Thinking about building a Cocktail set

zimbop · Kitten Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 134

I was thinking it might be fun to have one of those cocktail kits with an oversized floor tom for bass with an up-beater on the bottom head, snare on top, and a few accessories, crash/splash, cowbell, etc.

I have an extra snare and a cymbal or two to use, and an extra pedal that can be adapted to swing upwards. A local shop has a used Ludwig Accent CS Custom 16x16 floor tom I could use as an experimental bass drum (though it's overpriced, they want $159 when i can get a brand new one from massmusic for 150).

I'd have to come up with a clever way to mount the snare on top and rig up the bronze... I think it would be a fun project. Anyone out there done such a thing?
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bytor · Admin Joined: 12 Aug 2003 Posts: 5260 Location: Kansas

I've never built a cocktail kit, but I think it would be a pretty fun project.

wonder1 · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 5:06 pm Post subject: Building A Cocktail drum!

Hi,Zimbop!
Is good to hear that you want to build a Cocktail-drum.I like Cocktail-drum alot!,And I do design and make my own drum(Hmm!Sorry,no for sale.It's just my week end or free time hobby).You can visit my web:
www.geocities.com/laubrothers or www.cocktaildrumlounge.com
I think you may get some useful idea before you start you "drum-project'.

wonder1

zimbop · Kitten Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 134

Wow, cool sets. Did you build those from scratch? I like the dark colored shorter cocktail set. Nice work.

wonder1 · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 5:24 pm Post subject: cocktail drum!

Hi,Zimbop!
Yes!All the drum are build from scratch.The best part is I don't have to spent alot of $ to build it.Oh!The "Black-One"!Ha!That's the drum that I love to use is for gigs!(Very light and small!)Since you have 16" Floor.May be you can check out the Yellow Hip-Kit.I convert my old 16"Tama Swing Star Floor to Cocktail-Kick!It's very easy to do it.Just cut the Top-part and cover it with plywood and re-wrap the drum! Very Happy

wonder1

zimbop · Kitten Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 134

wonder1 · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 5:51 pm Post subject: cocktail drum!

I think it's better to explain with a picture!Ok!since I already have 2 cocktail drum(12"&10").For my 3rd drum-project,I decided to come out something difference.I got my very old Tama Swing star 16'Floor(Black Colour)I want to attached a Tom Holder on top of the floor.So I need to cover the Top part.Bring the Floor Tom to my friend's machinery work-shop(Sorry,you can't use any hand saw to cut it.)and cut it to the size of:16x12.Then I attached a 1cm thick plywood on,so that I can attach the Tom holder on it.As for the Bass pedal attachedment,It's very easy.Just get a o.5cm metal plate and slowly bent it,you need to get some Pipe clamp(Hardware shop)also,so that you can clamp the metal plate to the Floor-tom leg.
As for you,If you need to use the Top head for snare.Then you can make you own Snare fan.may be I send you my home-made Snare's picture!
wonder1
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wonder1 · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 5:53 pm Post subject: home made snare fan!

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random white person · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 6:09 pm Post subject:

use the [img] tags; not html. you pretty much had it right the first time... just fix the brackets.
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zimbop · Kitten Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 134

I am trying to figure out what kind of heads would be good on a 16.16 floor tom to make it into a bass drum for this cocktail set. I'll but the beater head on the bottom, and some sort of resonant head on top, though I suppose I can use the one that's on there. I want good damping with minimal ring. It also wouldn't hurt to have a hole in the top for access to adjust extra damping or whatever.

Any ideas? Aquarian makes a SuperkickII in 16" should I try that? What should I pair it with, the regulator also comes in 16, that sounds good, what do you think?
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zimbop · Kitten Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 134

So i bought the Ludwig floor tom. I couldn't negotiate much of a deal on it because it was a commission piece and the party owed the store money so they didn't want to come down at all. It's a great finish though, which is no longer available so I still consider myself lucky. Natural black finish with gloss coat. I'm about to get it tuned up and swap around my beater to swing upwards. It looks great with my natural cherry Black Panther.

I found a couple of possibilities for heads. The Remo ebony series pinstripe might be good. It's at least two ply, almost seems hydraulic and is as dry as thumping a pillow. I'm also still considering a superkickII.
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wonder1 · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 6:08 pm Post subject:

zimbop · Kitten Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 134

I have the snare heads all set, what I needed was heads for the floor tom to make it sound like a bass. So today I got an Evans Hydraulic Black head for the bottom beater side. It sounds great, very dry and fat. The top head is the resonant head that came on the drum when it was new, a remo single-ply clear head with a lugwig logo. It rings quite a bit, so with an e-ring it sounds better. It's all just a little flat though. I'm hoping I can fix that with tuning, or perhaps the hydraulic head is just too dead.

As for the snare, I'm set for heads on that. And I don't have it mounted on top of the floor tom at the moment so there's no problem with rattling the snares. That was my original plan, but I found that the standing position wasn't any fun, so I'm using a throne and regular snare stand right next to the tom and it's working great.

I suppose that makes it more of a micro kit instead of a cocktail kit, but it's still much more compact and a lot of fun to play. I had almost forgotten how much fun it is to make the most out of very few instruments. I'm having more fun with grooves now because I'm not distracted by other drums to play. I'm going to add the cowbell and a cymbal for some accent though.

I do still need to figure out how to do the hihats though. A closed hihat holder would work but I like to be able to open them occasionally, so I guess that means I need a remote unit. I don't think I'm ready for that expense yet though, so for the moment I'm using a standard hihat stand.

I have been to cocktaildrumlounge and read a lot. I am currently waiting for my registration to be activated so I can post some questions there too. Thanks for the tip.
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wonder1 · Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 5:11 pm Post subject: drum pic!

Hey!Check out this very old drum catalogue.May be you can use this idea for your drum setting? Very Happy

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zimbop · Kitten Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 134

Ok, so here it is so far...

I had this 12x7 Black Panther cherry snare as an accent in my full kit, it's my favorite snare. Then I found this 16x16 Ludwig Accent CS Custom floor tom used in a local shop. It was in great condition in pretty much the perfect finish to match my snare, natural wood stain with glossy finish. I put an evans hydraulic head on the bottom and kept the ludwig remo resonant head with an e-ring on top. I'd like to get a better top head at some point, maybe a 2-ply. I adapted an old mapex kick pedal to swing up, something I plan to adapt my Iron Cobra for soon, and grabbed my main hihat stand for now until I can find a reasonable remote unit.

I plan to find some sort of 16-18" crash/ride and probably swap out this 10" splash for a 12 at some point. I'd also like to get some 12" hats. I'm going to use existing hardware on the drums as much as possible to avoid extra stands. I'll likely add a pair of mini timbales instead of toms, and I will move over a few of my bells and blocks as well.

I have it set up to sit down at the moment because at first I found the odd cockatil posture was pretty hard on my back. My plan is to have it adaptable to stand-up playing by building a bracket to allow me to set the snare on top of the tom so they're stacked cocktail style.

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