The library has made sure that I am not wasting time being idle and watching wrestling
It is loading very slowly and I really need to do other things
1- Assess the short range plans of getting booked here in Mpls
2- Establish contacts in the key towns from here to Dallas and book a small tour
3- Work the angle of the “novelty” band

Tonight will be spent building a new hybrid kit specifically for touring
I liked the kit before but I am not real happy with the bass drum pad idea
The new concept will be to suspend the 18″ marching bass drum to play with the double pedal
People tend to equate the 18″ bass drum with a low volume jazz type sound
However, the 18″ can be quite powerful when you do bring it off thge ground and 2 things happen
1- The beater of a normal bass drum would hit somewhere between the center and the edge giving a less solid attack and no fullness
The beater also needs to have a certain amount of balance to it as well, so you can’t just lower the beater
2- Suspending the drum at that level also gives it a larger amount of spread
I have always defaulted to the 24″ when I have the space just because it was huge sounding
Now that I am working with space constraints I am confident that I can build the smallest drumkit with the loudest potential and it will fit in the back of my station wagon

I even have plans to get real OCD on my rack clamps
They are the biggest pain in the ass as far as packing rack tubes into a golf bag
As time consuming as it may sound, I believe that trying to pull out the tangled mess of rack tubes from the golf bag is a hassle I don’t need
If I just label every rack clamp and mark their exact positions in white gaff then I can take all the clamps off and not have to wrestle them in and out of the bag each night

The last piece of the puzzle is triggering
If I can just figure out a balance on those to where I can rely upon them in chaotic situations then I can really beef up and diversify the kit
My biggest enemy is the vibration of full volume playing
I am trying out some different materials to stuff into the tubes to dull the vibrations
Need to scavenger more foamy substances or find a can of that spray foam for cracks

Of course, I will have to post a video tour of the kit