I would love to credit all the companies who are nice enough to have me as part of their families and supply with amazing gear to play. It certainly says a lot that I've been with the majority of these companies for over 15 years.
All the links work so feel free to jump to their respective pages and take a look at the things that make these drum companies great.
More company love going out to Westone Audio, Kelly Shu, and Mental Case Co. With links to their sites coming soon. Google them in the meantime.
ENJOY!!!
Click on the logos to visit each company's site.
I first played Yamaha in the late 80s/early 90s. Still have my first Power V kit that became a practice kit later. When looking around for new inspiration a few years ago, I kept coming back to Yamaha for 2 reasons. 1) In all my fly dates since 1998, about 95% of the backline were Yamaha. That always meant quality along with quickly attained great sound. 2) THAT Yamaha tone that runs throughout their lines. It make me want to play. As of July 2019, I joined the Yamaha Drums family and couldn't be more excited to represent what I believe to be most complete and consistent drum company today. I'm playing my Tour Custom kit on the road, an Absolute Hybrid Maple kit on some live dates & a Recording Custom Kit in my home studio.
I had my first Sabian cymbal, a medium crash, in the early 80s...then a set of AA 14" Flat Hats that show their age in the key holing of the top cymbal. Upon finding a couple of hard to find Larrie Londin signature rides in the late 90s, I began to play them a lot more . Using a mixture of AA, HH, AAX & HHX throughout my setups gives me plenty to pick from with the Sabian collection built since becoming an endorsee in 2001. Most recently, I've added some of the new AAX cymbals to my road set up. Come hear 'em sometime!!
During rehearsals with Gary Allan in 2000, I'd wanted a change in drum heads so I tried a different brand each day. Evans won hands down with the quality and consistency. I joined the Evans family in 2005, using mostly Coated G2 tops and G1 bottoms with Hazy 300 heads on snare bottoms and an occasional Power Center, G12 or G14. Along with their PureSound snare wires, Evans has all the skins needed to make your drums SING!!
I've played ProMark sticks since high school. They were the first endorsement I gained once playing with national acts. For years, I used the Simon Phillips 707 model and switching to a stock 5B in the mid 2000s. Around 2016, I went through checking out the different new technologies the ProMark was introducing; like the Forward & Reverse balance sticks along with the Active Grip and FireGrain finishes. Currently, I use Forward 5A with an Acorn tip in both regular and ActiveGrip finish. Hot Rods, TB6 Brushes and a set of soft mallets complete my stick bags anywhere I go.
During the NAMM show of 2014, I kept walking by a booth that only had thrones and different brands of kick drums. While there seemed to be growing activity in their booth, I couldn't quite figure out what they were showing. Finally approaching someone official, I happened to ask one of the creators of this product, Dil Davies, what is it they have going on. Dil explained their concept of a self contained seat monitor or a "buttkicker" as they've become known. The twists here is the drummer has control of the signal through their "engine" that sits next to their kit & the unit's dynamic sensitivity; you feel exactly what you are playing. After giving me a test drive, I was sold and had to have one. Using the above seen BC Gigster since 2014, I also recently added a BC2 to my road set up. Click the link for more information.