Developed with input from groove dude Flo Dauner, Meinl’s new Fat Hats are 16 inches of B10-alloy loudness. Meinl also describes the sound of the cymbals as low pitched and dark, but we’re still putting our hard-earned sou on that “loud” part.
Month: April 2008
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New Yamaha Gear…
Newish Yamaha gear, that is. The company pulled the sheets off this stuff in January at NAMM, but sweet bangables usually take a while to get into the hands of us wee consumers.
First up is a new Stage Custom kit in birch. It’s described as Yamaha’s “first mid-priced birch kit,” but in fact it’s Yamaha’s individual reaction to the industry-wide panic precipitated by PDP. Once DW’s younger bro started offering affordable kits in what were once considered premium woods (maple and birch), other manufacturers had to follow along. Even Pearl finally caved in with its Vision series. If you want the best now, Big Drummer Brother tells you to buy bubinga.
Of course, you could just forget the wood altogether and go electronic. Yamaha’s got you covered there too with its redesigned flagship e-kit, the DTXTREME III. It comes in regular and special flavors. Both get you three-zone drum and cymbal pads, over 1,000 onboard sounds, and over 100 MIDI voices. The special edition also comes with Yamaha’s new Hex Rack System. Take a gander below. And as always, stop drooling on the screen.
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Elvin Jones, by the Numbers
Not that we’re complaining or anything, but Yahoo!’s finance page is one strange-ass place to post a really good bio of Elvin Jones. And like a good financial report, it’s big on the stats:
- Jones had a 60-year career.
- He began playing drums at age 2.
- He got his first kit at age 13 and played his first pro gig at 14.
- At one point, he practiced up to 12 hours a day.
- He released around 50 albums as a leader.
- He recorded over 500 albums in all.
Yeah, dude was definitely a slacker.
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Sabian’s Family Squabble
A family feud between the brothers Zildjian actually created the cymbal company Sabian way back in 1981, and now it looks like another family feud could possibly tear it apart. Bill Zildjian, son of Sabian founder Robert Zildjian, has filed a lawsuit claiming that his father and brother have mismanaged, misdirected, and mishandled millions of dollars in company funds. Unable to sell his shares without dad’s approval, Bill is looking to be bought out by the family or to be paid dividends with interest. Another alternative, according to the lawsuit, is to
wind up, dissolve and liquidate the company and assets as a whole.
Yikes. Not surprisingly, the company has denied the allegations and has requested that the suit be dismissed. An official statement should be coming soon.
Lawsuits take eons, so there’s probably no need to run out and buy Meinl stock just yet. But if you got any cracked Sabians under warranty, you might just want to take care of those now.
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Gretsch Is Looking for the World’s Hottest (and Nicest) Unsigned Bands
Not to be outdone by Sabian, Gretsch is also sponsoring a contest for the best unsigned bands. At stake is a grand prize package that includes $20,000 in gear and a slot at Gretsch’s 125th Anniversary Concert in New York City. The details:
- The contest is open to unsigned and independent label recording acts from the United States, U.K., Canada, Spain, Germany, France, and Japan.
- Entries will be accepted from May 1 to May 31, 2008.
- Your band must submit an original song as an MP3.
- The content of your song submission apparently “cannot be obscene or offensive, endorse any form of hate or hate group or promote any activities that may appear unsafe or dangerous,” which most likely means that no remotely interesting bands can participate.
[via Drummer Talk]
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Sabian’s Dream Spot Contest
There’s still plenty of time to enter Sabian’s second-annual Dream Spot contest. The winning band will get $10,000 in gear and the chance to play 10 dates on the 2008 Warped Tour. The band’s lucky-ass drummer will also land a one-year deal with Sabian (we’re not exactly sure how many free cymbals that translates to). The details:
- The contest is open from April 1 to May 23.
- You’ve got to be an undiscovered band (i.e., Next Great American Band finalists need not apply).
- You must submit three original songs in the MP3 format, a video, and a brief bio about your band.
- The winning group will be announced July 1.
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Pearl’s Redline Reference Kits
The ads have been plastered in all the latest drum mags, and now we’ve finally got a price point for Pearl’s limited-edition hotness. Note the phrase “limited edition”: only 50 kits will be made in each color set…which means the Redline = $$$.
The White-on-White Redline shell pack includes a 13″ x 9″ rack tom, 16″ x 16″ and 18″ x 16″ floor toms, and a big ole 24″ x 18″ kick. The Black-on-Black shell pack features a 12″ x 8″ rack, 14″ x 14″ and 16″ x 16″ floor toms, and a 22″ x 20″ bass drum. Matching 20-ply snares are available for each set.
Price List
Black-on-Black shell pack without snare: $4,999
Black-on-Black matching 14″ x 5″ snare: $1,059
White-on-White shell pack without snare: $5,299
White-on-White matching 14″ x 6.5″ snare: $1,159
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Tommy Lee Gets a Tattoo
No big shock there, eh? But this particular Tommy tattooing actually is something special. It’s the first to be done aboard a jet traveling at 40,000 feet. Star artist Mario Barth did the work, and the Guinness Book of World Records was on hand to document the high-altitude inking. No word (or pic) yet on what the new tat looks like or where it is…but given that Tommy doesn’t have much bare skin to work with, we’re hoping the location is fairly scandalous.
