NAMM 2010 Day 4

Sunday is usually the quietest day of the show but today has almost been deathly quiet. It only got really busy in the last couple of hours when many of the stands decided to start packing up their equipment. According to the taxi driver who took us to dinner, the footfall for this year has been down quite a bit on what was expected, and to be honest, we can believe it. Anyway, it made our job easier...

Dixon VIDEO

Dixon were showing a very interesting Obsidian Black finish on their Outlaw series kit. The top half of the drums were a black gloss lacquer and the bottom half was a matte finish. The line between the two was as sharp as a knife and expertly finished. Apparently you can order any two colours and have different combinations of gloss and matte. The Outlaw itself is a 7 ply maple set and the set we saw was 22x18, 12x9, 16x16, 14x5.5".

Another interesting finish was the Plasma finishes in the Demon range. Its a difficult one to describe, but you can see the stained wood grain, but it looks like some liquid has been spilt onto the wood and the the whole lot has been encased in clear lacquer. Its actually much more attractive then I have just described! We saw a Red Plasma finish with black hardware and a Black Plasma finish with chrome hardware.

Dixon were justifiably pleased with two snares they were showing. Firstly they had a 24ply, 20mm thick 100% Bubinga shell snare with die cast hoops, Dunnett throw and tube lugs and secondly they had the snare which won first prize in the ''Ply Shell'' section of the 2009 Not So Modern Drummer ''Snare Drum Olympics''. This is a 9 ply, 100% Rosewood 13x6" drum with Power Hoops and Dunnett throw. Both these drums sounded very good.

Evans VIDEO

There seems to be a trend for thicker one ply heads at the moment and Evans weren''t going to buck that trend. The G Plus is 20% thick than a standard G1 and is designed to give single ply sound with greater longevity. Also on display was the Power Centre head which is a standard clear G1 with a Power Dot underneath. This (judging by Evan''s advertisements) is their take on the old CS head which was also single ply with a damping spot.

Big news from Evans is the ''Inked By Evans'' range. These are custom graphic bass drum display heads which can be ordered from www.inkedbyevans.com . On the site there are 99 patterns you can choose from. You can move the graphics around, add text (band name etc) and generally customise it to your hearts content. However, if you want something more special, you can upload your own graphics an d have Evans make you your own custom display head. The quality of the heads of the stand was very high. The turnaround isn''t too long either. The only sticking point is how delivery will take place in the UK. Contact Evans for more details.

Duallist VIDEO

We went to Duallist not to see the pedals (which Kevin has recently been to Buckingham Palace to receive an award from the Queen for – congratulations Kevin!) but to see a new string to Kevin''s bow – Duallist Drums. Duallist are not a conventional custom drum maker as they wont hold stock and they only making drums to order. However, their first client has been Nigel Glockler from Saxon who took delivery of a massive red sparkle kit a while back. On the stand were two snares, one of maple and one of carbon fibre, though drums can be made from whatever the customer requires, as long as it is currently available.

SJC VIDEO

SJC had their usual collection of amazingly finished drums. To be honest, I can’t describe them well enough to do them justice so take a look at the video footage so see what they''re up to. To give you an idea, they had hand burnt shells, a bottle opener on a snare, a light up kit, Zebra wood kit, Hybrid wood/metal hoops, a hand burnt leather stool top and loads more. Impressive.

Canopus VIDEO

Canopus started off as a drum shop in Tokyo and their first custom kit was a jazz kit with a 15" bass drum. By manipulating the shell make up, the bearing edge and the support hoops, they have managed to get the sound of an 18" bass drum out of it. Called the Club Kit, it is 15x12, 10x7 and 13x12" and sounds just like a bop kit should.

The other kit on their stand was the Japanese Sword series which is a slightly cheaper model. It has oil finished American maple shells but a cheaper sharp lug rather than the traditional Canopus mini tube lug. There are two configurations – 22, 10, 12, 14" and 18, 12, 14" - and look and sound great.

The Zelkova snare is hollowed from a single piece of Zelkova wood, just like the traditional Taiko drums are. It has a curved outer surface which makes the shell very strong and prevents cracking. The wood is 200 years old and is dried to exactly 9%. Having played it, I haven''t found many snares that can go as quiet and as loud.

Ddrum VIDEO

Current owners of the D2 kit can now get add on drums to increase their kit size. Available are 8 and 14" toms or 13" tom and 22" kick.

The D3 is a poplar shelled kit which comes in what Ddrum call as TrueBop configuration which is a standard Bop kit size (12x8, 14x14") but with an 18x18" kick. It only comes in White Oyster but the prices that were being mention are very reasonable.

The Reflex is a new range which comes in 12/16 over 20x20 or 10/12/16 over 22x20". This is the second kit we have seen which comes in chrome. Could this be an ''80''s retro throwback?

The Hybrid kit which has acoustic shells and Ddrum triggers built inside is now in the shops after being shown last year.

Also shown last year were the DRT triggers which have two sensors in them. If one fails you simply flick the switch and the other sensor takes over. These are easily recognised as they are black rather then the traditional Ddrum red.

Also on the stand was a DD1 electronic kit. This is Ddrum''s first venture back into electronics, but before you get excited, its aimed at the beginner and may look familiar if you have seen other lower end electronic kits recently.

Yamaha VIDEO

Yamaha had three new items for us to look at plus one very limited one. Firstly the DTX900 kit is the new flagship electronic kit. What make it different are the new DTX pads which have a surface of foamed silicone. By changing the size of the bubbles in the material, Yamaha can change the bounce of the pads. Snare pads are firmer and ''tighter'' than tom pads and they are exceptionally quiet. The whole pad is internally shock mounted to mimic a real drum heads bounce and it also helps with cross talk. The kit comes with a copy of Cubase AI5 and you can control the program or any VSTi drum library from the front panel of the DTX module. You can load up to 142 minutes of your own samples, and stack and alternate sounds off the pads to your hearts content. You can also have up to 300 sounds (samples, internal sounds or MIDI sounds) per pad, per kit in any combination of stacks or sequences.

The DTX M12 is a 12 pad controller with internal drum, percussion and tuned sounds. The pads are arranged in four rows of three with the top and bottom rows being like bar pads. As well as the internal sounds you can import you own samples, plug in up to five pads to make a mini kit or trigger your acoustic kit, and record whole patterns using all the pads which can be instantly played back off one single pad. The pads are pressure sensitive as well as velocity sensitive and can be played with sticks, hands or fingers, and you can use conga technique to play slaps and bends. This also comes with a copy of Cubase AI5 and like the DTX900 it can control Cubase functions or VSTi''s.

The Rock Tour range has ply mahogany shells and is aimed at the rock market. Its only available in a limited range of sizes at the moment, but finish wise you can have matte or gloss finishes with matte or chrome hardware. If you want a gloss lacquer, the shells have an outer ply of oak which is finished in a selection of fades and bursts which appear very similar to some of the finishes from the ultra high end PHX range. It is easily recognisable as it has a new logo on the bass drum head.

Also on display was a 100th Anniversary kit which was released in the 80's and was based on the Recording Custom. The shells were all deep (10x10" for instance) as was fashionable at the time and were finished in a number of amazing looking rare wood outer plies or Carbon Fibre. The hardware was all gold. We wouldn't normally report on something old, but it looked stunning and we mentioned it as nobody seemed to know anything about it. However, the eagle eyed among you will notice this paragraph has changed due to us being told... (ahem) it was 30 years old! Oops! Still looked gorgeous though!

Brady VIDEO

Brady are very proud of their Spotted Gum ply shells and we in the UK will see more of these now as they have got into a few stores here, which they are very pleased about. They also had a Jarrah ply kit finished in Wandoo Burl. Brady ran out of Wandoo a few years ago but they managed to find some (it sound like they accidentally found a block in their store room) so Wandoo Burl is back on the menu.

There are only 30 of the 30th Anniversary snares going to be made and instead of serial numbers, each will be numbered with one of the years from 1980 onwards that Brady have been around. The shell are made from block of Swamp Myrtle and are signed inside by Chris Brady. The badges have a mother of pearl finish which changes in the light.

The Walkabout Private Selection are ultra limited snares made from whatever weird and wonderful (and rare) wood Chris Brady can find. There might only be one or two of each, the Selection will be constantly changing depending on what he finds on his travels. The Poplar Burl drum on the stand looked lovely.

On the subject of Brady, Gerry found his new favourite snare on the stand. Its a 12x7" block shell, but chances of him getting it are minimal unless he can persuade the current owner (a Mr Steve Jordan) not to use it on the next John Mayer tour. Oh well.

Matt Nolan VIDEO

One of the (increasing number of) Brits who was flying the flag over here is Matt Nolan and his Custom Cymbals. This was the first time I had got my hands on them and they are certainly impressive. Matt''s gear was on the Pork Pie stand and it was getting a lot of attention (John Blackwell was playing them when we were there). Matt had made a Pork Pie logo gong for the show which sounded like a five footer when hit with a gong mallet or like a ride cymbal when hit with a drumstick. The cymbals are as varied as you could want to cover all bases. Matt doesn''t build from conventional materials all the time and I was rather surprised to find one of the crashes was made from sheet steel which isn''t known for its cymbal qualities. It just goes to show you can give anything to someone who knows what they are doing with it and you can end up with a masterpiece.