NAMM 2010 Day 3

Saturday is traditionally the day when certain females who work in a different industry based in LA get bought in to drape themselves on guitars and amps to attract the punters. Indeed once when we left the Press Room, Ron Jeremy was outside, signing and having photos taken. It is LA after all...

DW VIDEO

You can be sure that DW will have lots to look at. Firstly, they have made a special one-off kit for Neil Peart with blue hardware. Check the video to see what it looks like. There are new finishes across the various ranges but worthy of mention is the matte Hard Lacquer which was shown on a Classic kit.

You can also choose what combination of shells you want on a kit at no extra charge. If you want X-shells on the toms, VLX on the floor toms and VLT on the bass drum for instance, you can.

DW have developed a new throw off for their snare called the MAG which is available to retrofit onto existing DW snares. Its a nice design which looks a little over engineered but work exceptionally well. The release has the usual tensioner but the butt end has a three position arm which gives you tight, medium or loose snare tensions regardless of whether the snares are on or off.

DW have rationalised their hardware lines with the introduction of the 3000 stands which take over from the 5000 light stands. The 3000 are double braced but with a thinner bore of tubing and are much lighter.

In the pedals, there is now a new entry level 2000 single and double ($149 for the double) and 3000 ($199 for the double) which join the 5000,8000 and 9000 pedals. The cheaper pedals look great, resembling the original 5000s.

On the snare front, there are new stave shells, Super Solid Edge (different rings of maple, cherry and walnut in an Edge style shell), copper and brass plated steel shel Vintage shells, Top Edge (an Edge but with the metal ring just on the top edge) and three new Neil Peart Connoisseur snares (finished in a laser cut exotic wood inlay).

The Platinum PDP range has been rationalised and less popular sizes and colours have been removed, which has allowed them to reduce the price.

Mainstage is the entry level PDP which comes complete with Sabian cymbals for a complete PDP kit-in-a-box.

Roland SPD30

New from Roland is the SPD30 Octapad. This is a new 8 pad digital percussion pad controller which has built in sounds, 4 trigger ins plus hi hat controller in, 50 kits, 30 effects and a more advanced phrase loop recording feature which allows you to record a pattern and immediately play it back off a pad. £629 in the UK, it has MIDI and USB but no sampling. Check out the video.

The TD12 gets a face lift which sees it getting a new rack which resembles a slightly smaller TD20SX rack. There are also more virtual microphone positions inside the module for more control.

Stagg VIDEO

Stagg cymbals are now more consistent due to the fact thet they are rolling he ingots of metal rather than hammering them as before. Every year we visit the stand and the cymbals get better. Check out the video to hear some.

There are two new kits from Stagg – one wrapped and one lacquered. Both come in standard configurations and would appear to be a bargain. The lacquered kit was also shown with their chrome free stands which are better for the environment and look fine – you''d have to look very closely to realise they didn''t have a chrome finish.

Apparently Stagg produce thousands of amps of all kinds and sell thousands and thousands in the UK with a returns figure (due to faults) of only 0.01% which must be one of the lowest in the industry. This is good news for us drummers as they have released a new electronic drum amp – 40 watts and £139.

They were also showing the prototype of a new lightweight moulded plastic case with interlocking patterns which looks promising.

Ludwig VIDEO

Ludwig had a massive stand as always and were showing a couple of new ranges. Firstly the Keystone range is a US built kit with maple and oak shells. It comes in a couple of configurations, and 4 glass glitter finishes. This will be around £1500.

The other new kit is the Element SE with cherry/gum wood shells which has a retro feel about it, especially with the Mod Orange, Citrus Mod and Psychedelic Red wraps. The kit comes with a consolette rail mount and two configurations.

The Legacy Exotic was showing with bronze hardware. These are the standard maple/poplar/maple shells. Also on the stand were the Bonham Vistalite and the Bun E Carlos Signature kit (every drum signed by the man himself).

The Black Magic range of snares is joined by some stainless steel versions in 14x5 and 14x6.5”. They have black nickel tube lugs and rims and a chrome shell and are joined by a 14x8” version which is a signature Jim Riley version which is laser engraved too and looks stunning.

Gretsch VIDEO

Gretsch were showing some 2010 limited kits – Piano Black Lacquer with silver sparkle inlays and Piano White Lacquer with gold sparkle inlays. The white kits comes as an 18” bop kit and looks stunning, the black as a 22 Euro Fusion kit. Both are limited to 30 kits worldwide.

On the snare front, Stanton Moore gets a new one piece maple signature snare in 14x4.5”, and there are two cast aluminium drums in 14x6.5 and 13x6”. The Full Range snares are 10 ply maple with standard Gretsch hardware but only come in a satin ebony finish in 14x5, 6.5 and 8”. There are also two versions in natural maple with wood hoops (with or without an internal  metal inlay for a louder rim shot) in 14x6.5”.

For the gear nerds, Gretsch have also reintroduced the bass drum mounted cymbal arm.

Gibraltar VIDEO

Gibraltar want everyone to customise their kits so they are right for them. They call this the ''Dream It Yourself'' program and they want people to show (via their You Tube channel, Facebook or Myspace) how they have customized (or Gibraltarized as they would have it) heir kits. They are so into this they even have a DIY Blog Widget.

On the gear front they have a Multi Purpose Rack which can be used for acoustic or electronic drums, DJs, keyboards or whatever else you might want to do with it, depending on what accessories you get with it. Two items which caught our eyes were the Rack Cable Management Clips to hold the cables from your microphones or electronic pads cleanly against your rack and the mobile phone/iPod holder so you can mount your phone where you can see it. This might sound a gimmick but with more drummers using their phones as metronomes and track playback (with the right apps) this could be brilliant. It fits an iPhone too.

LP

Lp were showing loads of gear as usual, but I''ll just concentrate on a couple. The One Handed Triangle is AMAZING and it allows you to play intricate triangle patterns (both open and muted) with one hand . Check the video to see it in action.

The Percusso is a hand mounted tambourine with a special trigger at the top of the handle. When you pull the trigger, a little arm plays a clave-sounding block mounted in the middle of the tambourine section. Because on this, you can play tambourine and clave at the same time with one hand. Imagine this in one hand and the One handed triangle in the other and you have four hands worth of percussion pled by one person. Check out the video.

The Multi Stem Gajate bracket allows you to mount 3 separate cowbells/blocks/tambourines to a bass drum pedal. One instrument is played at a time but you can just pull and twist the central stem to rotate the top section so you can choose which of the three sounds you need at any one time.

You can also see more photos on our Facebook page and videos on out YouTube channel