Building the 2007 BeBop Drumset

When I moved back to San Antonio in the Fall of 2005 one of the first things I did was to completely "overhaul" my Pearl GLX kit that had been packed away and seldom used for years. I stripped the hardware and polished it and cleaned years of dust and fingerprints off the wood shells. I reassembled the kit with all new heads.

What I discovered when I started working on the 6½" brass snare drum (top left) was the drum had really been beat up in a couple of "professional moves". There were a lot of dents and scratches in the shell. In addition, more than half of the 20 Super Gripper lugs were un-usable. Apparently the drum case had either been dropped or had had a heavy load placed on it. The damaged Super Gripper lugs had the screw tubes that extend through the shell sheared off. See the three lugs in the image to the left -

• the top-right lug is OK, both screw tubes intact
• the center lug has no tubes - both have been sheared off
• the third lug has one tube sheared off and one "half-sheared"

The Super Gripper was designed to be a "quick-release" lug for fast head-changing, as explained in the 1985 Pearl Professional Series Drums Catalog:

Pearl's exclusive new Super Gripper lug is an innovation without compromise. New springless design eliminates noise and all the other problems of conventional style lugs. The (brass) receiver nut has a special EVA plastic tubing that "grips" the rod ensuring no back-off on the tuned drums. To change heads, just loosen tension rods a few turns. No need to remove tension rods or washers. The lug can then be snapped open for easy hoop/head removal. You don't have to worry any more about fumbling around in the dark trying to find tension rods.

Tuning the drum with these lugs was hard to get used to... What I found was that tightening the tension rod had a completely different feel than a typical drum lug. And... they didn't work with the Gauger RIMS.

I did love that snare drum so I decided to try to locate some lugs and restore it. First stop was speaking to Pearl's Marketing Events Manager Raymond Massey at 2006 Texas Music Educators Association convention. "Pearl had been out of the Super Gripper lugs for some time - try Ebay," he advised. I started a thread on the Pearl online forum and found others looking for Super Gripper lugs... no one offering some for sale...

So... I took Mr. Massey's advice and gave Ebay a try...

I had been playing the odd night a week at an Italian restaurant on the San Antonio River, Delores Del Rio. The place, owned by an old friend, was cool - there was live music every night of the week. Because bringing a set of drums down on the SA Riverwalk was such an ordeal, there was a "house" set of drums - a black Yamaha hip-gig kit with a 16" bass drum up on a riser, and a 5"x12" snare drum... It is pretty beat up and it is a great set to play!!!

After hauling my heavy big GLX set around a couple of times I started making plans on how to get a similar set with high end shells, etc... I figured small drums, bass drum that would hold two toms packed in a case, 14" tom and snare drum in another case, maybe a rack with a couple of tubes to hold everything off the bass drum carried in a hardware bag, all rolled around on a Rock-N-Roll cart... couldn't be that much trouble to move around, right???? more later...

Well... the first time I did a search on Ebay for "Pearl GLX" and "Super Gripper lugs" up popped Kelvinator57. He had most of a road-weary GLX black lacquer (inside and out) double kick kit for sale (see the Catalogue picture to the left at the top and the snare rash on the 13" below it). He was putting them on Ebay a couple of drums at a time. I found his listing of a complete 11"x13" rack tom and a complete 12"x14" rack tom. I emailed and discovered that he also had a complete 16"x18" floor tom, 2 16"x24" bass drums and a 10"x12" rack tom shell - no hardware. I had struck gold!!!

I did some quick planning... I would get the 12", 13" 14" rack toms and have them cut down to 7" depth, as well as the 18" floor tom and turn it into a bassdrum (cut in two with latches), **CYMBAL CRASH!!** I would have my BeBop kit!!!

We exchanged several emails and I ended up with the four drums. Strange thing was that no one bid against me - I got them for what he listed them for.

At the same time I was starting to accumulate other gear to go with the set... a rack, Pearl 3½" Free Floater, DW 9000 remote hi-hat pedal... all this stuff was starting to show up... and I started using some with my GLX big drums kit...

I had Kelvin hold the drums , for the short term, until I could figure out where I was going to get them modified...

And with the lugs on their way I sent the snare shell to a brass instrument repairman who specializes in low brass. I figured if he could knock the dents out of a tuba or sousaphone he could dothe same for my snare drum, then polish and lacquer it... the picture says it all - it turned out great!!!

At the same time I was negotiating with Kelvinator I was hitting all the custom drum builder sites and forums on the web... I accumulated 25/30 bookmarks for sites where I saw something I liked.

In the end I chose Stellar Drums at www.stellar.drum.com, Jody M Lutz proprietor and master builder. I spotted the wood hoops on his site right away!!! I took a woodworking class in college and figured if a guy could build hoops like that he could cut a few inches off a drum shell or cut the 18" tom in half!!!

I contacted Kelvinator, had him strip all the hardware off the drums and send it straight to me... he sent the shells to Jody.

I turned to John Riola at American Music Drumparts, for lugs, #1 and #1b, for their light weight, streamlined look, and one attachment point on the shell - they look GREAT!

I found the latches for the bass drum at Small Parts, Inc.. As you can see from the picture on the left the bass drum will hold two toms in a drum bag (to avoid scratching any of the drums).

Jody came up with the idea for the re-inforcement ring inside the two halves which aligns the latches and promotes stability.

Jody cut the toms down to 7" deep - so that I could use single lugs created for a 6½" snare drum - covered then in black pearl and did a beautiful job on the bearing edges.

He saved the piece cut from the 14" drum for a new shell for the Free Floater flattened the bottom (frame) edge and did a typical edge for the batter side.

Jody also provided the 6"x10" tom from shell stock he had and lacquered the inside black to match the others. He wrapped the snare shell and the 10" shell, too.

The only thing I would change in this whole process is I would have had him refinish the GLX shells back to their original glory!!

While Jody was busy on the drums, I went back on the Pearl Forum and contacted Pearl's Gene Okimoto and asked about replacement labels... Gene referred me to Tony LaCroix who told me Pearl did, in fact have some NOS GLX labels and offered to send one for every bad one sent to him... Jody sent the labels and received new ones back... I sent Gene/Tony/Pearl some of the extra Super Gripper lugs I had as a result of buying the drums.

The toms from the set arrived ahead of the bass drum from Stellar about May 20th, 2006, all in one box. In addition to being a master drum builder, Jody really knows how to pack some shells for shipment. The shells were nested one indide the other. I carefully unwrapped each shell and attached the lugs, the Gauger RIMS, the heads (Evans clear G2 batters, Remo black Ambassadors on resonant side), the rims, and used a DrumDial to tune the drums. I had played with "tuning down" an 8" Rogers snare drum without too much success. They sounded great immediately. The shortened toms sounded "big" and "fat", especially the 7"x14" "floor" tom. The 3½" shell for the Free Floater worked great, too, adding a real punch to the drum

I used the toms and the Free Floater on a big band rehearsal soon after - with the 22" bass drum from my "full-sized" GLX kit - and they really cut right through.

Within a few more days the bass drum shell arrived. I installed Evans heads (EMAD batter and black EQ3 with mic hole) and Stellar Drums' custom shaped maple rims. Again I used the DrumDial to tune and balance the heads. I could not believe my ears when I put the bass drum up on the DW cradle, hooked up the pedal, and gave it a go... HUGE!! I have had several 18" bass drums and played on many more... I have never heard one with as much balls as this one.

The First Real Test: A couple of weeks later I played an event for the San Antonio Spurs in one of the huge rooms at the Convention Center with a 10 piece show band. It was a big production, and supported with big-screen video and audio. The audio mixer was drum-friendly and a little intrigued by the "little" kit. He did a great job of miking and mixing the drums... they filled the hall.

In addition to the great job Jody did, I have to attribute a lot of the drums' success to the Gauger RIMS on the toms, the use of a drum rack to hang the toms on, and especially to the DW drum cradle the bass drum sits on. There is nothing attached to the bass drum shell - no spurs, no cymbal holders, no tom holders, nothing... as a result the drums really sing... the DW cradle is somewhat of a pain in the buttocks to "travel", but it more than "earns it keep" once set up with the bass drum "lounging" on top!!! Got a seperate bag for the cradle, the bass drum pedals, and some of the rack attachments - cowbell, etc.

I had tried to use a curved rack tube clamped between two heavy duty cymbal stands with my big GLX kit. I clamped a 10"x12" tom and a 11"x13" tom to it and a couple of cymbal boom arms. I quickly discovered that I had to make a choice... use-up the strength in my hands getting the clamps tight enough so they wouldn't spin and play the gig with sore hands or give up the tube... I should have figured out that with a curve in the tube the clamp was never going to be totally flat and tight against the tube.

I decided when I started putting this kit together that I would give the rack idea another try and that I wanted to use round tubes - just not curved ones.

I had the good fortune to come across this Hart Dynamics rack on Ebay... for some unexplained reason it was cheaper than the Gibraltar racks and had way more tubes and clamps. I discovered when I unpacked it that the tubes were stainless and had a subtle texture. These tubes did NOT spin when I set the rack up and put the new 13" and 14" toms on it.

Next I found, doing a search for "drum rack clamps", on Ebay a couple, Lisa and Ted (who is a drummer from the Nashville area that plays DW, maybe the only one??) who had a ton of DW rack gear, clamps of all shapes and purposes, tubes, cymbal boom arms and clamps for the tops of upright tubes... for sale... over a few weeks I bought it all. The clamps are described as stainless in the catalogue and were more substantial and effective when combined with the Hart stainless tubes... the pictures in the 2007 BeBop Drumset Slideshow Popup really show how versitile a setup can be with the combination... sort of reminded me of an erector set I had as a kid!!!

I mentioned the rack and the stainless tubes to Al Hansen, an old friend who's been in the machinery supply business for years - some of his customers specialize in stainless fabrication. I also told him about the "spinning" problem. Typical of Al, he had the ultimate fix... Notice the black mat the tube and clamp are sitting on in the picture... it's textured rubber shelf liner, sometimes used under bar glasses for drainage. He gave me the section of mat and told me to cut small sections that would fit inside the clamp over the tube (as in the photo)... when the clamp is tightened around the tube the rubber compresses against the texture of the stainless tube...

IT WILL NOT SPIN!!!

Got a spinning problem??? Get some Hart stainless tubes at DrumWorld in Pittsburgh. about $12 a foot in 1', 2', and 3' lengths. If you have polished (slick) stainless tubes Al says any stainless fabrication shop can put a texture on them. You can use the textured mat pieces with any brand clamp for the 1½" tubes

• This is one amazing sounding drum kit!!!
• The rack and hardware put everything right where I want it...
• The kit is really fun to play!!
• The kit with the rack is just about impossible for me to transport if I have to put the hardware case in a vehical
• I'm looking for a "roady" - (maybe) they can move it!!!
• Recent buys on Ebay have been single braced stands!!
• It easily cost triple what I thought it would when I started... the magic of Ebay!!! All the extras I couldn't pass up - DW 9000 remote hi-hat, Zildjian ride, crash and hi-hat cymbals with rolling case, Gauger RIMS...
• Priced a complete new set of heads for a kit with this many drums lately???
• Do it again??? ABSOLUTELY!!