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Opinions on cocktail drum kits?

BbbyBld

BbbyBld

Oct 13, 2005
1,950
1,595
Meridian, MS
#1
I have a weekly drumming gig lined up at a local restaurant. It's a relatively low volume funk, soul, R&B, blues, rock thing. My kit is good, but it's old school bulky and heavy. Normally, I wouldn't mind dealing with it, but one of my main bands (where I play bass) practices at my house the following night every week. The drummer for that band likes to set my kit up differently than I like, which is fine with me normally. Anyway, it will be a pain moving my kit around all the time and having to stress my main kit hardware fighting back and forth with my drummer on setup styles, so I want to get something easy to transport, and almost forgot to mention, the "stage" is small.

I've wanted the Ludwig Questlove Breakbeats kit since it came out, but could never justify buying it previously. I could pay for it in just a few weeks worth of gigs, so I think I can talk my wife into letting me buy it. I guess it's at the top of my list so far, but I've never even played it. I don't live in an area where I can try out stuff like this, but it has good reviews.

Anybody have experience with the Breakbeats kit?

Any other suggestions for cocktail kits?
 
#2
I think you can make a lot of noise with a small kit. I don't know about that particular package, but the drummer in one band that I play with has a DW kit, where they made the bass drum from a tom-tom shell, and it's raised off the ground so it can use a standard pedal and beater.

Purchase approved. ;)
 
#3
What's that one that just looks like a bunch of heads with no shells...RIMS or something like that? Wait, gotta go Google this...


Yep, that was it, RIMS:
purecussionheadset.jpg


I did a gig with a drummer who had one of those kits, and it was surprisingly effective, especially for old skool funk/soul/R&B in a small venue
 
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#6
I got this kit a few years back,
Fairly inexpensive, by HB.
I have it set up a bit different now.
'Fun to play.
Yes, the kit is in my kitchen (cuzz it's gonna be rainin' outdoughs...)
I need to get the bass drum pedal adjusted, as it sits a bit high to operate for very long, since you are standing...
View media item 8529
 
#9
I could kick myself because I was just at NAMM and could have checked out all kinds of stuff. I remember walking by the drum area thinking, keep moving, don't add to the GAS. I haven't been playing drums for several months since my daughter was born anyway. I would have really liked to hear the RIMS type concept in person.

This is a better option compared to the traditional cocktail kit.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't think I could play standing. I don't think I could work a kick pedal and hi-hats that way. I saw some modified floor tom based stuff on Youtube. If I was like some drummers I know, I'd have surplus drum shells and hardware lying around and this would probably be a good way to go. I think I will try to convince one of my drummers to make something like that. He always insists on bringing this monster set everywhere. It takes him like 2 hours to set up and tear down.

Anyway, I talked myself into going with the Questlove kit. It seems to have lots of good reviews, and I like the look.
 
#10
The drummer in my band has a questlove breakbeats kit, and he loves it. He ended up tracking down a matching full size kit so he could use the bass drum from it, but the kick that comes with the questlove set sounded great to me. Our soundguy really loved it too.
 
#11
I have a Gretsch Catalina Club kit (mahogany shells). Nice thump from the 18" kick, good old-school warm tones from the mahogany (nice match for the music you describe), good hardware and durability. It has gotten lots of compliments from my legit drummer friends. That Ludwig Questlove breakbeats kit looks great, too!
 
#13
I play drums as well. The Gretsch Catalina (with the 18") is a kit I would use for anything. The Questlove is pretty amazing but not a kit I'd use for a high-volume band. Love the size on that one as well. And it sounds good, I can tell you from both behind it and in front of one.

Have played the old Yamaha stand up cocktail kit, sounded decent (the snare was actually one of the nicest I've ever played) but I'm just not a fan of how the kick pedals work on those kits. They don't bounce like you expect they would; this wouldn't be a problem if it were your only kit, but that's pretty unlikely.
 
#14
I played with a guy who had an oldish ludwig cocktail kit and it was plenty for the small places we played. Outside of seeing Fred's (Cowboy Mouth) kit, this was my first experience with a cocktail kit. The guy it belonged to was a major jazz head and said it was not uncommon in that genre.

Either way, if it blows your dress up and you can get the wifey green light, snag one up.
 
#15
Those Catalina's look nice. The drummer in one of my bands showed me one today in the MF catalog. Mahogany shells with a lime green sparkle wrap. I would have been super tempted if I saw that kit first. The only thing I didn't like was the 12" rack tom. My Peavey Radial 501 kit has a 12" rack tom, but I love the sound of 10", so that's one of the things I wanted. I've already started working on him to try to get him to build up a mini kit using one of his extra floor toms. It bothers me that he goes through so much trouble to set up his gigantic set every time we play--even for small gigs. We try to help him out during tear down, but he insists on doing it all himself in a very meticulous fashion. I think we could get more work playing private parties if he had something else. I mean, his drum set is intimidating! He's a great drummer, but damn! I think he uses more stuff than Carter Beauford!

The Breakbeats box showed up today from SW. I love their fast shipping. I started laughing as I pulled up in my driveway because the box has a gigantic silhouette on the front like I ordered a Box-o-Questlove or something!

Outside of seeing Fred's (Cowboy Mouth) kit, this was my first experience with a cocktail kit.
Click to expand...

He lives here and is the neighbor of one of my coworkers.
 
#16
IMHO, it is NOT a cocktail kit if you do not stand while playing; and everything has to be supported by the bass/floor tom (cocktail drum).
Also, IMHO, a REAL cocktail kit does not have a working hi-hat. The hi-hat cymbals are permanently closed/semi-closed.
 
#17
One of my buddies plays a Questlove kit. He loves it and I agree that it sounds great. He mostly uses it miked up (loud bar gigs), but it is surprising loud acoustically. I've been thinking about getting one for my practice room as my Tama takes up a good bit of space.
 
#19
georgiagoodie said:
IMHO, it is NOT a cocktail kit if you do not stand while playing; and everything has to be supported by the bass/floor tom (cocktail drum).
Also, IMHO, a REAL cocktail kit does not have a working hi-hat. The hi-hat cymbals are permanently closed/semi-closed.
Click to expand...

Agreed, but I think the OP just meant a compact drum kit (suitable for a cocktail party). Actual cocktail kits seem like an impractical novelty to me (altough the Violent Femmes rocked one to good effect back in the day).
 

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