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Step 8Play it and pack it up.
If you use all lightweight hardware, everything will fit inside the suitcase. It ends up being heavy, but compact. And it is sooooo much easier and more fun than moving a standard drum set!
I've included a few more pics of the completed suitcase, and some shots of the way things fit inside.
I use a towel to wrap the snare drum, and sometimes another towel to cover the cymbal and keep everything tight. I left it out of the pictures so you could see all the parts.
Amplifying your suitcase
If you are playing in a venue with a PA system, the suitcase sounds great under a microphone. There's only one way to do it and get a low thump. Put a mic (preferably a bass drum mic) right next to the spot where the beater hits, 2 inches or less from the suitcase. Turns the highs and mids on the mixer all the way down; really, all the way down. Crank up the gain and the lows, and you'll be surprised how fat it sounds. It does require a ton of gain, so be careful sending it through monitors. If you send too much through the monitors, you'll get some annoying feedback.
Good Luck! Drum on!
I've included a few more pics of the completed suitcase, and some shots of the way things fit inside.
I use a towel to wrap the snare drum, and sometimes another towel to cover the cymbal and keep everything tight. I left it out of the pictures so you could see all the parts.
Amplifying your suitcase
If you are playing in a venue with a PA system, the suitcase sounds great under a microphone. There's only one way to do it and get a low thump. Put a mic (preferably a bass drum mic) right next to the spot where the beater hits, 2 inches or less from the suitcase. Turns the highs and mids on the mixer all the way down; really, all the way down. Crank up the gain and the lows, and you'll be surprised how fat it sounds. It does require a ton of gain, so be careful sending it through monitors. If you send too much through the monitors, you'll get some annoying feedback.
Good Luck! Drum on!
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this set includes vintage green samsonite silhouette bass drum (which I just happened to have lying around in the basement), 13" snare, splash, hi hats, tambourine, crash/ride, woodblock, cowbell, mini timbale... and all the hardware. I can fit a rug in the suitcase too. the throne doesn't fit, but you can carry that in the other hand. cost me around $10. I couldn't find an aluminum plate for the bass drum clamp, so I made one out of steel. if you have the right drill bits, it's pretty easy.
Thanks mikereetz!
by the way, the bass drum beater is made from a cane tip...
How are you gonna walk to the gig without your cane!
I would encourage you to get the super pinky for your beater... it will have much more 'woof' than the cane rubber.
Cheers!
Mike
I am curious how you got your hi-hat stand in there. My old-school (light-weight) Ludwig stand is way too long, and I'm hesitant to cut it down. Do you disassemble it completely?
It's probably not as loud as some of the thinner-walled ones (it's nowhere near as loud as an actual bass drum), but it was in the garage and probably would have been thrown out eventually, so it's now doing something useful. And I've got a portable kit that doesn't take an hour to break down, load, set up, etc.
It doesn't look like your throne fits into the suitcase, does it? I may end up putting the throne in the suitcase and the snare back into the padded backpack. Still, one-handed kit hauling -- that's golden! Thanks again for the great idea.