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05/07/2003 Entry: "The full Charlie Jones Update"

Ok, so here's the whole story on the pink sparkle Charlie Jones model drum kit. Two of us here in the office play drums. Another guy (Charles Jones) thought perhaps he'd like to start playing a little. Well, Charles is as well known in these parts as I am. And he hooked up with this guy who had an old drum set kickin' around. So, he lent it to Charles. Charles brought it home. I gave him some older heads I had kicking around, and helped him unload it into his garage.

Time went by.

Charles didn't touch it. It sat where we dropped it. The guy who lent it to him moved to NY, and didn't want it back. Charles wanted to clean out his garage. So he offered the pieces to Barry (the other drummer in the office) and myself. Barry took the A Zildjian hi-hats and the Camco pedal. We gave the nasty, cracked cymbals to the office guys to shoot up at the range. I took what was left: some Pearl DX drums, miscellaneous hardware, a Zildjian 20" ride (fairly heavy, no inked logos), and some crazy cymbal that's half china, half ice bell.

I got the drums home. The 22" bass drum was trashed. It had come all de-laminated and splintered. It also looked like it took quite a hit around the spur region, as it was all stove in. I decided to scrap it. That left me with a 10" and 12" tom, and an 18" floor tom. Two small toms, and a huge floor? I bet this set was originally from a bigger double bass kit that was split in two.

I decided I would make a "hip-gig" style kit from the leftover pieces. I stripped the hardware off the bass, and re-drilled the floor tom to accept those pieces. (This section was where I made my only misstep. In order to drill as few holes as possible, I thought I would use the holes from the floor tom leg brackets, and put the bass drum spurs in those holes. After drilling, I realized that this places the bass drum spurs more under the drum, and not perpendicular to the drum. Luckily, I figured this out beforerewrapping. I doweled the extra holes.)

I ordered bass drum rims from Sam Barnard, the same place I bought the wrap. I also had to order some long tension rods, as the bass drum t-rods were too long to use on the smaller 18" bass. I also bought a universal Tama Starcast hoop mount for the snare. That way, I can mount the snare off the hi-hat stand. And that's my favorite part of the kit: the only stand is the hi-hat stand. Everything else mounts off the bass.

Sound? I've got Evans G1 coated on tops of toms, and G1 clears on the bottom. The bass has a coated G1 on the front, and a Pinstripe on the batter side. No muffling anywhere. It sounds great! I'm very impressed with the 12" "floor" tom. I can get it low enough to pass as a floor. The kick is a blast to play. I can't wait to play a jazz gig with it!

Replies: 1 person has rocked the mic!

I've linked to this article from my Blog. Nice to see another drummer blogging!

Posted by Citizen Keith @ 05/08/2003 11:41 AM EST

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