Neil Peart
Mike Portnoy
Drum Bum
Modern Drummer
Drummer's World
Ludwig Drums
DW Drums
Pearl Drums
Yamaha Drums
Pacific Drums & Percussion
Sonor Drums
Tama Drums
Mapex Drums
Gibraltar Hardware
Jon's RC Airplanes
Jon's Home Theatre
I started playing drums when I was in 4th grade at McCordsville School in central Indiana in 1969. My first drum was a Ludwig Acrolite aluminum snare that I carried back and forth to school in it's hard shell case. . Our band teacher was Mr. Jim Wheatley. He traveled from Fortville to Mt. Comfort to McCordsville for the Mt. Vernon School Corporation. He was a very good teacher. I took private lessons from him in 1971 on snare drum. I actually placed high and won several snare drum competitions. I played drums in school band from the 4th grade through the 10th grade. I quit the school band in the 11th grade. I got my first drum set before I went into jr. high school. It was a 4 piece set of no name gray swirl drums. They didn't last me too long. They were not made well at all. I'm not sure whatever happened to them. I think they were given to a relative that was beginning drums. My second set of drums I got during jr. high school. It was a 5 piece set of used Ludwig red sparkle drums. I really liked that set. I ended up giving lessons to my next door neighbor and sold him the Ludwig red sparkle set. I used the money to help buy a set of Ludwig clear Vistalites. Actually, it was 2 sets of Vistalites put together to make 1 large set with dual bass, 4 ride toms and 2 floor toms. I remember one of the floor toms had a crack on the side from top to bottom and the guy I'd bought them off of had drilled small holes on each side of the crack and had laced the drum up with heavy fishing line. It worked, but you had to retune that drum all the time. I wish I still had the Vistalite set, it would be worth a bundle nowadays.
After a 20 some year hiatus, I've decided to play drums again. I purchased this large 12 piece set of chinese made birch plywood drums in 2006. In the time up to now, I've purchased several Zildjian,Istanbul and Paiste cymbals and several new and used pieces of cymbal hardware. I've also purchased a couple different size cowbells and mounted them on my right bass drum under the 13" and 15" ride toms. I've replaced all the drum batter heads with Evans hydraulic heads and I've replaced the 2 bass drum pedal beaters with Pearl quad beaters. I've turned the 3 leg hi-hat into a 1 leg hi-hat and attached it to my left bass drum. I plan on buying a couple Tama Iron Cobra bass drum pedals to replace the stock bass drum pedals. I'll use the stock pedals to play foot mounted cowbells and possible a foot mounted snare. Also, I plan on placing mics on both bass drums, snare, hi-hat and 2 overheads in the near future and doing some recording. Here are some pictures of my drums in my basement from 2008. The set has changed a lot now in 2010. I'll post some new pictures soon.
Here are some pictures I snapped in September 2010
Pictures I snapped late in 2011
Pictures of the new Gretsch Catalina Ash drum set bought in May 2011.
Pictures of our antique upright piano that we sold to some people in Albion years ago.
