Some shots of the finished product of this year's winter evening project: the restoration of a very rare RIMS 20'' frame kick-drum with accompanying original Roto Toms by Remo USA: the higher pitched rack of three drums sized 6'', 8'', 10'', with some cowbells for the colour and fun. The kick drum is the lowest volume bass drum I've ever heard or used. It's so quiet and self-contained that one can conduct a conversation while playing it.
The Roto Toms have no such limitations and are as loud as you might want them to be.
Roto Toms are currently seeing a resurgence of popularity among the international star players. We have for some time been seeing everyone add some octobans to their rigs but the Rotos are the real deal. They're mounted on cast-off parts from a Roland digital drum rack I converted with standard power tools for optimum positioning and open tuning made by simply rotating the entire drum frame either clockwise (for higher pitches) or anti-clockwise for flatter pitching.
Not exactly an auto-tune set-up but rather a hybrid type that can be adapted to any song/pitch/tuning performance on the fly. A set of high-pitched original Remo Roto Toms currently sell for around €650 while over stateside they're cheaper from a supplier: but the weight of having it sent will soon see your savings curtailed. I got these (a 1974 issue) from my neighbour, Lassi, whose son I taught some basic music theory and drumming skills to a few years back.
Kid grew up and has his own band now, so he knows he can borrow these any time as his Dad was kind enough to pass them along to me for renovation.
The rig as is weighs just under thirty-five kilos, quite a reduction but it's made easier by noting one doesn't need any more than three additional boom arms to mount cymbals onto. I also intend to add Roland triggers to each tom/snare/kick to broaden the scope of library sound samples to back the acoustic levels. In effect, I can play all the backing tracks/sequencers via a headphone mix AND have a clean signal for the triggers while staying in time with the click-track.
Next step in finishing this project is to bring a large collection of broken and cracked internationally-branded cymbals I collected from several Helsinki bomb shelter studios over the years. The intention is to have them all laser cut to remove the damaged outer edges and to keep the remaining amount of cymbal metal/weight integrity safe from further damage. Once the damaged edges are taken off, I'll then start to lathe the metal to reduce the weight across the bell and into the bow. Once that's done and the excess weight is removed, I'll start 'burning' them with variously sized holes to create as many strange/new unique sounds as I can. I'm not looking for perfection, but rather as many fucked-up and left of centre sounds as I can create. Like so:
This was a regular cymbal in its earlier life but it was cracked by its owner who simply kept using it until he couldn't get a tone from it. I simply cut off the section that was cracked and discarded it; then burned another few holes in select spots to give some tone and sustain from what was a dead piece of metal. Customized cymbals like this are a bubbling under item that everyone wants to try but few can afford to buy new, like so:
New issue 'burned' cymbals cost an arm and a leg, but my approach is a more holistic and up-cycling attempt at creating new and different sounds.
All logos and details of maker and type will be removed so they appear generic and of no brand other than previous 'Mini Mowl' kits like several I've designed and built for other players over the years. Hacking up drum gear and repurposing it has always been a hobby of mine. Replacement parts these days are often very expensive and most have to be ordered in from the designer. Instead, mine use parts from the local hardware store so anyone can copy or mimic my approach. I like to keep it simple and sturdy so that it gets a fair shot at being used onstage to gauge the reaction from listeners and audiophiles.
This completed rig will be given to one teacher at the Pop/Jazz Conservatory nearby for the students to play and experiment on for the coming season, and later on I'll do a clinic for them myself showing how triggered elements can broaden the scope of what's already a rather unique set of sounds.
Next up is a project renovating three custom drums by Tama of Japan: they'll be ready by the end of the month.
If all goes well, I may invest in a set of these rather eye-catching Staccato/North drums built in the 1970s: they sound even weirder than they look:
Music is an endless well of bright new ideas and updated themes on previous failures.
Like these, by Vox Drums:
Fucked up is right.