WOW! This is a rare opportunity to own a piece of history from the greatest American hard rock band ever. Aerosmith!! The Bad Boys from Boston! Rock and Roll Hall Of Famers! In their 52 years together they’ve recorded, 15 studio albums, 6 live albums and 16 compilation albums selling over 150 million records, making … Read More
Today we’re checking out a Ringo set that I had never heard of before. It has an interesting backstory and is available at DonnBennett.com! Ludwig Blue Oyster “Ringo Starr” “Pizza Hut” Super Classic Drumset The impact that Ringo Starr has made on the drum world cannot be overstated. He inspired generations of drummers. His drums … Read More
John’s guest was Donn Bennett, drummer, educator and founder of Donn Bennett’s Drum Studio in Seattle, WA. Donn talks about how he went from a teaching studio to opening his retail store, how he got into collecting vintage drums, creating “Donn’s Drum Vault” – his incredible collection of rare and vintage drums and his “Artist … Read More
It’s nearly impossible to comprehend the massive impact that Charlie Watts made on me, drums, music, society, and the world. and I’d like to invite you to join me in demonstrating my appreciation for Charlie. Charlie Watts always kept his tuning key on a tension rod of his rack tom. I’m inviting you to do … Read More
We had a great time at the Tacoma Guitar and Drum Festival at The Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall in May. The Festival featured over 120 booths, guitar and drum workshops. Performers and workshop clinicians included Andy Timmons (Danger Danger), Jason “JT” Thomas (Snarky Puppy), Mark Lettieri (Snarky Puppy), Will McFarlane (Bonnie Raitt), KJ Sawka (Pendulum), … Read More
Super excited to announce the 1st Tacoma Guitar and Drum Festival at The Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall, 4/25+26. The Tacoma Guitar Festival has been one of the Northwest’s most popular guitar festivals for 5 years straight. I’m so honored to help bring drums and percussion to this event. There will be clinics by top artists … Read More
We lost one of our best vintage drum friends right before Christmas. Tony Lewis was one of the most well respected and knowledgeable guys in the vintage drum community. I first met Tony about 30 years ago when I was just getting interested in vintage drums. He was already well established and had been collecting … Read More
Check out this fantastic documentary of Chick Webb, “The Savoy King”. Webb, a hunchbacked dwarf who died at the age of 30, is considered by many to be the greatest drummer to ever live however he remains largely unknown. Includes interviews with with Charlie Watts and Roy Haynes. Every drummer should check this out. Great … Read More
Check out this video. We feature 3 of Elvin Jones’s drum sets from our collection. You’ll see Elvin’s Tama/Camco set, his Tama Crestar set and his Yamaha Maple Custom set, all played by the rather amazing Chris Hankins. It was so cool to have all 3 of these sets, along with Zildjian and Istanbul cymbals … Read More
We lost one of the greats yesterday. I could go on an on about Joe Hibbs. He was loved by everyone who knew him. He was a dear friend and mentor. He taught me so much about the drum industry and life. The world could use a lot more people like him. This hit me … Read More
For a few years Tre Cool had an interesting habit of destroying drum sets. Read the whole story from my 11/13 DRUM! Magazine, Time Capsules column at the link below. Enjoy!!
Shortly before Tony Williams passed in 1996 he signed this set of cymbals for a Zildjian promotion. What happened after that is still a mystery. Read the whole story from my 12/14 DRUM! Magazine, Time Capsules column at the link below. Enjoy!! D222_140_TimeCapsule
Canopus CIM-20 Baseball Bat Inner Muffler The great minds at Canopus drums have re-created one of the most ingenious drum accessories of all time. Their CIM -20 Baseball Bat Inner Muffler picks up where the legendary Ludwig internal “Baseball Bat” muffler left off with a couple really versatile and useful updates. For many years an … Read More
I had a great conversation with Matt Biancardi at Reverb.com earlier this month. We talked in great detail about the Elvin Jones drum collection and my extreme good fortune to have been able to acquire it. Acquiring this monumental collection and the relationships I’ve made with countless drummers as a result of it has been … Read More
When the guys at NSMD magazine heard about the restoration of my 3 Top Hat sets they requested an article about the whole process. This is the kind of things that vintage drum fans (like me) go crazy about. The article just came out. It was fun to write. I found myself in awe of … Read More
The Ludwig and Ludwig 1940s Top Hat and Cane “Swing Sensation” model drum set is considered by most collectors to be the most sought after of all vintage drum sets. They were made for a very short period in the early to mid 1940s. It was the absolute top of the line in the entire … Read More
My week started out looking like the most exciting thing I’d be doing this week was holing up in my office posting cymbals on my website. Monday afternoon I get a call from the legendary Simon Phillips. He says he’ll be in town tomorrow with Japanese jazz pianist Hiromi. He’s renting a kit for the … Read More
Ive been working on a major restoration of a Top Hat and Cane set for nearly a year now. When I got the set it was basically in pretty good shape but was definitely show signs of its 70+ years. The shells were grimy, the nickel hardware had lost all of it’s shine, a few … Read More
I saw Ginger Baker at Jazz Alley in Seattle last night with his band Jazz Confusion. A pretty amazing experience. It was a great show. I’m going to try to get back there tonight. Ginger Baker is pretty grumpy. I had the good fortune to meet him before the show. He was so cranky … Read More
Daniel Glass stopped by the shop yesterday. He was on his way to a gig with the Royal Crown Review swing band up in Bellingham. Daniel recently had a pretty major operation on his bass drum foot. He won’t be able to use it for several weeks. Not enough to stop a pro like Daniel. … Read More
Some of the greatest experiences and relationships in my professional life have revolved around the huge collection of Elvin’s Jones’s drum gear that I was so fortunate to acquire shortly after he passed. I’ve met so many people via these drums. My life would have turned out much differently had these drums never found there … Read More
Here’s the DRUM! Magazine Time Capsules article about Peter Criss’ Love Gun snare. I heard from lots of KISS fans after this article came out. Peter Criss inspired a whole generation of young drummers. I heard so many stories that went something like “I saw Peter play that drum with KISS back in 1977 and … Read More
Here’s my Drum! Magazine Time Capsules column from May of 2013 about Stan Lynch’s custom Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers drum set. One of the highlights of my job has been getting to know so many of my favorite drummers. Not only is it exciting just to meet the drummers I grew up idolizing … Read More
I wrote a DRUM! Magazine Time Capsules article about this set back in August/2013. This set was near and dear to me. Michael’s tech Gary Clark used to come into the music store where I used to work in here in Bellevue, WA back in the early 80s. (Does anyone remember Bandstand East? It was … Read More
Here’s my DRUM! Magazine Time Capsules article from July/2013. I acquired several drums from Steve about 15 years ago. This one was so cool I had to hang on to it for awhile. You can see this and lot’s more of the drums I’ve squirreled away in Donn’s Drum Vault
Here’s the article I wrote in DRUM! magazine last June about Hal Blaine’s legendary “Timbale Kit”. Man, if I could have been in the room when he was creating some of the greatest music of all time on this set! The set is currently on display at the shop. It’s also available in Donn’s Drum … Read More
Our 11th annual Woodstick Big Beat is happening Sunday November 24th at the Emerald Queen Showroom in Tacoma. At Woodstick we attempt to set a new world record for drummers playing drum sets simultaneously while we raise money to support keeping music in our schools. Any drummer can participate. We have a great line up … Read More
I’m having a blast writing my monthly TIME CAPSULES article for DRUM! Magazine. Check out this one about Keith Moon’s DRB Special snare. You can see more about this drum on our website at: Keith Moon Snare
I’ve been having a blast writing my monthly Time Capsules column for DRUM! magazine. Every issue I write a story about one of the famous drums or sets in my collection. It comes out every month. My column is always on the very last page. Here’s the first one that came out back in the … Read More
Check out this amazing Radio King set I just picked up. I traded a green sparkle Ludwig set to a pretty major record producer in LA for it. The set is a 24,12,13,16 with a matching Radio King snare. Original Slingerland RK calf heads all around. Very minor fading and a little pitting on the … Read More
I just added some new photos of this set to the website. I got this amazing set several years ago but never had any decent photos of it. I suppose a $29,000 drum set deserves better!! Way back in 1967 a cocktail waitress in a casino in Atlantic City told Buddy that “her son loved … Read More
Drummers!! We’re bringing Kenny Aronoff to town this Sunday, 9/15, to help the Seahawks prove once and for all that Seattle football fans are the loudest fans in the world. Representatives from The Guinness Book of World Records will be at the Seahawks vs. 49rs game this Sunday to prove what we already know, that … Read More
Gene Krupa’ Collection Here’s a few cool drum items that belonged to Gene Krupa. First is a 13″ Slingerland Radio King tom with a Gene Krupa Orchestra case. I got this from an older guy in his late 70s about 20 years ago. He told me his friend stole it off of the loading dock … Read More
I’ve been working on restoring a 1941 Ludwig Top Hat and Cane “Swing Sensation” set for the last couple of years. Good things take time. This is definitely a good thing and DEFINITELY taking some time! For those of you who are not familiar with this set the Ludwig Top Hat and Cane set was … Read More
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