Musician's Friend: Stupid Deal of the Day

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Sleeved Washer by Hendrix Drums



There are a lot of products out there that try to reduce tension rods from backing out and help tune a drum a little easier. Most of what is out there is either expensive, ugly, or both. I think I finally found the product that takes care of BOTH issues!

Introducing the Sleeved Washers by Hendrix Drums! These are plastic washers that fit on to your tension rods to help keep them in place. I know, I know, you’re thinking “big deal, there’s already products out there that do that.” You’re right but one of the cool things about these is that they’re small enough that if you use black one, you won’t really see them but what’s really cool is that they come in 16 different colors so if you want, you can use them to accent your drum as well!

I put these on my Medicine Man snare drum a couple weeks ago, recorded tensions with my handy dandy Tension Watch and didn’t touch the tension rods the entire time I was testing them. I played the crap out of that snare. I’m a heavy hitting metal drummer so I know the issues with tension rods backing out. The results? Today I took my tension Watch out and there was barely any change in tension! These things really work!
So, now that they work and are cosmetically pleasing what’s next? Price. I did a review a while back on a different product that does the same thing and even though it did a good job, the price was ridiculous. Well, the Sleeved Washers have taken care of that too. They come in three different quantities:
20 - $8.99
50 - $16.99
100 - $25.00

Those are some good prices in comparison!
If you are looking for a product to keep your tension rods from backing out or…hell, you just want to put something on your drum to subtly accent it, these are excellent for both jobs!
So make sure you check em out at http://sleevedwashers.com and tell them PJ sent ya!

Until next time!

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Exodus Cymbals



Wow”! It’s been a while since I’ve been able to write a review!



OK, there are a lot of new cymbal companies popping up nowadays. I did a review on one quite a while back and now here’s another one worth checking out!
Exodus Cymbals. They’ve been around a short time but are making some noise in the industry. The cymbals are Turkish and made very well. They have ten different lines: Altavox, Armageddon, Emunah, Kaphar, Koinonia, Shalom, Shofar, Sinergy, Worship, and Yuhbal
I’m going to talk about two of the lines that I have, Altavox and Worship.

First up, the 22” Worship Ride, This is a pretty heavy cymbal, I didn’t weight it but it’s got some bulk to it, nice and pingy with just enough wash. It’s also pleasing to the eyes (not that that matters, sound is more important but I give credit where it’s due). Nice finish (I like shiny cymbals), great sound and a decent price. Can’t beat that.


Next up 13” Altavox Hi Hats, I’ve always like the crispness of 13” hats over 14” and these reinforce my belief. These hats are nice and crisp and cut through the music like no other!


I really don’t know how to explain any of these cymbals effectively enough so I posted some videos of each cymbal so you can hear it for yourself. I mainly have Worship and Altavox cymbals in my collection but I can see myself trying some of the other lines as well. Maybe we can talk Exodus Cymbals into giving up a cymbal for a giveaway?

Be sure to check them out at www.exoduscymbals.com.

Until next time!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Still here!

Hi all!

Sorry I haven't been posting reviews lately, I got a new day job that has been taking me out of state for most of August. I'm still here and will be adding reviews as soon as I can get them written! I have some cool ones coming up!

Thank you!

PJ

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

KG Cymbal Blast Rim


Hi guys! I’m going on vacation tomorrow to sunny San Diego, CA so I am posting this weeks review a little early!

This is for the KG Cymbal Blast Rim. This product is brought to you by the Billdidit, the makers of The Coady Clutch! It’s mainly for the death metal drummers out there but I can see it being used elsewhere. Everyone has heard of the one handed drum roll right? In the metal drumming community it is referred to as the one handed blast beat. It’s a technique that uses the rim of the snare drum as a fulcrum  to play a drum roll/blast beat with one hand. Well, the people at Billdidit asked themselves “How about being able to do that on a cymbal?” And the Cymbal Blast Rim was born.

 Now I don’t have the technical abilities to play one handed rolls/blast beats so I enlisted the help of my friend Matt McKasty, drummer for the brutal metal band Warfear. Below is his unedited review of the product.



“Today I will be reviewing the KG Cymbal Blast Rim made by Billdidit. The KG Cymbal Blast Rim is a product designed to enable a player to apply the freehand technique to one or more of their cymbals as opposed to just their drums. For those of you who don't know what the "freehand technique" is, it is when the player uses the rim of the drum a fulcrum on the center of the stick to get even single strokes with one hand using a see-saw motion. It is also commonly referred to as a "gravity blast". The KG Cymbal Blast Rim represents a small section of counter-hoop just like the one you would find on your drums, which threaded to mount on any standard 8mm cymbal post. When mounted in front of a cymbal it gives you a fulcrum point to execute the technique just as you would on your snare. You can use is on any of your cymbals, but I found it to be intrusive on anything other than the ride cymbal. I can see it being used off to the left of the hats and being played with the left hand as well, but anywhere else it seemed to get in the way of my playing. When positioned in front of the ride cymbal the piece worked surprisingly well. It didn't encumber my ability to play around the kit and it allowed me to play clean one handed rolls on my ride with little effort. I sometimes use my floor tom rim to do this, (which is really only possible because of how low my ride sits in proximity) but having a rim exactly where I need it in front of the cymbal made it much more comfortable and practical. The only issue I ran into with the KG Cymbal Blast Rim is that it must be threaded all the way down onto the post to be stable, so you cannot twist it on the post. This isn't a huge issue being that it is designed to mount on a separate stand which can be rotated in itself, but I used the product on a boom arm that I clamped to my ride stand and it created a small issue, though nothing that can't be solved by the implementation of a small counter-nut on the cymbal post. All in all I have to say the KG Cymbal Blast Rim functions exactly as it was intended to. It may be impractical for some, but the bottom line is it works. If you want to be able to apply the freehand technique to your ride cymbal, but can’t because your ride doesn’t have a rim, this product may very well be the answer.”

The KG Cymbal Blast Rim runs 15.95.

For more info, go to www.billdidit.ca.

Until next time!

Monday, June 25, 2012

Bum Wrap Winner!

Congrats to Chris (Cutaway79)! He's the winner of the Bum Wrap Drum Co wrap!

Friday, June 15, 2012

Bum Wrap Drum Co.


There have been quite a few custom drum wrap companies popping up here and there lately. For a while there was only one that was owned by a well known drummer but now there are quite a few. This review is on one of the newer people coming into the game…or at least the newest one that crossed into my RADAR.
They are called Bum Wrap Drum Company, They are based out of Maryland and sell primarily on ebay. After finding them on ebay I looked to see if they had a Facebook page (who doesn’t have one?) and contacted them for a price list. They returned my email quickly and offered to send me a sample of their wrap. They asked what size I would like and told me they would send it out.  Of course I accepted and waited for my sample to arrive. About a week later it showed up on my doorstep. They actually sent me quite a few samples since I had told them I was going to write this review.

I was very impressed with the wrap samples I got! One of the biggest problems I had with the “original” custom wrap company was that the images on the wrap weren’t always sharp. Some even were slightly blurry, but Bum Wrap’s images are SHARP. They look great and the wrap is sturdy! I’ve ordered wrap off ebay before only to find that it’s about as durable as shelf paper…not something you want to put on a production drum. Bum wrap is maybe slightly thinner than standard wrap but not much. Sorry, I don’t have the specs on their wraps.

Their webpage is www.bumwrapdrumco.com, it has quite a few standard samples but nothing close to what they can do.  I wish they would put some of the samples they sent me on it because they’re pretty impressive. Their Facebook has some additional samples.
So if you’re in the market for affordable custom wrap, I recommend Bum Wrap Drum Co. They can do pretty much anything you can imagine. So check them out and tell them PJ sent ya!

I do have a couple pieces of wrap for a giveaway! I have chosen a couple pieces that I am going to use for drum builds and I have some left over, not that I don’t want to use it, but because I want to help them get their product into other people’s hands. The wrap pieces measure 4.5” x 46” so basically they will work on a 4.5 to 5x14 shell. I am only going to give one piece away at this time, I will do another give away at a later date. Below is the sample that is up for grabs.  To enter into the contest, you must go to their Facebook, www.facebook.com/Bumwrapdrums, and post a positive message on their wall and mention this blog in the post. That will enter you into the drawing!

Here is the piece for the giveaway! It's a really nice wood grain burst!

Good luck!

Monday, May 28, 2012

Stick Gripps


Hello everybody! Today’s review is about StickGripp! I found this company on Facebook and thought I’d ask them if they were interested in a review and lo and behold, they were! So here it is!

First let me say that for years I was an endorser for another grip company that has some great product but it added quite a bit of girth to my sticks, btw, I play 2Bs so it made my sticks feel REALLY big, plus I never got how to install them on my sticks. I would have to send them my sticks to install them for me. Now there is Stick Gripps!

Basically, they are a rubberized sleeve that you place over your stick, they also provide O-rings that go under the grip to help prevent the stick from slipping out of your hand….pretty nifty! How do you install them? Easy. All you need is a heat gun. You position the O-ring where you want it, place the Stickgripp sleeve over the butt end of the stick and use the heat gun to shrink it down to the stick. They are one size fits all! I put one on a 2B stick and another one on a 5B stick and had zero problems! So easy even a drummer can do it!  I know not everyone has a heat gun laying around so I thought I would try using a blow dryer to heat them…not that all drummers have a hair dryer laying around but I knew someone would probably ask…while you CAN do it with a hair dryer, it takes forever to get it hot enough to shrink. A lighter would probably do the job faster.

Options for your Stick Gripps? Oh yes! They come in Black, Red, White, Blue, Green, Purple, Clear and Yellow. They also make them for mallets as well which come in the same colors except clear. You can also get pretty much anything you want printed on them, your name, signature, band name, company name etc. The cool thing about the clear ones is that if you’re a stick endorser,  now you can have a stick grip  that won’t cover up the stick company’s name!

Are they durable? I’ve only had mine a short time so I can’t really attest to their durability but according to their webpage, if they start to come loose, you can reheat them and they will shrink back down tight again.
I’m definitely going to get some more Stick Gripps for myself! They are available at Guitar Center and through their webpage at http://stickgripps.com.

Until next time!