Thursday, October 21, 2010

The Ballad of the Big Bass Drum, a ddrum blog.

Greetings and salutations, ddrum fans.  Felix with artist relations, bringing you yet another fun and exciting blog! I am gonna veer slightly from the usual artist updates, to talk about a subject near and to my heart. One of our best and brightest, Brian Tichy recently scored the gig with the legendary Whitesnake. 


After we found out, of course our heads started swirling, with images of Whitesnake drummers past, and the immense double bass drum kit is the first thing that came to mind. I knew we would want to put something special together, and I rallied for a clever idea, to go with the epic tour, that would follow the recording of the new Whitesnake record. Brian's head seemed to be in the same place, and a massive kit with concert toms and a gong, soon began taking shape, at least in our collective imaginations. 


Then something funny happened, Brian took his ddrum kit, with 26" bass drum, into the studio, and David Coverdale, Whitesnake 's legendary front man, was all about it!  Sometimes perceptions of what is expected, end up being a little off, and now we find ourselves with an exciting new idea, spawned by a legendary non-drummer (yes, they are apparently capable of having good drum ideas too). 


This got me to thinking about the 26" bass drum, in general, and its place in rock history.  Bonham, Paice, Powell, the list of believers is long. Ddrum's own, Carmine Appice, has long been credited as the forerunner of this size, with the red sparkle 4 piece he played with Vanilla Fudge, on Ed Sullivan. We went so far as to make a replica of that kit, and it remains one of my absolute FAVORITE ddrum kits, of all time (yes I'm allowed to have a favorite).  


Getting back to Mr. Tichy, he is getting ready to embark on a quick European Tour with Lynch Mob. For this gig, I was able to put together a "Frankenstein" bass drum, to send to him for this tour. It is a Dominion Ash 26" in  a beautiful dark red. Before shipping it, I was able to test it, and the low end this thing produced was ridiculous. There really is no amount of processing, that can substitute real, acoustic low end, and this drum has it in spades. I am curious to see what other people think of this size bass drum, so I am opening up the floor to comments.  Let me know you're out there!

6 comments:

  1. That is a beautiful drum. I just went the opposite direction. For rock I love the sound of a 26" kit. So much so that I had one on my last 2 kits and played that size for about the last 6 years. The only problem with going this size is that you lose a lot of versatility. I have found that it really only makes sense for rock drumming and a certain rock sound at that. For my new kit I went with the dios M in a 20x20 and I am very happy with the results. It has enabled me to position my rack toms lower and move around the kit much easier. I have also found that in recording situations it is much easier to make small drums sound big that it is to make big drums sound small.

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  2. I believe, that, a 26 inch bass drum, is the most powerful sound ever for a drumkit!!! I had a dominion 26", but the lugs popped off from the sheer power of the immense shell!! Also, the bass drums spurs broke off at the shell....from the force of this power. I was wondering what happened to the dominion line and when I can get a 14" tom for my wine red kit. Also, I thought the 16" dominion drums were only available in maple. Is this a prototype?

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  3. I am the proud owner of a Diode kit. And i must say that I have NEVER gotten one complaint about the 26" beast that comes with those cannons. By far the best looking/sounding kick drum I have ever played. Thank you Ddrum for keeping the 26" alive!!!

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  4. P.S. I have ALWAYS gotten compliments from every sound guy I work with as well!!!

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  5. The Diode IS awesome!!! Are you guys selling acrylic drums still?

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  6. Hello Tony,
    This is Felix with ddrum artist relations. As a rule, i am trying to keep this blog from becoming the snark-fest that many other forums have become, over the last few years. Any questions regarding our current lines, can be directed to our associates listed at ddrum.com in the contact section. To answer you're question, the diode line was discontinued. Thanks for you're interest in the product, and don't ever hesitate to e-mail a question, as that will always be the fastest way to get a response.

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