E. Doctor Smith's Blog

  In my earlier blogs, I talked about first building a replica of drummer Billy Cobham's Yamaha Signature Snare , and then a replica of his 1990's Mapex kit that ultimately became the “ Billy Cobham 20th Anniversary Custom Kit ”.  I then decided to make this version a more contemporary version, one that would replicate his current Tama Star drum set. His current Tama kit features a 15”, 13”, 14”, 12”, 10” and 8" toms with a 16” and 18” floor tom. Additionally he had a two 24" kick drums, 14" x 5.5" and a 12” x 5.5 snare. I was able to find used Mapex drums all of those sizes except for the 15" tom and 12" snare. Those I had to make from scratch with wraps from Jammin' Sam and 6 ply Maple shells from the folks at Drummaker and locating used Mapex Venus and Voyager, single point lugs from ebay and Reverb. I'm using Mapex Falcon kick pedals and hi-hat stand, and instead of Cobham's Tama racks, I used all Gibraltar arms and racks.  Doc with...

  In my earlier blogs, I began work on a replica of Phil Collins' black Gretsch USA concert tom kit . My original intention was to build a V-drum version, with Remo Mesh heads and a bevy of the revolutionary wireless "Versatriggers", made in Europe. Suffice it to safe, I enjoyed building the kit so much, that I ended up making it an all-acoustic version. The Versatriggers went back into the closet; Gone but not forgotten. As fate would have it, I had the last of my orphaned drum shells lying around; an 8", 10", 12" 13" and 18 leftovers from several aborted or cannibalized projects. As I considered what to do with them, I remembered the V-Drum project and thought perhaps I could reignite it. The shells were actually already black, in fact, they were going to be part of that original Gretsch kit, however they were either too small, or the wrong sizes. What if I made a another version of the Collins kit? I had an 18" x 16" shell, an old 20"...

In my previous blogs, I recounted how I successfully restored a Bill Bruford "Signature Palette Series" snare drum , built an all chrome version and followed it up with a complete Bill Bruford symmetrical kit . That was awesome, but I decided to expand the kit by adding a 14" x 12" floor tom. My usual set-up is an open handed one, modeled on the drummer Rayford Griffin of Jean Luc Ponty's group. I now had a 7 piece, all-yellow Tama kit with a choice of 2 snare drums. The kit is one of the best sounding ones I've eve made. I soon added a full compliment of Nady DM 70 and CM 70 drum microphones, routed them through a M-Audio FastTrack Ultra 8R interface and a MacBook Pro. One of the first things I noticed was the thinner sound of the original Bruford snare; It was much brighter than any of my other 14" x 6" snare drums. Perhaps it was the 2 ply Maple, 2 ply Birch and 2 ply Maple construction that gave it that quality. It was great for jazz, as I...

  It's been 40 years, but I can still vividly recall that fateful night, riding my bicycle up Broadway, past the commotion on 72nd Street on my way home to Harlem, greeted by Jacki and our visiting friend Anne Jabine, “Did you hear the news?! John Lennon was shot dead tonight!” We gathered around the radio, listening to WNEW, watching the scene on TV outside the Dakota in disbelief. I was reminded of the only time I saw Lennon in person, sitting a few rows behind me at an Elton John concert at the Capital Center in Maryland; Embarrassed by the sudden spotlight Elton shone on him, he and Yoko quickly fled as the concert continued. Such was the price of genius and fame. R.I.P. John Lennon. John Lennon had been shot four times in the back, by the deranged Mark Chapman, who had asked the former Beatle for his autograph only hours before he laid in wait and killed him. Chapman had actually met Lennon earlier as he left for a recording studio and got his copy of Lennon’s Double Fantasy a...

Well, after being on lockdown during this Covid-19 pandemic, I decided to finish up some long overdue projects. The one that has been gnawing at me the longest is putting together my "Phil Collins" Gretsch Kit. In " Building the Phil Collins Gretsch - Part One ", I described how I assembled the shells, the badges, wraps and lugs to build a replica of the iconic black drum set made famous by the legendary drummer of Genesis.  I had a few recording projects that required an acoustic kit without all those unwanted overtones one gets from a double-headed tom. The single-headed concert toms, first made famous by the late, great Hal Blaine seemed the perfect choice. The drums were outfitted with Evans Blue Hydraulic 360 heads; They looked great, sounded warm and wet enough for recording and deadened the toms enough without much tweaking. I installed Remo Muffl' Rings on the larger concert toms; 18", 16" 15" and 12", leaving the 10" and 8"...

I'd been challenged to post my 10 most influential albums exactly 1 year ago, so when I recently got challenged to come up with 20, I was pretty sure I could come up with 10 more! My previous 10 most influential albums can be found here... So without further ado, here are the next 10... Post #11 of 20... Bill Bruford's "One Of A Kind"... After the demise of "U.K.", I was crestfallen after seeing them open for Al DiMeola at Painter's Mill, MD. My disappointment was short lived however, as Bruford returned with Dave Stewart, Jeff Berlin and the "unknown" John Clarke, (replacing Allan Holdsworth), arriving at Louie's Rock City in VA for this tour, and again for the Gradually Going Tornado tour at the Bayou in DC. I can still hear the clanging of Bruford's rototoms, and all of those killer compositions have stood the test of time. Bruford considered this one of his favorite albums and I can't disagree! Post #12 of 20... Frank Z...