Worst setup of gear you've owned

mikyok

mikyok

Platinum Member
For a bit of fun seeing as there's been a few what was your first kit kinda threads going round.

Out of all of the gear you've owned and mistakes you've made along the way, what's the worst set up you could make of equipment that was the result of youthful exuberance or following a fad.

Here's mine
Tama Rockstar 22/10/12/14 (hanging floor tom and plastic bass drum hoops) - First new kit, gone after a year. Only kit I've ever had that still owed me money when I sold it.
Dixon Maple piccolo snare 13x3 - I was in a Dave Abbruzzese/Tim Alexander phase. This wasn't good Dixon btw, it was 2003 Dixon. The snares used to come off mid song
Duallist pedal - Faddy McFaddy O'Faddison purchase
90s 22" Earth Ride - The heaviest dullest piece of metal I have ever owned. It used to get lost in a mix
17" & 18" Z Custom crashes - B20 ZBTs
10" Sabian AA mini hats - They're not that bad just pointless and I've still got them
 
mikyok said:
For a bit of fun seeing as there's been a few what was your first kit kinda threads going round.

Out of all of the gear you've owned and mistakes you've made along the way, what's the worst set up you could make of equipment that was the result of youthful exuberance or following a fad.

Here's mine
Tama Rockstar 22/10/12/14 (hanging floor tom and plastic bass drum hoops) - First new kit, gone after a year. Only kit I've ever had that still owed me money when I sold it.
Dixon Maple piccolo snare 13x3 - I was in a Dave Abbruzzese/Tim Alexander phase. This wasn't good Dixon btw, it was 2003 Dixon. The snares used to come off mid song
Duallist pedal - Faddy McFaddy O'Faddison purchase
90s 22" Earth Ride - The heaviest dullest piece of metal I have ever owned. It used to get lost in a mix
17" & 18" Z Custom crashes - B20 ZBTs
10" Sabian AA mini hats - They're not that bad just pointless and I've still got them
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Damn, we must be on totally different pages lol. I wish I never sold my 22" earth ride, I love 10" hats, and the plastic Tama bass drum hoops are my favorite bass drum hoops ever (in terms of functionality, not look).

In my first few years of playing drums I was using a double bass pedal and insistent on using it where it didn't belong, I donno I guess I thought it was cool. I wasn't even good with it. I quickly abandoned it and have been playing single pedal for twenty+ years, even in heavier music.

During that same time I set up 3 crashes, this was unnecessary for me. I went down to 2 then 1 then most of the time none.

Blocks, cowbells, etc are things I tried to work into my set ups several times over the years and they just never fit the music I play.

So really for me it's just a matter of "too much crap", setting up stuff I don't need or use. Not saying double pedals, crashes, or cowbells are bad or unnecessary in general, just for me and my playing.
 
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roncadillac said:
Damn, we must be on totally different pages lol. I wish I never sold my 22" earth ride, I love 10" hats, and the plastic Tama bass drum hoops are my favorite bass drum hoops ever (in terms of functionality, not look).
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One mans muck is another mans brass!

Now I played an 80s 20" brilliant earth ride that was the reason I bought the offending slab of metal. The 20" brilliant earth ride was phenomenal, heavy but musical. What I got was a nail!
 
Gretsch Cat jazz kit. The rack tom was OK. The floor tom would not tune up and was too short. Why they thought putting the leg mounts in the middle of the drum was a good idea I will never know. The snare was a hot mess and I tried everything. I could get the kick to do a rock kind of thump. I struggled to get a more tom like sustaining bass drum sound for jazzier leanings. That might just be me lacking in technique at the time though.

For context and to be fair, that was 10-15 years ago.. Long enough I can't remember exactly. Todays version may be much improved
 
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Probably when I stuck together the first two beginner kits I owned as a kid and got this monstrosity. 2 12" toms, a 13", 2 16" floor toms, one 20" and one 22" bass drum, rototoms, cobbled together hardware, all set up terribly.
olddrums.jpgolddrums002.jpg
 
alparrott said:
Probably when I stuck together the first two beginner kits I owned as a kid and got this monstrosity. 2 12" toms, a 13", 2 16" floor toms, one 20" and one 22" bass drum, rototoms, cobbled together hardware, all set up terribly.
View attachment 157090View attachment 157091
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Yeah done that. It's hours of fun though when you don't know any better.


That could do with some bell chimes and a gong just to tie it all together ;)
 
For me it was the thinking that having heavy, heavy-duty stands was the way to go. As if when playing gigs there was always going to be the threat of a tidal wave, tornado-level winds, or my toms and cymbals were going to gain an exceptional amount of weight as the gig went on. Switched some things around and my back and equipment bag are much happier.
 
alparrott said:
Probably when I stuck together the first two beginner kits I owned as a kid and got this monstrosity. 2 12" toms, a 13", 2 16" floor toms, one 20" and one 22" bass drum, rototoms, cobbled together hardware, all set up terribly.
View attachment 157090View attachment 157091
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You Got It Wink GIF by Lansing Lugnuts
 
I used to have set of Sabian B8 Pro cymbals. Now I have all AAX. I love my current gear. Peace and goodwill.
 
mikyok said:
what's the worst set up you could make of equipment that was the result of youthful exuberance or following a fad.
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When I was 11, my parents bought me a Slingerland bass drum with mounted tom that clamped to the bass drum hoop (I used pliers and crushed the hoop), and a Taiwan COS snare for Christmas. It came with a heavily used Ludwig Speed King, and I began to make noise. "I need a Zildjian cymbal" so they gifted me a 20" Zyn crash/ride and I made more noise. I studied photos on record albums and determined I needed a hi-hat and bought it myself from money I'd made pumping gas all summer (check your oil, ma'am? Tire pressure? Lemme get those bugs off your windshield. Full service, bro!). It came with 14" Zildjian New Beats for $100. It was the most expensive purchase in my life and I spent my entire savings on it. I was 14 years old and one step closer to Ringo. "I need a 16" floor tom" and my father gifted me a Ludwig in red sparkle. At the pawn shop I found/bought a 16" Zildjian crash. One step closer to Ringo. When I joined a band at 16 years old, a band mate's brother gifted me another crash cymbal. After my first paid gig I bought a Ludwig 13" mounted tom and put it on a used snare stand. I had no idea how to tune anything or what a paradiddle was, but I thought I was the shizzle 'cuz I made good money with it.

⬇️ College, c.1977. Posing for my roommate. It's because of this kit that good hardware is crucial to my mental health.

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Sorry for the terrible pic, but these, despite how bad they were, were my pride and joy for most of my high school years. CB700 concert toms (the pic is too small and blurry to see the strip of prism contact paper around the lower edge of each tom, the purpose of which was to hold down the wrap that kept peeling!) along with my Rogers BD and snare. The stands were a random assortment mostly held aloft with hose clamps. Good days!

Oh, and I'm not sure if they're in this pic, but I made my own black dot heads but cutting out circles of black contact paper and sticking on the heads. The only music store I could get to didn't have anything but the coated ambassadors, normally.

CB700s.jpg
 
King Tiger said:
For me it was the thinking that having heavy, heavy-duty stands was the way to go. As if when playing gigs there was always going to be the threat of a tidal wave, tornado-level winds, or my toms and cymbals were going to gain an exceptional amount of weight as the gig went on. Switched some things around and my back and equipment bag are much happier.
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Even worse, I had a rack phase and I played a 4 piece!
 
Long before I acquired an actual drum kit, I cobbled together a crude set up. Pair of bongos, a 14” single headed hand drum and a tambourine. I wrapped the small bongo in aluminum foil for a snare sound. The big bongo was my “tom”. The hand drum was muffled with duct tape to get a “kick” sound. The tambourine served as hi hats and cymbals.
 
I guess I'm pretty fortunate. My worst kit was the Sonor Jungle kit. I think that's what it was called?

I never really got on with the 16" bass drum. For me, it was too deep too. I never got a sound I liked out of the little 10" tom either.

Plus, the bass drum tom mount put the rack tom way too far out in front of me. I ended up using an old (heavy!) cymbal stand with a tom mount.

I got it on a really good deal and ended up making a few bucks selling it after a couple years...so it wasn't THAT bad of a kit after all!
 
I didn't start drumming until 46 YO, so missed out on all the fun stuff.

But I DID turn my bicycle into a chopper by amputating the forks from my sister's "donor" bicycle then pounding them onto the ends of my forks when I was about 11 YO.
 
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