . . . others may find good
reason to argue with it.  The topic is a bit contoversial.
For that reason, it never made it as a feature article.
     I've decided to put it in this spot because the original
TD #8 was a boring article, chock full of what are now dead links.

     The article below was originally an e-mail response to a student
who asked:

Q:      "Why do so many pro-drummers pack their bass drums
with blankets and pillows"?

     My response to the question went like this . . .
.....................................................................................
       
    You wouldn't believe how complex, humorous and ridiculous
the 'answer' to your question REALLY is . . .

     It ends up being a sign-of-the-times and a humongous joke on
CRAFTSMEN and CEOs of nearly all the drum-manufacturing companies
of the 1990s!  What we have here is a total lack of communication
between the builders of drum sets and the people who play them. 

HERE IS THE STORY . . .
  
    (Kick-back and get ready for this . . .)

    The craftsmen who build drums all over the world are craftsmen.
THEY AREN'T DRUMMERS!  The CEOs who manage the craftsmen are CEOs.
And they, most often aren't drummers either!

    So . . . the craftsmen build the drums to produce pure, ringing
(yukky) tone.  They use the best building and construction techniques,
the best woods, bevel all the contact points and produce a beautifully
crafted masterpiece and a finished product they are proud of . . .

    BUT . . . they are using hand-me-down, 'stringed instrument
mentality' as they produce these percussion masterpieces.  It is
like they are trying to build VIOLINS for people to beat on! 
  
    Drums are not stradivarius violins!  THEY ARE DRUMS
and should be built to sound like drums!  THAT'S THE PROBLEM!

    The CEOs over-see the whole thing and make sure that everything
is done properly, then market the drums at VERY high prices . . .
touting the superb craftsmanship, quality ingredients and
construction techniques . . .

    We (dumb) drummers plunk down our hard earned money and buy the
BEST the world has to offer!  The drums we buy look beautiful,
but those guys (craftsmen & CEOs) aren't in touch with reality!
Their drum-tones SUCK TURNIPS as far as REAL drummers are concerned!
Even the most expensive drums 'suck', coming out of the box! 
   YUK!  Those expensive new mahogany drums sound TERRIBLE!!!!
No self-respecting drummer would ever keep his gig with drums
that sound that awful!

    So it's . . . A-TUNING WE WILL GO . . .

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?  (It's sad!)

    99% of us (myself included) promptly take the drums home,
thwart all the crafty efforts and do everything to the kit
that we CAN, to make them sound LIKE WE WANT THEM TO SOUND!!!
We muffle away all that purity-of-tone . . . 'EVERY-POSSIBLE-WAY'
. . . with blankets, pillows, foam rubber, newspapers and
ROAD-KILL, haha!  ANYTHING to deaden that nauseous, voluminous,
ringing NOISE those guys worked sooooooooo hard to achieve!

THE PROBLEM?
    Our (non-drumming) craftsmen and (non-drumming) CEOs are not
AT ALL in touch with the reality of the situation!  They aren't
drummers and they unknowingly prove it with the terrible tones they

strive so diligently to produce! 

FINALLY!  THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION!
    Here it is . . .
    Packing the bass drum . . . bypasses and cancels all the
efforts of those non-drumming craftsmen.  All their efforts
were in vain!

    We 'drummers' want our bass drums to produce a nice, solid
thud . . . or 'poof' sound.  That sound is best achieved
by packing and muffling everything!  The same general
problem exists ALL AROUND the drum set, including the snare
and toms too. 
   Side line industries have grown out of this insane dilemma. 
Dead-Ringers, Sound-Ovals and other muffling devices have become
BIG businesses as spin-offs of this craziness! 
    AND . . . I'll bet there are enough pillows and blankets
stuffed in the bass drums of the world to out-fit a small
South American army!
          ...............................

    Bong, Bong, Bong just doesn't cut it in a real world
where band-leaders and club-owners will fire you for the
slightest reason.
    Most drummers, crowds, club-owners, band-leaders,
dogs, cats and passing strangers hate the pure (ringing, bonging)
tone that those non-drumming carpenters worked sooooooo hard to
get from their meticulously-crafted masterpieces!

    About the only drummer who WON'T 'stuff' his bass drum is the
Salvation Army drummer (banging whole notes) at Christmas, 
on the corner in front of Wal-Mart!  HE'S NO DRUMMER EITHER! 
    The rest of us do EVERYTHING we can to eliminate the dreadful
boinging sounds those (beautiful) drums were specially crafted
to make!

    I think part of the problem began in Taiwan with 'Pearl' drums
and spread like cancer throughout the entire industry . . .

    At one time . . . drums were made by drummers!  The older
Ludwig, Rogers, Gretsch and Slingerland kits all contained
TONE-CONTROLS to dampen the overtones and undesirable ringing. 
I suspect that the 'sly' CEOs of Taiwan and other places
have deduced that by omitting those costly 'tone-controls'
saves them several million dollars a year . . . They figure
we (drummers) are too dumb to notice or know the difference.
The extra (saved) money then finds its way into their pockets
& coffers and the drum prices go up rather than down. 
(Maybe they aren't so dumb?)  Maybe the joke is on us!
    First we pay a fortune for the drums then we spend another
fortune making them sound like drums (not violins!)
                 .........................

Copyright Bill Powelson 1994 all rights reserved.

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 What you don't know is a killer.  Take a minute to actually SEE your
future.    Reach DRUMMING GURU STATIS in under 2hours, here.


   END OF TEMPO DISPATCH #8  






 

Copyright Bill Powelson 1994 all rights reserved.