A Smarter Drum Set

	Allegra kit in soft cases	Whitney kit in soft cases
Trap/Stand Bag	62 lbs	53.8 lbs
Bass	24.5 lbs	12.9 lbs
Snare and Toms	27.4 lbs	18.7 lbs
Seat/Throne	5.4 lbs	6.6 lbs
Total packed weight	119.3 lbs	92 lbs

There’s also a whole section of this website dedicated to my Whitney Drums

Schlepping gear from place to place can begin to take its toll on your body over time. I’ve had three hernia surgeries, the third a repair of the second, and three surgeries on my left wrist. The wrist surgeries are more likely related to pulling heavy drum cases up and down stairs and or computer keyboarding at my day gig than from playing the drums. A couple of years ago I started exploring the possibility of a lighter drum set that would be easier on my aging body. The following documents the new gear choices I made to try and lighten my load a bit.

The new throne: I’ve been sitting on the same Rodgers throne since 1981. The seat’s been recovered with new imitation-leather and padding twice, nearly all the rivets have been replaced one or more times and the feet are tough plastic corks found in cheap sparkling wine bottles; also all replaced once in just before the turn of the century. Back when I was a full-time musician working 200+ gigs a year, that throne left me a little saddle-sore at the end of most weekends. The poor thing had been supporting my 250-pound body for decades and was starting to get a little loose in the joints; again. It packs up really thin though and it’s lighter than all these spinning-stem adjustable height thrones that have taken over the market, so rebuilding it is tempting, but the main spot where the seat meets the stem/post was starting to get a tiny bit loose so I went looking for a new throne.

I chose a K&M Keyboard/Guitar 14052 Stool. It weighs in at just over 12 pounds and the base is a bit bulky. The seat doesn’t pack as small as I would like do to its shape and base-plate. Its lowest height happens to be an inch higher than I’ve had my old Rodger’s throne at for all these years, but that’s not been a problem. It’s got some advantages over my old throne too. It’s really sturdy and easily holds my larger torso without me feeling like it could fall apart at any moment and it forces me to sit farther back on it, which spreads out the weight a bit better than my old throne and this seems to have solved the old issue of the tender tush. In the end, I think I’ve added a pound or two to my kit with this choice, but I’m sitting smarter, and in the long-run, I think it will be worth it. Plus, I think it looks smart. (Update April 2019: I purchased the drum throne version of the K&M stool and its base is 1.1 pounds lighter than the Keyboard/Guitar version and it’s just as well made).

The new stands: I’ve been playing Perl hi-hat stands, cymbal stands, and ball-joint snare stands since the early 80’s. Half of them I purchased in high school and the others when I was in the service. They are single-leg tripod type with the nylon colors that prevent the chrome from scratching and chipping. I love these stands. They are no-fuss and a little bearing grease on the threads every 5 years or so and you are good-to-go. They do amount to some weight in the trap-bag though.

After some online research, I purchased new DW Ultralight stands. I still prefer my Pearl stands on the gig, but I’ve been taking out these new lighter stands for about a year now for most gigs and for most of my gigs they are fine. Where they are annoying is at jam sessions, as they don’t reposition quickly as they rely on memory-locks to keep the snare and high-hat from sinking. Also, the screws holding the footboard of the hi-hat together came loose and I lost one somewhere. I had to custom order it through an authorized dealer as it’s a really odd-sized thing. At a recent house concert, I realized that the main rod in the hi-hat can rattle against the support tube. I think I can fix that with some duct tape. The upside though is together, they are 19 pounds lighter than the Peal ones in my trap-bag. That’s a lot less weight to be hauling around.

Whitney Drums

The new drums: I actually spotted Whitney Drums in some photos online a couple of years back, but at the time, decided not to pursue them. I ran into them again online last winter and tried to convince myself that since I already owned two really nice sets of drums, that there’s no need in my life for a third one. I looked into them again this last spring and decided to get a kit. After asking Jt Whitney (the creator and craftsman of these drums) dozens of questions about them I decided to give them a try. I ordered them in June and they arrived in August.

After a lot of consideration, I decided to go with the Nesting Penguin 16. I had him make the snare a little deeper for me, which forced the bass drum to be a little deeper too as with this kit, the snare, and both toms will nest inside of the bass drum. The sizes of the kit include a 6 x 13 snare, a 6.5 x 10 tom,  an 8 x 13 tom and a 16 x 16 bass. I ordered wood rims on all of them. The shell of these drums are bigger inside than the heads, so even though the heads are 13, 10, 13 and 16, they tune and sound more like 14, 11, 14 and 18, which is pretty much what I’m used to playing.

Lighter Weight: When fully-nested, all the drums can be transported in one bag that weighs in at about 30 pounds, which is really amazing. It’s probably less than the bass drum I use to march with in the service. I’ve decided that I would rather carry two bags and split the weight up than have it all in one bag, so the bass drum (in the bag) ends up being only 13 pounds, compared to my other kit’s 18” bass that is 24 pounds, and the snare and two toms fit perfectly in a 14” floor-tom case I already owned and weighs in at about 19 pounds in the case. Packed this way, the Whitney bass drum is so light that I no longer make a separate trip to the car for it, which got me from a 3-trip schlep to a 2-trip shlep without overloading either trip.

The trap/stand-bag, including my stick-bag, weighs in at 54 pounds with the Whitney Drums hardware system, the three ultra-lightweight DW stands. and the K&M throne tripod base in it. I’ve broken down the individual bag weights at the top of this post for comparison. The difference in weight between my four-piece Allegra kit and the Whitney one is nearly 28 pounds. All packed up, the Whitney kit ends up being about 22% lighter than what I have been hauling around.

Better Ergonomics: One thing I wasn’t expecting, and that I’m really excited about, is that Whitney’s mounting system allows me to achieve a better ergonomic setup than any kit I’ve ever played. The snare and toms can be perfectly positioned creating a flat playing area, much like a set of tri-toms that a marching band may use. The drums are so well positioned that I’m having to learn to stop overreaching when I play.

Also, I was able to get the small tom both centered in front of my right leg and back towards me a bit; more so than any other kit, which lets this long-legged drummer sit back from the bass drum a tiny bit creating a better position for my right leg and ankle when playing the bass drum. I can also get the low-tom at the same height as the snare without having the snare a little low to accomplish it. Most 14” floor toms have legs so short I can’t get the floor-tom up to the height I should play the snare at, so I’ve always just lowered the snare down an inch or so to make things work. This new kit lets me have my snare up where it should be and the floor/low tom too. This is all to say that this kit allows me to have better arm and hand positioning which will allow me to have better stick control. Of course, it will be up to me to take advantage of all this, but for the first time in my drumming experience, the hardware setup of this kit isn’t holding me back.

Yes, but how do they sound? They sound great! If you’ve looked at my site much, you’ll note that all my drums have wood rims. I’ve played nothing but wood rims on my Alegra kits for years. Whitney Drums have the claw-less version of wood rims though and I’m just blown away by the cross-stick sound of this style of rims. I don’t have to flip my stick over to get a nice thick crack and the dynamic range of the cross-stick sound is much greater too. This style of wood rims also control the overtones of the drums a lot, much more than I expected. It allows me to play with a little more energy without being as loud. I feel like I can play with sticks a little more often without being too loud for the room. I play a lot of small rooms, so this is a plus. The Europian birch shells aren’t sealed on the inside of the drums either, so that may also be adding to the mellower/warmer sound of this kit. The drums sound bigger than their head-sizes would lead you to believe and much closer to the shell diameters.

I’m still trying different tunings on the kit. I may try with a thinner head or two on the bass drum at some point too. I need to hear the kit in a few more of the rooms I’m used to playing in before I settle on what’s best for this kit. All drums will sound different from space to space that you play in and what I need is something that works pretty well in any space.

If anything, I think that this style of wood rims combined with this fat-in-the-middle thin shell design gives the kit a very cool retro sound which is absolutely ideal for many of the jazz gigs I play. The difference is really subtle. Think of the difference between a remastered digital CD of your favorite straight-ahead jazz recording vs. the same recording session on the thick vinyl LP it was originally issued on. That’s what I mean when I say it has a “retro” sound. This kit is the one on the LP; minus the beauty scratches and pops.

Post update: January 2018. I’ve now got Evans J1 Etched drum heads on the batter-side of the snare and toms and an Evans Calftone head on the batter-side of the bass drum. Now we’re cooking with garlic and salt. These heads just opened up the sound of this kit in a big dynamic way, and I do mean increased dynamics. The kit now plays softer and louder and has a lot more tone than I was getting out of the heads that came with the kit. The rebound is nicer too.

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