Our complete collection of drum photos from NAMM 2009 is now available on Flickr. Over 600 pictures made the cut (many more had to be abandoned, the unfortunate victims of whacked lighting or seriously stupid user error), and they all are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution agreement, which means you can essentially do anything you want with our images—share them, post them, adapt them—with no fear of copyright infringement. Just give us some link love in return. Some of the drum pics are also available in hi-res versions, so if you’d like any, send us a shout.
Along with an oompa-loompa-orange Lars Ulrich kit, Tama showed off a Simon Phillips 30th-anniversary drum set at NAMM 2009. Made of Monarch shells (a maple/bubinga/maple hybrid), the drums looked positively exquisite, and we got good Google AdSense money they sound damn fine too. Unfortunately, like all of the kits at Tama’s booth, the Simon Phillips set was off-limits to even the most well-connected thumpers. Next year, we’re bringing this along to distract the booth cops.
Check out more pics of the kit and other Tama drums from NAMM right here.
Remember like five years ago when Ludwig was boring? Venerable, sure—but still as boring as an insurance seminar or a lecture on Mesoamerican basket weaving. Well, shit has changed, thumpers. Celebrating its centennial as a manufacturer of drums, Ludwig came to NAMM with a truly stunning booth that included intriguing new gear and some modern versions of classic kits from the company’s long history. Check out the pics below of Jason Bonham’s anniversary kit (which pretty much borrows everything from papa Bonham’s amber Vistalites), a Neil Peart “Ro Sham Bo” replica, and a little something from a Liverpool lad who recently went nuts. More photos are available in our Ludwig gallery on Flickr. Just bring some wet-naps and a cigarette before you get to clicking.
The struggling economy has affected quite a few instrument manufacturers, but you wouldn’t know it from ddrum’s mightily awesome booth at NAMM 2009. Along with its usual bevy of cool bangables, the company proudly displayed Vinnie Paul’s new signature kit (complete with huge rack toms), new signature snare, and new signature pedals. Check ’em out below. The rest of our ddrum gallery can be eye humped here.
Just a few weeks before NAMM 2009, Mapex threw open its gates and let loose a veritable phalanx of new drum gear, including the Merdian series and an exceptionally sexy Saturn kit in an Arctic White lacquer. We’ve posted in-the-wild pics of both of them and much more here on Flickr. Some teaser photos for you below.
We snapped a few in-the-wild pics of Danny Carey’s signature snare from Sonor at NAMM 2009. More photos of Sonor drums are available here in a Flickr set.
Taye showed up with all manner of great gear at NAMM 2009, including the awesome double-kick kit pictured below. For our full Taye gallery, just click right here.
Paiste didn’t have any new gear to show off at NAMM 2009, but that didn’t stop the Swiss cymbal-meisters from bringing every bloody model in their catalog. Their booth was a thing of absolute brass beauty—from the soundbooth itself to the floor displays for the Twenty and Black Alpha series. Some teaser pics are below. Be sure to check out our full Paiste gallery here.
Orange County Drum & Percussion busted out with a black-on-black-on-black Travis Barker kit at this year’s NAMM show. The set was also—and understandably—outfitted with Zildjian Pitch Black cymbals. Less understandably, a “do not play” sign, which you’ll see in the teaser pics below, defaced this beaut of a bangable.
Check out our full OCDP gallery on Flickr for more images from NAMM.
We wrote about Spaun’s Edgevent kit back in August of last year, and I got a tragically brief bit of stick time with one at NAMM 2009. It’s a great-sounding set of drums…and it looks cool to boot. Our in-the-wild Edgevent pics are below. Check out BDT’s full Spaun gallery on Flickr.
It always happens this way. Before every NAMM show, I plan and plot and map out my strategy for hitting every drum booth in a methodical and efficient manner. But as soon as the doors are thrown open and I get that smell of new gear in both nostrils, I immediately run to whatever big and shiny drum kit I see first. This time, it was Tama that grabbed me by the balls with a Lars Ulrich signature set. Here are some teaser pics before we get the full gallery on Flickr up.
[Update: Our complete Tama gallery is now available here. It includes thirteen photos of the Lars Ulrich signature set.]
As soon as the doors opened on Thursday at NAMM 2009, Sabian kicked things off with an official press conference for us drumming journos. Along with announcing a spateof new cymbals and the very intriguing “One of 100” project, Sabian management talked about the struggling economy and how the company was prepared to tough it out. Founder Robert Zildjian even put in an appearance, acknowledging the layoffs that we reported on last month and finding for his company something of a silver lining in the current cash crunch: Sabian is set to survive the economic downturn, but many smaller cymbal manufacturers probably won’t.
While that Darwinian attrition may be good news for established businesses, it doesn’t exactly leave me with the warm fuzzies. I like that there are (or at least that there were) opportunities for new and creative cymbal companies to put interesting or less expensive products on the market. I like choice. I like options. And I definitely like that the little guys can bust out with big innovations.
But what do you think? Are there too many little companies causing “confusion in the cymbal market,” as Robert Zildjian implied, or are there not enough options out there for you? Do you play one of the big four—Zildjian, Sabian, Paiste, Meinl? Or do you prefer one of the smaller brands?
I, your humble SFL, drew the big straw at DC headquarters and packed all my niftiest electro-gadgets to go cover NAMM, the music industry’s largest and loudest trade show in America. I spent the day attending press events, snapping tons of pictures, eye humping all the great drum gear, and chatting with friends old and new. Over the next few days, I’ll post frequently about all the cool bangables that have been unveiled at the show. Be sure to check out our Flickr page for the complete stream of photos (it will be inundated once I get Flickr to play nice with an ailing—though venerable, dammit!—G4 iBook).
