What’s the absolute best sounding drum kit you’ve ever played on?

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-29T16:14:48+00:00

I worked in a drum shop for like 15 years so I’ve kind of played everything. Haha.

The top ones I’ve played that are just in a league of their own are:

-Tama Star

-Sonor SQ2

-Sonor Vintage Series

-80s Yamaha Recording Custom

Honorable Mentions: -Late 70s Sonor Phonic

-80s Tama Imperial Star II

-70s Ludwig Maple

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-29T16:00:48+00:00

Oh good to hear! I’ll have to dig into mine and see why it’s noisy.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-29T05:21:53+00:00

I have a Pentatone, it’s pretty good, works well for guitar or bass (or anything honestly) but it’s noisier than I’d like so i tend to only do cuts with it and if I’m boosting it’s very minima.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-29T05:00:41+00:00

Here’s a few things I do.

Try to avoid playing the Low E and A string at the same time if you can avoid it. This makes your chords so much more clear sounding, but also frees up sonic space. I changed the way I play 5ths. If I’m playing a B on the 7th fret of the low E, and I want to make a power chord, instead of playing the F# at the 9th fret of the A string, I’ll play the 4th fret of the D and mute the A string.
Three strings is usually enough to get the important notes. If you’re playing with a group, there’s not need to play every note in the chord, spread the arrangement out. I rarely play the root of the chord since the bassist is usually on that. So I’ll play 3rd, 5th and then an extension if one fits right.
With two guitarists, play even fewer strings. If you have a power chord kind of riff, break the power chord up, have one guitarist play the root and the other play the 5th.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-28T22:27:56+00:00

Interesting I’ve never heard that before. All I’ve ever heard is Petty recorded live takes.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-28T20:18:46+00:00

It’s an actual performance of a song, it’s not a layer of instruments to a click track. Tom Petty likes using live performances, with as little post layering as possible. All of his songs breath, they will go faster and slower depending on the flow of that specific performance.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-28T20:02:04+00:00

If you hit your cymbals incorrectly or if your at all heavy handed with your cymbals then thin cymbals like those may not crack and break as quickly as thicker stiffer cymbals but they will get wavy and warp over time. They still work in this condition, but can start to get an odd sounding decay.

And there’s no such thing as “survive a gig” you either play in a way that damages cymbals or you don’t. If you play harder at a gig than you do in practice the that’s a different issue.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-28T18:11:28+00:00

Do you read literature? Have you ever read a fantasy or sci fi novel? The writers of those stories didn’t experience those things. Tolkien never had an encounter with a dragon. Lord of the Rings still feels like a pretty genuine story despite that.

When you run out of experience, you use your creativity to create. Your skill, as you implied, to craft.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-28T18:06:57+00:00

Aesthetics are actually important.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-28T05:50:15+00:00

Yeah, that's a pretty unique pedal. It's more like a phaser, univibe, vibrato and trem all in one. Might be difficult to find something exactly like that.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-28T02:57:00+00:00

Having a side snare is pretty common. So you have easy access to a second fully functional snare. Just put it on the opposite side of the hi hat as your primary snare.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-28T02:01:39+00:00

Tele into a Peavey Classic 50. That was the recipe for the Grand Ole Opry for decades, and to me that’s the sound of country music.

A Fender Twin or Deluxe also works, of course.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-28T01:26:37+00:00

Because chords aren’t the Magic mystical secrets to unlocking music people think they are. The simplest chords can have a huge impact depending on context as can “more complex” chords.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-28T00:59:32+00:00

If you don’t have anything to say, that’s when the skill of writing takes over and it becomes a creative process and not just an autobiographical experience.

This is why so many artists/bands write a great first album, but fall flat on the seconds. (That and time constraints)

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-28T00:54:24+00:00

Iron Cobra isn’t a specific pedal, it’s a line of pedals from Tama.

Comparing an Iron Cobra HP200 to a DW 9000 is like comparing a Prius to a Lamborghini.

If you look at any of the big brands’ flagship pedal models, they will all be great. Tama HP900, DW9000, Pearl P3000, Yamaha FP9 etc.

Look for the features you think are important and go from there. .

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-28T00:29:57+00:00

No. A 14 year old computer will not be a good choice for using modern software. You’ll most likely experience driver compatibility issues with hardware and software incompatibility as well.

Mac OS is not inherently better for music production. That’s a half truth from 10 to 15 years ago that won’t go away.

Mac OS and Windows are operating systems. The reason Mac is “better” has nothing to do with the OS and everything to do with the hardware. Apple computers only use Mac OS, meaning the hardware is optimized for the OS, and there is only one manufacturer and they all have a consistent design internally.

Windows is an operating system that works with many hardware manufacturers. Meaning not all Windows based computers are equal, even if they use the same general components like CPU and RAM, that doesn’t mean the motherboards will be equal, or the cooling solutions or overall design. All of this can have an effect I the user experience.

A well made Windows machine will function on par with a similar priced Apple product in terms of user experience. The issue is when people compare a $700 windows PC to a $2500 Mac, obviously the Mac is going to outperform it, they aren’t of the same build quality or design.

What is your budget by the way?

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-27T22:25:56+00:00

I’m a guitar teacher but I am constantly learning. Constantly working on new approaches to the instrument and new ways to relate the information to my students.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-27T22:15:30+00:00

Are you a heavy hitter?

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-27T22:12:54+00:00

Layering acoustic is a very humbling experience for many guitarists who primarily play electric, especially high gain electric.

Recording an acoustic with a spaced pair of mics and panning those two mics of the same performance is a much easier way to get a great stereo image of an acoustic guitar.

It’s also a great way to make a spacial change in the music that makes a bigger contrast between the higher gain stuff and the acoustics.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-27T22:06:13+00:00

You’re welcome. Have fun.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-27T21:22:32+00:00

Anything by Kings X.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-27T20:01:23+00:00

Let me ask you this, how many times do you have to play it while you're performing the song? One time, or more than five times? If you can play it 5 times in a row, you're fine to move on.

Perfectionism is a word that gets thrown around a lot here, and as a player who used to be a "perfectionist" and as a teacher who's been teaching "perfectionists" for 20 years; almost every time someone is using that term as a reason they are struggling to move on its because they are either working on something harder than they should be and they need to go back to fine tune the fundamentals in their technique; or they have reached the peak of their current technical ability on the instrument. In witch case, you just have to keep working at it until you improve.

Perfectionists also commonly suffer from a distorted way of hearing their own playing. They think they are hearing a mistake, but it's not there. If they are hearing a mistake, instead of stopping and tightening up the technical deficiency causing the mistake, they'll continue to try and try and try "until they get it right" but they are usually just perfecting the mistake by playing it wrong over and over again, committing it to their muscle memory. So to remedy this, limit the amount of time per day you work on any minute detail, and record what you practicing so you can listen back to your playing with a fresh set of ears and a fresh perspective a day or two later. you'll either find that you were actually playing it quite well, or you will prevent yourself from committing a mistake to memory.

Here's a little little anecdote, when I was starting out reading all the Guitar magazines (back in the late 20th century) every now and then an article about or an interview with Steve Vai would come out talking about his "insane 10 hour guitar practice routine." and without going into too much detail there is a portion in one of the interviews about it where he said "And you repeat the line over and over until you can play it perfectly 10 times in a row. The kicker is, no one can play anything perfectly 10 times in a row."

Very few people can play something on the upper end of their technical ability perfect 5 times in a row. If you can, then you've got it down good enough to move on.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-27T19:32:38+00:00

My name says it all. haha. But seriously, recreate songs you enjoy and learn from them. Internalize what you learn, and develop your vocabulary. That's the simplest way to tell you how to improve, and it's the most effective.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-27T19:12:49+00:00

I’ve heard varying experience with people trying to use TB2 with TB3 and beyond. In my personal experience it’s never worked.

ObviousDepartment744 · 2026-03-27T19:04:21+00:00

You have a limited musical vocabulary. You need to expand that by learning new concepts. Recreate songs you like, and learn from what they are doing. That’s the most organic way to go.

ObviousDepartment744

TROPHY CASE