Recent content by stevil

Wish I could - it's a 5 day conference and Sunday has the keynote speaker. I'd love to see all the fiberglass stuff on display. If I hit it big and retire before July you can count on me...

This kills me. I would happily drive to this meet up from Portland, but I have a conflict that day… in Seattle of all places.

Others mentioned conversion kits, so I thought I'd share this link. ACD has some very clever looking hardware, including stuff to convert some mass-produced pedals to DD. Shipping from Germany is steep, but I hear very good things about them...

Fred made me a custom set of bags for an old kit of mine and they were great. His gear is top notch.

Available when the the price of pork futures dips?

I wholeheartedly agree with other posters saying that there's no "best" and that pedal preferences are highly subjective. I've played the classic Speed King, Trick, Axis, Demon Drive and Tama Dyna Sync, and the Dyna Sync is the only pedal I care for. The other pedals all felt anemic and weak to...

I think that depends on the construction of the rerings. Some rerings are installed with inadequate tension to protect the drum, making them essentially decorative/tuning features. What I’ve heard of this era Tama shells is that they’re built like tanks and they had very high quality control...

Thanks, @Tama CW For posterity, here's what I found at www.drumarchive.com/tama 1980 catalog describes Superstars as having 6 plies. Didn't see thickness. Crestar catalog says, "Like Superstar, Crestar is constructed of 9mm, 8-ply Japanese birch..." [no differentiation mentioned for...

I thought this would have been discussed ad naseum, but I can't find it in the archives, so here goes: I'm in the market for some big, thumping Tamas, ala Dave Grohl circa Nirvana. I've read conflicting information on the differences between Superstar, Crestar, Artstar, Artstar Cordia, and...

Hijacking/reviving the thread to include apps for iPhone/iOS. I need even less functionality than OP - namely, I just want to be able to manually program beats into a step sequencer to play along to for practice/songwriting purposes. I’d use GarageBand, but it’s limited to 4/4, 3/4, and 6/8, and...

The DynaSync bass pedal is miles ahead of the competition, IMHO. I feel like a Jedi tapping into the force when I play it. I also dig my SLP Spotted Gum for a does-it-all snare. I still kick myself for passing on the SLP Steel kit when it was available.

I used DFD 3 mm hoops to help tame an 18" floor tom and had good results. Sounds like it would be worthwhile on your snare, but I'm speculating.

Sold a 1970's white Ludwig Vistalite in 14/16/18/26 sizes. I'm perfectly happy with the sets that replaced it, yet I have some seller's remorse because it was so fun and such a rare bird.

This has been mentioned briefly, but I’d encourage people not to get too cute with claiming music expenses as deductions. Activities that might be business or hobby have to show some profit during 2 out if every 5 years, if I recall correctly. So if you’re deducting half your mortgage/rent and...

LLCs aren’t really recognized by the IRS per se. You can have an LLC as a sole proprietor or as a corporation. For most nonprofessional people who flip gear you really don’t need a business entity. As others have said, keep track of your expenses to offset the reported income from the IRS. I got...