Wow! I hadn't realized how long its been since I wrote anything up here. A short update: I'm still with REO Speedwagon, drum teching a mostly electronic kit (except the cymbals). It was a rough change for me to go from being an acoustic drum tech to triggering. While I wouldn't have chosen this myself, the boss has some issues with his fingers (notably his left thumb) that are making it painful to play. In an effort to prolong his career and keep playing, he came up with the idea of switching to mesh heads (more give in them than plastic or calf) and triggering sampled drum sounds. It almost worked! He was still having pain in his thumb, so we took the extreme measure of wrapping his left hand stick in four layers of lightweight flesh/foam tape, followed by four layers of Flesh tape. It turns the 5B grips into a larger than 3S stick, but it's squishy and forms to his hand, and absorbs most of the shock that would otherwise be transferred through the sticks.
All in all, the switch to triggering has made the front of house and monitor engineers lives much better. Since we are triggering studio produced drum sounds that consistently hit the meters at the optimum level, it greatly simplifies getting a drum mix in the PA as well as the monitors. I still get nervous if I don't hear exactly what I'm expecting to hear but I'm slowly coming around to it. You won't see my rushing out to buy an E-kit in the near future for myself. But if it keeps the band and the boss going, then it keeps me employed and the bands fans get to see another show.
On the engraving front, I'm midway through Kenny Aronoff's 40th anniversary snare drums for TAMA. Some of you may remember I engraved Kenny's 18th anniversary drums back in 1999-2000. This limited edition takes its design from that limited edition. If you recall, there were two dragons on the drum that overlooked the badge. When Kenny got his drum, he took it to LA Ink and Corey Miller to get a tattoo with the same artwork, adding his initial and some other art to make his very personalized tattoo. When Sam Gample, Tama's artist relations manager, contacted me to discuss the possibility of a 40th anniversary model, I immediately thought of Corey Miller's excellent version of the Dragon heads in Kenny's tattoo. I contaced Corey and he graciously offered to draw "the rest of the dragon" that he started on Kenny's arm. I took his drawings and altered a few things (sorry Corey) strictly to make the design fit on the snare drum with minimum interference from the drum hardware. There are two dragons that meet at the badge, and their tails entwine on the opposite side of the drum. Like the original 18th version, it also has engraved lugs. But since Kenny wanted die cast hoops on this model, and those do not engrave well due to plating issues, they aren't engraved. This limited edition is restricted to 30 drums worldwide and will most likely be my last large project for a drum company. I will still be engraving for Joyful Noise Drum Company, A & F Drum Company, and many smaller companies, in addition to a series of tribute drums to my favorite bands over the years under my Vintage Drum Company brand. If you saw any of the RUSH or Beatles snares I engraved during the covid lockdown, that's the direction I'm headed in for the next few years. Of course I will still take on custom work from individuals, which was the main reason I started doing this in the first place.
Ironically, I learned how to engrave because I couldn't afford the price quoted to me by a jewelry engraver ($750) back in 1983 for a simple scroll pattern. Why ironic? I've engraved hundreds of drums over the past 40 years with the pattern that I wanted engraved back in 1983, but after 40 years of engraving. I still don't charge $750 for it!