Issue #8___\__\__\__\__\__________/__/__/__/__/ Aug 97 THE TEMPO DISPATCH FREE Newsletter For Drummers and Drumming Enthusiasts Copyright Bill Powelson 1997 all rights reserved. ___/__/__/__/__/__________\__\__\__\__\___ 'IT'S ALL ABOUT DRUMS' Tips * Tricks * Hints * Ads * Freebies * Lessons * Gigs? NOW 950 SUBSCRIBERS!!! ___________________________________________________ "THE TEMPO DISPATCH" is a FREE publication *** Originating From *** BILL POWELSON'S SCHOOL OF DRUMS on the web Where the Drum Lessons are FREE! http://www.catalog.com/drummers/bphome01 E-MAIL: powelson@america.com ___________________________________________________ The focus and intent of this publication is to unite, enlighten, and entertain all the percussion enthusiasts of the Internet. If you wish to receive NO further issues, simply reply to the address at the top of this message and type "REMOVE" on the subject line or body of the message. Your address will be removed immediately. ___________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS What is in this issue? Contents: 1. Feature Article: Bass Drum Muffling ________________________________________________________ *** FEATURE ARTICLE *** (Replacement For August 97) NOTICE: The following article was never sent out to the subscriber list. Though it may be a helpful article for some students . . . others may find good reason to argue with it. The topic is a bit contoversial. For that reason, it never made it as a feature article. I've decided to put it in this spot because the original TD #8 was a boring article, chock full of what are now dead links. The article below was originally an e-mail response to a student who asked: Q: "Why do so many pro-drummers pack their bass drums with blankets and pillows"? My response to the question went like this . . . .....................................................................................      You wouldn't believe how complex, humorous and ridiculous the 'answer' to your question REALLY is . . .      It ends up being a sign-of-the-times and a humongous joke on CRAFTSMEN and CEOs of nearly all the drum-manufacturing companies of the 1990s!  What we have here is a total lack of communication between the builders of drum sets and the people who play them.  HERE IS THE STORY . . .        (Kick-back and get ready for this . . .)     The craftsmen who build drums all over the world are craftsmen. THEY AREN'T DRUMMERS!  The CEOs who manage the craftsmen are CEOs. And they, most often aren't drummers either!     So . . . the craftsmen build the drums to produce pure, ringing (yukky) tone.  They use the best building and construction techniques, the best woods, bevel all the contact points and produce a beautifully crafted masterpiece and a finished product they are proud of . . .     BUT . . . they are using hand-me-down, 'stringed instrument mentality' as they produce these percussion masterpieces.  It is like they are trying to build VIOLINS for people to beat on!         Drums are not stradivarius violins!  THEY ARE DRUMS and should be built to sound like drums!  THAT'S THE PROBLEM!     The CEOs over-see the whole thing and make sure that everything is done properly, then market the drums at VERY high prices . . . touting the superb craftsmanship, quality ingredients and construction techniques . . .     We (dumb) drummers plunk down our hard earned money and buy the BEST the world has to offer!  The drums we buy look beautiful, but those guys (craftsmen & CEOs) aren't in touch with reality! Their drum-tones SUCK TURNIPS as far as REAL drummers are concerned! Even the most expensive drums 'suck', coming out of the box!     YUK!  Those expensive new mahogany drums sound TERRIBLE!!!! No self-respecting drummer would ever keep his gig with drums that sound that awful!     So it's . . . A-TUNING WE WILL GO . . . WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?  (It's sad!)     99% of us (myself included) promptly take the drums home, thwart all the crafty efforts and do everything to the kit that we CAN, to make them sound LIKE WE WANT THEM TO SOUND!!! We muffle away all that purity-of-tone . . . 'EVERY-POSSIBLE-WAY' . . . with blankets, pillows, foam rubber, newspapers and ROAD-KILL, haha!  ANYTHING to deaden that nauseous, voluminous, ringing NOISE those guys worked sooooooooo hard to achieve! THE PROBLEM?     Our (non-drumming) craftsmen and (non-drumming) CEOs are not AT ALL in touch with the reality of the situation!  They aren't drummers and they unknowingly prove it with the terrible tones they strive so diligently to produce!  FINALLY!  THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION!     Here it is . . .     Packing the bass drum . . . bypasses and cancels all the efforts of those non-drumming craftsmen.  All their efforts were in vain!     We 'drummers' want our bass drums to produce a nice, solid thud . . . or 'poof' sound.  That sound is best achieved by packing and muffling everything!  The same general problem exists ALL AROUND the drum set, including the snare and toms too.     Side line industries have grown out of this insane dilemma.  Dead-Ringers, Sound-Ovals and other muffling devices have become BIG businesses as spin-offs of this craziness!      AND . . . I'll bet there are enough pillows and blankets stuffed in the bass drums of the world to out-fit a small South American army!           ...............................     Bong, Bong, Bong just doesn't cut it in a real world where band-leaders and club-owners will fire you for the slightest reason.     Most drummers, crowds, club-owners, band-leaders, dogs, cats and passing strangers hate the pure (ringing, bonging) tone that those non-drumming carpenters worked sooooooo hard to get from their meticulously-crafted masterpieces!     About the only drummer who WON'T 'stuff' his bass drum is the Salvation Army drummer (banging whole notes) at Christmas,  on the corner in front of Wal-Mart!  HE'S NO DRUMMER EITHER!      The rest of us do EVERYTHING we can to eliminate the dreadful boinging sounds those (beautiful) drums were specially crafted to make!     I think part of the problem began in Taiwan with 'Pearl' drums and spread like cancer throughout the entire industry . . .     At one time . . . drums were made by drummers!  The older Ludwig, Rogers, Gretsch and Slingerland kits all contained TONE-CONTROLS to dampen the overtones and undesirable ringing.  I suspect that the 'sly' CEOs of Taiwan and other places have deduced that by omitting those costly 'tone-controls' saves them several million dollars a year . . . They figure we (drummers) are too dumb to notice or know the difference. The extra (saved) money then finds its way into their pockets & coffers and the drum prices go up rather than down.  (Maybe they aren't so dumb?)  Maybe the joke is on us!     First we pay a fortune for the drums then we spend another fortune making them sound like drums (not violins!)                  ......................... Email your comments to Bill Powelson powelson@america.com Copyright Bill Powelson 1994 all rights reserved. ________________________________________________________ |________________________________________________________| END OF TEMPO DISPATCH #8