bought my "retirement" drum set
 

I haven't told anyone and it's KILLING me, so here goes:
I bought a drum set

I have other drum sets, but there's a PROBLEM. One is in tom sizes 10", 12", and 14", the other is 10-12-16.
I WANT 10-12-14-16 in matching toms.

Kit #1 = impossible to find a 16"
Kit #2 = they DO NOT MAKE a 14"

I found a kit on Reverb and I didn't know what it was-- it's an old Pearl kit and it "looks" like a cheap export (makes sense, it was listed under $1000), but the model is BLX. This is an older (1980s) version of their "Masters" series of high-end kits. All birch shells. Intended as Pearl's answer to the Yamaha kits that guys like Vinnie Colaiuta were playing in the studio. This BLX model is used as a "go to" drum sound in many recording studios. Why was it listed so low? Who knows, it doesn't have suspension mounts or a matching snare, maybe the deeper tom sizes are unpopular?

Here's the amazing part:
It has toms in sizes 10x10, 12x10, 13x11, 14x12, and 16x16 --ALL OF THE SIZES I WANTED plus a 13" . . . I'm SO EXCITED --I can do any conceivable set up I've ever wanted to do.

This is it:

Badda Boom Badda Bing!

Nice! Are you setting it up right away or is this a longer term project like building an acoustic space?

Fabulous!

Sent by Magick. [emoji3314]

Setting it up right away. I have a detached workshop for this stuff.

One of my co-workers used the phrase "retirement set" and basically it means, why not get the setup that does everything you want? If it's the last drum set you ever own, you'll be set for life. I took it to heart-- I've been looking at used drum sets online for years, with the specific purpose of finding a sub-$1000 setup with a long run of matching toms. This is it. Birch shells, "power" depths, in red (matches my vintage Tama shells)-- if I didn't buy this now, I'd just continue looking for the same thing and eventually buy something just like it.

It arrives tomorrow, I've been watching the package tracking.. . .

Love the anticipation, it's like waiting for a new bike would be for me.

I'm crawling out of my skin. It was supposed to be delivered today, but it's still sitting at a depot about two hours away, and not marked as "out for delivery" yet.

When it comes, you should post a video of you playing!

you should play at Virtual Forks :D

Please Flint. [emoji120]

Sent by Magick. [emoji3314]

Unboxing video!

I will post pics in this thread-- SOON. I've been too busy to take pictures.

I've been learning Rush songs and destroying my drum heads with big, heavy, aluminum drumsticks.

I have a setup with (left to right) 6", 8", 10", 10" steel mini-timbales, then 10", 12", 14", 16" in the big, red toms.
So I have a full "octave" (or, eight notes, anyway..) It's a real, full-body workout.

...

At first I was surprised at how high-pitched and "ringy" these drums sounded at the tuning tension that felt natural. But realizing what would have been considered "high-end" qualities in 1987, it all makes sense. They're designed for what I'm doing now-- very busy playing where ATTACK is needed more than a full, round tone.

Awesome! Get your Rush on!

Apollo was astonished--
Dionysus thought me mad!

Now you've got me spending time with lyics...



[I. Prelude]

When our weary world was young
The struggle of the ancients first began
The gods of love and reason
Sought alone to rule the fate of man

They battled through the ages
But still neither force would yield
The people were divided
Every soul a battlefield

[II. Apollo / Dionysus]

[Apollo: Bringer Of Wisdom]
'I bring truth and understanding
I bring wit and wisdom fair
Precious gifts beyond compare
We can build a world of wonder
I can make you all aware
I will find you food and shelter
Show you fire to keep you warm
Through the endless winter storm
You can live in grace and comfort
In the world that you transform'

The people were delighted
Coming forth to claim their prize
They ran to build their cities
And converse among the wise
But one day the streets fell silent
Yet they knew not what was wrong
The urge to build these fine things
Seemed not to be so strong
The wise men were consulted
And the Bridge of Death was crossed
In quest of Dionysus
To find out what they had lost

[Dionysus: Bringer Of Love]
'I bring love to give you solace
In the darkness of the night
In the Heart's eternal light
You need only trust your feelings
Only love can steer you right
I bring laughter, I bring music
I bring joy and I bring tears
I will soothe your primal fears
Throw off those chains of reason
And your prison disappears'

The cities were abandoned
And the forests echoed song
They danced and lived as brothers
They knew love could not be wrong
Food and wine they had aplenty
And they slept beneath the stars
The people were contented
And the gods watched from afar
But the winter fell upon them
And it caught them unprepared
Bringing wolves and cold starvation
And the hearts of men despaired

[III. Armageddon: The Battle Of Heart and Mind]

The universe divided
As the heart and mind collided
With the people left unguided
For so many troubled years
In a cloud of doubts and fears
Their world was torn asunder into hollow
Hemispheres

Some fought themselves, some fought each other
Most just followed one another
Lost and aimless like their brothers
For their hearts were so unclear
And the truth could not appear
Their spirits were divided into blinded
Hemispheres

Some who did not fight
Brought tales of old to light
'My Rocinante sailed by night
On her final flight'
To the heart of Cygnus' fearsome force
We set our course
Spiralled through that timeless space
To this immortal place

[IV. Cygnus: Bringer Of Balance]

I have memory and awareness
But I have no shape or form
As a disembodied spirit
I am dead and yet unborn
I have passed into Olympus
As was told in tales of old
To the city of Immortals
Marble white and purest gold...

I see the gods in battle rage on high...
Thunderbolts across the sky...
I cannot move, I cannot hide...
I feel a silent scream begin inside...

Then all at once the chaos ceased
A stillness fell, a sudden peace
The warriors felt my silent cry
And stayed their struggle, mystified

Apollo was atonished
Dionysus thought me mad
But they heard my story further
And they wondered, and were sad

Looking down from Olympus
On a world of doubt and fear
Its surface splintered
Into sorry Hemispheres

They sat a while in silence
Then they turned at last to me
'We will call you Cygnus
The god of Balance you shall be'

[V. The Sphere: A Kind Of Dream]

We can walk our road together
If our goals are all the same
We can run alone and free
If we pursue a different aim
Let the truth of love be lighted
Let the love of truth shine clear
Sensibility
Armed with sense and liberty
With the heart and mind united in a single
Perfect
Sphere

I've finally got Cygnus X-1 straight in my head-- the last track on Farewell to Kings, (Book I: The Voyage), is followed by the first track on Hemispheres, (Book II: Hemispheres), meaning the whole "Apollo/Dionysus" story arc is just the finale of the story about a guy flying a spaceship into a black hole-- reprised by one repetition of three acoustic guitar chords, a sample echoing in the background, and one stanza mentioning the Rocinante-- incidentally, Don Quixote's horse!

good lord

Oh, forgot to mention that Cygnus X-1 is a real astronomical object, in Cygnus, the "Northern Cross"
Cygnus X-1 is an intense x-ray source that Stephen Hawking famously wagered was NOT a black hole, a wager made with a colleague in 1974.
Hawking conceded that it was black hole, in 1990. But Neil Peart had already penned Cygnus X-1: Book One: The Voyage, in 1977. :p: