Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless @ Water Music, Hoboken, NJ

It's time for Round 2 of the sessions that will become the new release by Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless on Innerscope Records, this time at Water Music in Hoboken, NJ. It's the old gang of Taylor, producer Kato Khandwala, guitarist and co-writer Ben Phillips, and rock-solid drummer Jamie Perkins. We're getting great sounds in WM's big room with my fave snare of the moment, my hot-rodded 14x5" Pearl Brass Sensitone. We've been using Jamie's 22x20" Ddrum kick and my Eames toms, except on a song called "I, Zombie", where we needed a more scooped and higher-pitched tom sound that I got by tuning the thin-shelled birch 12x8" and 16x14" Ddrum toms Jamie brought to the session. BTW, that's an old Slingerland bass drum shell being used as a tunnel to focus the bottom end of the Ddrum kick.

Really Tama? Really?

These warnings came with a Tama throne I just bought. Be careful out there kiddie's, drums can kill!

Larry and His Flask at The Outpost 3/10/10

I worked with a great band from Oregon called Larry and His Flask at The Outpost last week. My guitar-slinging buddy and former Dropkick Murphy Marc Orrell was producing and Ray Jeffrey was engineering. Drummer Jamin Marshall plays a simple kick and snare set up standing up! I really like these guys' approach, check 'em out when they come your way.

Ra Ra Redux with Ra Ra Riot

I'm back at Black Dog Recording Studio in Upstate New York to work on two more songs for Ra Ra Riot's upcoming release. The only difference this time is the 15º degree weather outside and my Drum Heaven 14x6.5" Limited Edition Hand-Hammered Copper Galaxy Custom Snare drum we're using for the song "Too Dramatic". I designed and produced ten of these drums about fifteen years ago and had a coppersmith do the hammering of the shell. What made this drum different was the solid brass reinforcement rings that support the copper shell. The bearing edges and snare beds are machined into the brass and there was some nifty engraving done by my good friend and personal drum guru John Aldridge. The brass re-rings give a little wetness to the normally dry sound of the copper which seems to work perfectly for the song the band is working on.

Supply Your Own Caption For This New Set Of Drum Links...

Cause I got nothin. Anyway, it's been awhile since I posted any "Drummers In The News" links, so here you go...

1) Fall Out Boy Andrew Hurley Has A Falling Out With Fall Out Boy

2) Ringo Finds God (Hint: It's Not Clapton)

3) Jazz Brush Great Ed Thigpen -1930 - 2010

4) Radiohead Drummer Phil Selway Plans Solo Tour

5) So You Want To Be A Drummer In A Led Zeppelin Tribute Band? Get In Line!

Far From Finished at The Outpost January 4-8 2010

The jaunty lads of Far From Finished came down to The Outpost in Stoughton, MA to begin work on their new CD for Old Shoe Records. Drummer Mark Cannata tracked 13 new songs including a couple kit changes to mix things up. We recorded the bulk of the songs in the center of the studio's excellent main tracking room using my 13 x 9" and 15 x15" Eames toms and the house 22 x16" Yamaha Stage Custom bass drum, then moved the kit to the corner of the room, surrounded it with baffles, and I then heavily dampened the kit with Moongels and paper towels. The different drum sounds will be used to highlight and contrast dynamic changes between the verses and choruses in a couple songs. Mark's heavily corroded solid maple 14 x 5.5" DW Craviotto (pictured above) was a wreck when he brought it in, but after adding batter and snare side heads, new Puresound snarewires, and lubing the tension rods, it sounded great and made it onto 3 tracks. My 14 x 5.5" brass Sensitone was used on 5 songs, and the always-useful Pearl Steve Ferrone made it onto 4 tunes. For an as-yet-untitled song, Mark wanted a drum kit that had a loose, old timey carnival vibe, so I detuned and loosened the snares on a 13 x 6.5" Yamaha Sensitive Series drum , used an old 16x16 Stage Custom floor tom tuned wide open as a kick drum, threw up a circa 1930s 11" Avedis Zildjian sock cymbal and a cowbell. and we got a great raunchy sound thanks to producer/engineer Jim Siegel .

I also had time on this project to tune the snare drums to specific notes that would work with the key each song was in. If the desired snare drum can't hit the actual key of the song and maintain the character we need, I try to tune it to a third or fifth of the note. I've been trying to do this a lot lately when possible, and although most people wouldn't notice it, an in-tune snare drum adds to the overall musicality of a song and has a mild positive psychoacoustic effect on the listener. (I just made that theory up but I think there's an element of truth in there somewhere)

Name That Badge - WE HAVE A WINNER!

The contest is simple: The first person to correctly identify this badge from a now-defunct American drum company wins. Vote by leaving a comment underneath this posting. First prize is bragging rights as the biggest drum nerd on your block. Second prize is ... well, as Ricky Bobby would say: "If you ain't first, you're last."

Good luck and may the best drummer win...

Blog reader Crider from Germany got it right, it's a Walberg & Auge badge.

W&A was a company from Worcester, MA that made parts and hardware for American drum companies. They also sporadically built drums, most notably the Perfection line, often with W&A-made Gretsch lugs. Above is a 1940's era W & A snare drum I recently restored for a friend. Note the black painted Jasper shell, the Gretsch Rocket lugs, and the Walberg and Auge strainer. (The gold-painted hoops were done after-market by a misguided soul) Here's a non-smudged pic of the badge. Congrats Crider!

More About My Favorite Snare Drum: The Pearl Steve Ferrone

I recently received a good question from an All Things Loud reader named Aaron who poses an interesting question about one of my favorites, the sadly discontinued Pearl Steve Ferrone 14x6.5" Signature snare drum.

Aaron asks: "Have you had any experience with the new Gretsch Steve Ferrone Signature kit or snare? and if so how does that compare with the Pearl?"

Well Aaron, I haven't had any experience w/ the Gretsch Ferrone drum, and I don't know how much input Steve had in designing the Pearl or Gretsch drums, but at a quick glance , the new Gretsch looks to be fairly similar to the Pearl drum which itself was a knock-off of a Ludwig Black Beauty. IMHO, what made the Pearl version so good is that it was a little more robust than a stock Black Beauty with a thicker shell (albeit NOT spun brass), heavier tube lugs, longer snare beds, and brass Super Hoops. The Gretsch drum has 2.3mm triple-flanged hoops as well, but I don't believe they are brass . Having owned a few Black Beauties from different eras, I think it's the Super Hoop and the snare beds that make the biggest difference. In my opinion, it's very hard to beat the sound of a brass shell snare drum (especially the Pearl Ferrone) when recording rock music. The attack is great, but what makes brass stand out above other metal drums is the musical quality of the tone and it's reactivity with the snares. I've A/B'd the Ferrone against a lot of snare drums (including quite a few Black Beauties) in the studio with many drummers, engineers, and producers and it always wins. That's not to say that it's the perfect drum for every type of music or song, because I often bring in another snare for a specific sound and color, but all things being equal the Ferrone just seems to stand up better under the mics than most snare drums. (The Tama Lars Ulrich Bell Brass aka "The Terminator" is another excellent choice for louder rock recording)

I'm an equal opportunity drum tech. I don't care how cheap or how worn a snare drum is, if it has the right sound for the song, I'm gonna use it. A drum has to earn it's place in my arsenal and to be honest the Ferrone sat around for awhile before I used it on a record. I bought it used and it came with an coated Ambassador head on it. I had hard time getting a good sound with it until I switched to a Remo Coated Controlled Sound batter head and added my own 24 strand snares. A lot of the engineers and producers I work with specifically ask for the drum when they hire me but I always give them a choice of other drums depending on the music. I really enjoy my 14x5" WorldMax Black Dawg and my latest aquisition: an inexpensive 14x5.5" brass Pearl Sensitone that I fixed up and hot-rodded for the studio.

While I'm on the subject, I always ask the producer and drummer what type of sounds they are looking for when deciding what drums I will bring to the studio. It's important that I get an idea of the type of music being recorded and how a drummer plays when I am choosing instruments for a session. That being said, there are certain drums and cymbals I will always take with me and the Ferrone is one of them. It's just that good.

PS: If anyone has had a chance to play the new Gretsch Ferrone drum, please drop me a line and let me know what you think.

"Toy" drums w/ Taylor Momsen and the Pretty Reckless

I pieced together a "toy" drum kit for the middle section of a song called "Miss Nothing" for Taylor Momsen's new CD. I used a 16" DW floor tom for the kick, a no-name piccolo tuned high, and hi hat with an 11" K Splash on the bottom and an old Avedis Zildjian "sock" cymbal on the top. Session producer Kato Khandwala recorded the kit with a pair of custom tube ribbon mics into Neve mic pre's and a Roger Mayer compressor. Sounded really cool. And yes, that's a Bowflex weight set holding the tom in place...

Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless @ The House Of Loud, Elmwood Pk., NJ

I'm back at The House Of Loud working with my friends Kato Khandwala, Ben Phillips, and Jamie Perkins again, this time on an new record by Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless for Interscope. Taylor is a talented young actress best know for her role on Gossip Girl, but she's also a really good singer and songwriter who is collaborating with Ben and Kato on songs for her CD. Drummer Jamie Perkins was brought in to put live drum parts over the parts Kato composed and sequenced and I was brought in to make the drums sound good.

This is a Rock record with a capitol R and Kato sets the bar just as high for the drums as he does for the rest of the production, so the first order of business was getting a deep and full kick drum sound. I took the resonant head off of the house DW bass drum and used my 1960s Gretsch kick as a resonator in front of it. We put a D112 in the DW and a Rode Classic II in the Gretsch to get a punchy thick sound.

I got to use a brass Pearl Sensitone on a song called "Light Me Up" and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I bought it used at GC a couple of years ago for short money, clean up the bubbling plating, and hot-rodded it for the studio. The drum sings like Pavarotti and has a musical cut to it not unlike an old Black Beauty.

The Take Back @ The Outpost 12/18/09

Boston punkers The Take Back hit the Outpost to record the first seven tracks for their upcoming CD due in 2010. Hard-hitting drummer Dave Sexton brought the rock and sailed through basics in just a few hours. We used the standard Yamaha kick with Eames toms and although Dave's Ludwig Black Beauty is pictured here, we ended up using the Pearl Steve Ferrone - what a surprise! Dave has a somewhat unorthodox way of setting up the kit - toms flat with the rack tom off to the side and cymbals up high. Works for him and kind of reminds me of the Pretenders' Martin Chambers.

Ch Ch Chaos with Ra Ra Riot!

The other night it was a group affair as everyone pitched in and built a Frankenstein drum kit for Ra Ra Riot's drummer Gabriel Duquette to play on a track called "Massachusetts". We threw up 8" and 10" Pearl Masters Retrospec toms that I tuned to resemble high-pitched Octobans. We put a cymbal on one floor tom and on the other, engineer/co-producer Andrew Maury put coins and other noisy bits which were prevented from flying off the drum by ingeniously taping a shirt over half the head. I attached 42 strand snares to the resonant head of the kick drum and we put another kick drum on it's side. We stacked cymbals on other cymbals, stuck a skewered soda can filled with change on the hi hat and threw in a cowbell for good measure. Good sport Gabe donned a hot pink duct tape head band for the occasion. 18 mics later the kit was committed to digits for posterity and you can hear it all when the record comes out. Good times...

Ra Ra Riot Days 2,3,and 4.

Still tracking drums for Ra Ra Riot's new record. Most of the big differences as far as drum sounds have been leaning towards low-pitched snare sounds. At a recent clinic, British drum great Dave Mattacks talked about de-tuning the few top tension rods closest to the drummer on the snare which helps drop the pitch, remove some overtones, and fatten the sound. I've been implementing this a bit because engineers and producers have been requesting a deeper, fatter dampened snare sound quite a bit lately and frankly it's not something I have had a lot of experience with. Yesterday for example, we used the 14x6.5" 7-ply maple Yamaha Sensitive Series snare tensioned very slack for a great fat 70s sound. Today I pulled out my Pearl Steve Ferrone 14x6.5" brass snare and tuned it to "E" to complement the key of the song.

I'm really enjoying working at Black Dog Recording Studio. The stu-stu-studio is situated in beautiful horse country of eastern New York near Saratoga Springs, far from the madding crowd. This is the very first session at Black Dog and I gotta say I'm impressed by the way the drums sound in the main room. There's a nice 70s Sphere Eclipse console, a good selection of mics, as well as a really sweet Pearl Masters Retrospec house kit. There's always kinks to work out in any new studio but manager/house engineer Dan Vidali made sure the place was running smoothly when we got here. If you're looking for an high quality, affordable destination location in the Northeast for your next recording, give the place a call.

Ra Ra Riot at Black Dog Recording Studio - Stillwater, NY

Started work last night with the fine folks of Ra Ra Riot and their talented drummer Gabriel Duquette at the brand spanking new Black Dog Recording Studio in upstate NY. Had a chance to use the beautiful maple snare drum by Italian maker Le Soprano that my friend Jerome Deupree gave me a few weeks ago. Also radically de-tuned the Yamaha Sensitive and gave it a controlled snare decay for a cool effect. More later...

Call Me NostraDrumus

If you take a look below at the date of my last blog entry (Curse Of The Drummer 2009) you'll notice that I made it on August 14th. In fact I wrote that at about 1:00 in the morning on the 14th and for some reason unknown to me I chose an x-ray image of a broken collarbone to illustrate the piece about the injuries that had plagued so many drummers in the summer months. No big deal right? Just another seemingly random blog entry to keep you guys entertained between drum tech info. The reason I mention the date of that last entry is because almost exactly 12 hours after I wrote that, I was involved in a traffic accident and yes, you guessed it, I broke my collarbone. Could've been a lot worse, grateful it wasn't, etc., etc. But the point is, out of all the photos I could have used to illustrate the article on drummer's injuries, I chose the image of the very injury I was to sustain that same day. Anyhoo, I had to stop playing for a couple months and have a torn labrum but fortunately it was a slow time for work so I only missed a couple jobs. Onward and upward.

The Curse Of The Drummer 2009

2009 has been a rough year for a lot of drummers. Stephen Perkins, Chad Smith, Tommy Aldridge, and others have suffered injuries and illnesses on the road forcing shows to be cancelled and dates to be rescheduled. But it's not all bad news; a couple of drummers are reaching out and using their talents and visibility to help others. Here's a quick roundup of drummers in the news:

1) Stephen Perkins down but not out.

2) Chad Smith tears a muscle.

3) Tommy Aldridge breaks collarbone.


4) Foghat's Roger Earl makes a triumphant slow ride back from serious injuries.

5) Dananananaykroyd drummer injured in onstage accident.


6) New Orleans drummer Derrick Tabb gives back to the kids.


7) The Clash's Topper Headon helps the homeless.

The Blog Days Of Summer

Ah, those lazy days of summer. Things are pretty slow around here - plenty of time to change heads, polish hardware, and daydream of all the wonderful drums out there just waiting to be tuned. In the meantime, enjoy some drumming news...

Happy Birthday Ringo!

We Will Miss The Great Jim Chapin - 1920 - 2009

Drummer's Bummer: Joey Kramer's New Book

Steve Shelley Loves Sonic Youth Long Time

Black Keys Drummer Joins Band Of Drummers Called "Drummer"

My Chemical Romance Banger Bryar Sues Dog Trainer

Ratboy Leaves Every Time I Die, Loses Cheese

Rick Allen Is A Noble Rock Star

Tokyo Police Club @ Water Music, Hoboken, NJ June 16-19

Started work on seven new tracks for Tokyo Police Club with producer Chris Zane at Water Music in Hoboken, NJ, one of my favorite studios in the greater New York City area. We spent Tuesday moving a kit around the room, comparing mics, and trying different snare drums and floor toms. The sizable main room has a great big sound which can be baffled and gobo'd (?) to taste (see previous Water Music posting). Drummer Greg Alsop plays a simple 3-piece kit, kick, snare, and floor tom, augmented by hi-hat, crash, and ride cymbals. We settled on Greg's excellent 60's Ludwig 22x14 Champagne Sparkle bass drum, as well as my Eames 15x15" floor tom, and the Yamaha Sensitive Series 14x6.5" snare drum. Everything sounds great. I'll give another update later in the week...

Far From Finished @ Q Division, Somerville, MA 5/29/09

Far From Finished drummer Marc Cannata got to christen his spiffy new SJC Custom drums on Friday at Q Division when the band came in to record the Jackson 5 classic "I Want You Back" for an upcoming compilation. The kit, featuring red and black graphics floating on a White Marine Pearl, was designed by Cannata. The 20x20" kick drum/cannon was too much for the mic's so I popped the front head off and slightly muffled the batter head with a rolled piece of black velvet fabric.

I wasn't sure the 12x7" rack tom would give us the sound we were looking for but it ended up fine after I spent some quality tuning time with the bottom head. A lot of drummers try to tune their drums without ever touching the resonant (or bottom) head. They don't know that the bottom head plays a major role in defining the pitch of a drum. Most issues of uneven pitch are caused by the top head being out of tune with the bottom head. This doesn't mean that the top head needs to be tuned to the same note as the bottom - it means that it should be tuned to a complimentary pitch.
When tuning any tom tom I'll flip the drum over and rest the top head on my leg or a towel on the floor to dampen the head. This isolates the bottom head so I can check it's pitch. As a general rule I tune the bottom head a bit higher than the top head. (If I make too big a difference in pitch between the two heads I'll get what I like to call the "Syndrum syndrome", a nasty pitch bend that is reminiscent of the sound a basketball makes when it hits the floor. ) Once I get the bottom head evenly tuned I work on the top head and listen to the note it makes, trying to get an even sound between the two heads. You'll know if it's not right. I suggest experimenting with different tensions between top and bottom heads to see what works for you.

Exclusive Pics of Chad Smith's Chickenfoot Drumset

Chad Smith and Chickenfoot (Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, and Joe Satriani) delivered a mighty sonic smackdown to a packed house at the 500 capacity Middle East club in Cambridge, MA on Tuesday. Chad and the boys are on a short "Road Test" tour hitting a handful of small clubs to promote their eponymous debut album to be released on June 5th. The 'Foot played a scorching two hour set featuring songs from the new record, as well as the Hagar-penned Montrose classic "Bad Motor Scooter" before closing with Deep Purple's "Highway Star".


Chad invited me to soundcheck to see his new Pearl Masterworks Series kit with a stunning custom paint job by Nub of Orange County Choppers fame. The drums (w/ a 14x5.5" Sensitone Elite SD) looked and sounded fantastic and I was again reminded of just what a great drummer Chad is while the band jammed on songs by Hendrix, Zeppelin, and Neil Young. Chad says the Chili Peppers are reconvening in October to work on new material after taking a well deserved break following extensive touring in support of Stadium Arcadium. Wished you guys could've been there so I took these pics and a video to give you an exclusive close-up look at the drums and the band. Don't say I never do anything for you. Enjoy...