Pacific Drums Maple Snare with Wood Hoops

The Pacific Drums by DW Maple Snare with Wood Hoops features an all-maple shell with maple hoops and chromeplated brass tube lugs. 14″ x 5-1/2″.

Rating:
Super cool maple snare drum with maple wooden hoops. Quality construction from the makers of DW and it’s at a great price. The lines almost look vintage with the tube-style lugs. Great for all types of music genres including Jazz and rock. Definitely a cool maple shell snare drum to check out.

Cympad Optimizer: Standard 40mm size for use on top or bottom side of cymbal bell.

Cympad Moderator: 50, 60, 70, 80, 90mm sizes for sound adjustment. Used on bottom side of cymbal bell.

Cympad Optimizer: Hi-hat application.

Cympads – Cympad Optimizer and Cympad Moderator cymbal pads

Some product description from Cympad’s website:

Cympad optimizes your cymbal sound!
CYMPAD is an incredible, affordable and easy to use system for optimizing the sound and performance of virtually all cymbal sizes, types and brands. Cympad is specially designed and made from premium-grade cellular foam to simply and effectively protect your cymbals and control your sound. When using Cympad, traditional felts are replaced. Cympads are Available in six popular sizes and recommended for any drumming style or situation.

A sound investment
* Cympad’s exclusive design enhances and controls cymbal sound.
* Isolates cymbal vibration from the cymbal stand
* Reduces both volume and unwanted overtones
* Moderates sustain and increases articulation

Small size, big difference
Available in incremental sizes, Cympad is versatile and adjustable— providing a spectrum of dampening effects (from open to optimum) without tape, gum or adhesive pads in a wide range of rehearsal, recording and performance applications.

* Live Sound (Concerts, Clubs, Casuals)
* Home and Studio Recording
* Band Rehearsal and Individual Practice
* Teaching Studios

Foam is better than felt
Cympad foam cymbal washers have been carefully developed to outperform and outlast conventional felt washers while offering drummers a host of advantages.

* Conforms to cymbal shape and size
* Extends cymbal life and prevents breakage
* Outlasts standard felt washers
* Consistent size, thickness and density

More and more of the today’s top professional drummers rely on Cympad. So, if you want your cymbals to perform at their peak, just remember that behind every great sounding cymbal there’s a Cympad.

Application:
There are various Cympad sizes available and each optimize your cymbal sound:
* The Cympad Moderator (50, 60, 70, 80, 90mm) with dampening effect is mounted on the bottom side of the cymbal cup to control sound.
* The Cympad Optimizer (40mm) is used like a traditional cymbal washer

Rating:
I have to say, these are great…and they work. I’ve replaced all of the felt washers on my personal drum set with these. Here’s my personal application and how Cympads have helped: My favorite genre of drum playing is Jazz. I keep time with a Sabian HHX evolution 20″ ride cymbal and have always felt the cymbal has a little too much “punch” and emits louder, long washing overtones when you get into a fast swing pattern. Don’t get me wrong, I love this cymbal, but have always wanted to tone it down a bit while playing fast patterns and cut out some of the wash…Basically make it a little “drier” in sound. Cympads have fit the bill. I put some of these bad boys on, played around with the different sizes to get just the right sound and…viola, instant dry….There’s a wide variety of sizes of Cympads to get just the right sound out of your cymbals. It’s like finally having adjustability for your cymbals…How they work: The “Cympad Moderators” normally go on the under side of the bell and basically act as an “adjusting” pad–they come in various sizes. The “Cympad Optimizer” is a standard 40mm pad that normally goes on the top of the cymbal bell (Basically used like a standard pad. Can be used on top and bottom). However, I’ve been trying both in various places to get just the right sound I want. The various combinations make it easy to set up, test and play around with. They even have a hi-hat kit as well. Definitely worth giving some a try.

Remo 5-Piece Rock ProPack Review
The Remo 5-Piece Rock ProPack includes 12″, 13″, 16″ Pinstripe tom heads, 22″ Powerstroke bass head, and a 14″ Coated Ambassador snare head.

Remo 5-Piece Rock ProPack also Includes a FALAM patch.

Rating:
Remo pinstripe heads are the classic, trusted drum head for rock style drumming. I’ve used these heads when playing in rock bands and they sound great. They give a great, punchy low end sound with short sustain and hold up very well to hard playing. A definite winner of a drum head in my book.

Pro-Mark TB3 Telescopic Brushes

These telescopic brushes are inspired by the original Gene Krupa jazz brush. Smooth rubber handle with great balance for fast response. Made in USA. Telescoping Pro-Mark TB3 brushes are crafted with wire and equipped with a light rubber handle.

Overall Length With bristles extended – 12 5/16

Length of Handle only – 6 13/16

Rating:
I own a pair of these brushes (Probably an older style of this version) that have lasted over 15 years. Pro-Mark brushes are the standard, in my opinion, when it comes to drum brushes. What’s cool is the telescopic handle protects the wires when putting them in your stick bag. Just bring the brushes back inside with one smooth motion. I normally play with one brush fully extended for sweeping and the other brush brought in a little bit, which gives a slightly stiffer brush, for accenting and rim bouncing. A very versatile brush. The metal rings at the end of the telescopic handle are perfect for pinging and scraping the cymbal when needed. I usually keep a set of Pro-Mark Telescopic Brushes and hybrid brush/stick brushes in my jazz stick arsenal.

Drums have been around for quite some time….a long time actually. Well, they’re actually the oldest instrument on the planet to sum it up. There are various types of drums and they come in all shapes and sizes.

Some of the different types of drums include:

Drumsets
Latin drums / Conga drums
African drums
Symphonic and marching drums: Snare drums, bass drums
Various other hand drums like Celtic drums tambourines, etc.

Drums overview:

Drums are of the instrument family “percussion.” The technical term is membranophone, “membra” meaning membrane. Drums usually consist of two membranes called a drumhead or drum skin with a shell in between. These membrane drum heads are struck by the percussionist with either their hands, mallets (in the case of a timpani) or drumsticks on a drum set. Drums are the world’s oldest and most musical instruments. Most drums, like hand drums make a single pitched sound, although a few drums like timpanis and African talking drums, for example, can be manipulated to make multiple pitches. There are many variations of drums throughout the world and each have a unique sound.

Drumsets:

The drums on a drum set most often contain a bass drum, or two bass drums even, tom toms, floor tom and a snare drum. These drums are accompanied by cymbals that the percussionist, or drummer, strikes.

Many factors determine the sound a drum makes, that include drum shell size, drum shell wood and the drum head’s tensioning. Drums come in all shapes and variations. Different genres of music call for different sounds. For example, a jazz drummer may want crisp, clean sounding drums that are a little on the soft side, whereas a rock drummers may want drums that sound loud, deep and heavy with little sustain. The drums for these different genres usually involve different woods in the drum’s makeup as well. A jazz drummer may prefer maple drum shells that ring a little more and are open, whereas a rock drummer may prefer birch drum shells which gives a loud, punchier sound. It’s important to choose carefully the style and sound of drums one will invest in.

Hand drums:

Hand drums are drums that are sometimes meant for portability and consist of one or more drums paired together. Congas, bongos and Djembe drums are some of the most popular hand drums. These drums usually have heads made of animal skins. They are used in many ethnic drumming genres including Latin and African drumming.

Playing drums becomes an engulfing lifestyle to the serious drummer. Some drummers start playing when they’re very young and some drummers start playing drums when they’re older. It’s never to late or too early to start playing drums. Some play drums as a hobby an others use drums as a means to support themselves. Either way, there is a great amount of enjoyment to be had from playing any type of drums.

Prodrumreviews.com is drum review site for drummers of all skill levels and interests.