Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!
Drum Setup


This is Stewart's early 80's set up.


His Midnight Blue Tama Imperial Star setup includes a five-inch snare, 22-inch bass drum, 10-, 12-, and 13-inch rack toms. and a 16-inch floor tom, plus a four piece set of Octobans. Hardware is all Tama, mainly Titan, with a King Beat pedal.

The Tamas are mostly outfitted with Remo Weather King coated Ambassadors, with Emperors on the tom batters, and a black dot on the bass batter. He says, "My studio kit has black dots (Remo CS heads), and they're actually quite cool; I may go back to them on the road."

"I use a little duct (gaffer's) tape for muffling because, I suppose as everyone must know by now, the muffling that is built into the drums is totally useless and should be dismantled completely. I used to wrap my hands in duct tape too, but just last week I found some gloves (Drum Gloves, from Rug Caddy), and they're pretty neat, but they haven't got it quite right (for me) yet; at least someone is trying. This, unfortunately, is what happens after two or three gigs (holds up a pair with a worn-out thumb web on the left hand).

- May, 1984 issue of Downbeat Magazine


His drum set up today

An interview with Jeff Seitz (Stewart's roadie in the Police days):

"Stewart tunes his drums completely different than rock drummers of the past. From 1970 to I980 there became this fad of sort of very deep pitched sounding drums, more like a rumbling kind of sound. It first started with Led Zeppelin and like that and then the studios really jumped on it. It became all this dampening and tuning the heads so you actually got a note; a nice, round, pitched note and in a studio or a small hail; that concept can work because you're not dealing with the amount of bass rumble or certain frequency sounds you get in a big hall. Consequently, drummers who went into big halls like that with drums sounding like that, a lot of the sound dropped off because it was just rumbling around. Now, Stewart is into a very tight sound and he also plays a lot of the rim of every drum he hits, including the snare. I mean, most rock drummers play rimshots all the time, but when Stewart plays his tom-toms, he's hitting the rims as well. So he's going for a very, very percussive attack/crack sound and I think you can notice the drums just barking out at you. He developed that concept by going to a lot of concerts and noticing that a lot of drummers' tom-toms didn't make it. Plus, the reggae influence is a sound that is very high pitched; sort of a timbale sound. But I think that it comes through as a very percussive sound is realty what you're talking about rather than certain pitched drums. I mean, the drums have pitches on them, but that's not the most important thing to him.

What's his set up?

monthly breat self-exams may save your life! They're all Tama, The Imperial Star Tama, which is a thicker drum with nine-ply shells as opposed to six. They actually take the beating better. The fact that he does go for a percussive type sound also presents a problem that he does want to get a pitch to it, so if by attacking a drum really aggressively, if the drum can't take the pressure, it will sound very tinny. He wants it to be percussive, but he also wants a nice tone as well, not just a crack where there is no pitch at all. All the tom-toms have Remo Emperor heads and the bottom heads are Ambassadors. The snare has an Ambassador head and an Ambassador snare head on the bottom. The kick drum is the black dot.

How often the heads are changed?

The snare drum is changed pretty frequently. He tightens them up to the point where they actually start to pull out of the rim or they just stretch out and they lose their resonance. He doesn't break heads very often because they're so tight. The drum head is actually stronger when it's tighter, plus the fact that he doesn't dent them and he doesn't produce what most drummers do, wear spots. I can't remember the last time I changed a tom-tom head. The top heads are tuned very tightly and the bottom heads I try to get a general pitch. I have to rotate the bass drum head before every show to change the beating spot so I don't have to change a bass drum head in the middle of a show. That is also tuned pretty tightly. We go for a basic attack effect on the kick drum. As far as sizes, the bass drum is 14 x 22, the snare drum is 5 x 14 and the tom-toms are 8 x 10, 8 x 12, 9 x 13. The floor tom-tom is 16 x 16 and he's using two supplementary floor rack tom-toms on his left which are 8 x 12 and 9 x 13. He uses a set of four Tama Octobans and that's it as far as drums.

Stewart on tuning and his sets:

SC:The only thing I actually do myself is tune the heads, which I do rock hard all the way around. The entire drumset is about to pop; I have them as tight as they'll go.

RF: Do you muffle the drums?

SC: Yeah, I use gaffers tape, one or two strips, although not always, just occasionally. Actually, one thing that I do quite like are the black dots.

RF: How many sets do you currently use?

SC: I have three sets; one in England, one in America and one that travels. One of them has the black dots.

RF: Are they identical as far as sizes and pieces?

SC: Yes. Actually, the set that I have with me right now is really terrific. It's definitely state of the art with the stands. It's got all the mic’ stands mounted on everything because Tama has got a new set-up with a whole line of things you can stick onto the stands.

- October 1982 Modern drummer




Stewart has his drums very tightly tuned and despairs of the tendency of most rock drummers to tune their toms very low. "You can't hear them, they just don't cut through. So I have mine tuned very tight and without the PA they sound like tin cans. But with the PA you can fake a lot of roll on bass and get a very fast response while they still sound heavy. That’s what I like about Tama. They have a heavy sound on very small drums. I use three tom toms on the front and one on the floor. That's plenty. Some guys use eight, but there just isn't any difference. And I'm much too busy for any stuff like rolling round eight toms! You can get that effect just the same on four drums. Sandy Nelson used to do that all the time. Ginger Baker only had four and he was Mr Tom Tom. I keep my snare rock hard too. It's really easy for my roadie to tune my drums. He just tightens everything until his knuckles turn white."

- October 1980 issue of Musicians Only magazine




WFM: I think your work with the Police influenced a lot of people to tune their snare drums up. It's to a point now where a lot of drummers are using piccolo snare drums to get that high sound. Have you thought about fooling around with a piccolo snare?

SC: Well, the reason I tune my snare drum so high is not just because I want a high-pitched sound. I mainly tune it up because I like the feel of the drum when I play it. It behaves better when the skin is tight. In fact, when I record, I use the electronics available to fatten up my snare sound so I can play the drum with the feel I like and still have a full sound. If I were to use a piccolo drum, I would still want to tune the drum high so that it would have the response I like. However, on a drum that narrow the pitch would be too high and thin. It would sound like a toothpick snapping. So I don't see the point in using piccolo drums. In fact, I think it would be better to get a deep drum and tune it way up, so that you could have the response and still have some body to the sound.

April, 1990 issue of Modern Drummer


You don't know how to go backwards?