Hello! I am interested in knowing more about these drums called Jenkins and Martin!

I am wondering specifically if they do a very cool thing, which is:

...produce the resonant "note" most often associated with a wooden drum shell, let's say a Ludwig three-ply, because they are terrific wooden drums, with the clearly identifiable pitch and tone and such

but also

...have the attack and presence that one often hears coming from a drum with an acrylic shell, perhaps a Vistalite, because of course Vistalite.

This would be a very cool thing! It seems a lot to ask. But I ask anyway! I ask because I am in a band which one might describe as dense, or as having a lot going on, or maybe even a bit much. Two Electrical baritone guitars and a TB2000, a lot of gain stages, a lot of screwy time signatures and whatnot. I am the drums player in this band. Let's say I am setting up in the tall room in EA Studio B, with its tallness and my stupid 24" ride cymbal and all of the business (because I am). We are to record these complicated songs, and we are so much in the upper midrange frequencies.

If you are familiar with these Jenkins and Martins, do you think they are well-suited to kick ass in this situation? Have you played the Jenkins and or the Martin? To narrow even further, I would be most interested in knowing about the 13/16/24 configuration. The three-ply Ludwigs will be with me also and sound wonderful, but I am curious as to whether these J&M would have a certain ability to "cut" in this situation and still deliver TOAN.

If you know of and can direct me to records made with them, all the better! Thank you.

I don't have the answers you're looking for, but it's a fun excuse to post this.

"Alright dipshit, start playing"



Ok.. maybe of a little more help, as someone who's played/recorded drums in that room twice and recorded with another drummer in there: it has such a distinct and long reverberant sound that I'm not sure I'd sweat the slight tonal differences that the trap mics would pick up between wood and fiberglass drums. I'd personally go with familiarity in that situation, but that's not to say the J&M drums aren't the better choice for you overall.

Stupid question: but have you tried clear heads on the Ludwig toms? I'm always a little surprised when I see loud, dense bands using coated heads.

I didn't notice before that those were the J&M! Thank you for bringing this back into my life!

I have been using clear heads of late on the Ludwig toms. The sound is so radically different behind the kit that I've been unsure about how things are going out front (that huge depth that comes off the coated heads is so immediately satisfying from where I sit), and we haven't recorded with them so I don't know.

What I do know is that I will definitely overthink this.

I suppose I could ask, say, the other people in the band, Hey how is this sounding?, but why would I do that?

*off topic*

penningtron wrote: Tue Sep 06, 2022 3:36 pm "Alright dipshit, start playing"

EA videos are the best.

echokiloromeo wrote: Wed Sep 07, 2022 12:54 pm
I suppose I could ask, say, the other people in the band, Hey how is this sounding?,

Sounds like drums to me!

but why would I do that?

See above!

I asked a friend who's band recorded with a J&M kit at Howl Street a few weeks ago. Recording can be pretty hectic (and still semi-isolated in the covid age) but his descriptions sounded pretty Vistalite-like. The second part of your question, whether they retain the 'musicality' of wooden Ludwigs is probably harder to answer without a side-by-side shootout.

echokiloromeo wrote: I have been using clear heads of late on the Ludwig toms. The sound is so radically different behind the kit that I've been unsure about how things are going out front (that huge depth that comes off the coated heads is so immediately satisfying from where I sit), and we haven't recorded with them so I don't know.

Yeah.. when I played with an obscenely loud band, our drummer put aside his preference for coated for the extra attack of clear (Emperor) heads. Recording is, of course, a different beast that you can kind of make into anything you want, but as far as pure physics of sound the clear heads will probably have a stronger transient.

What I do know is that I will definitely overthink this.

Been there..

I suppose I could ask, say, the other people in the band, Hey how is this sounding?, but why would I do that?

(was gonna make the same joke as tallchris)

tallchris wrote: Wed Sep 07, 2022 1:47 pm

echokiloromeo wrote: Wed Sep 07, 2022 12:54 pm
I suppose I could ask, say, the other people in the band, Hey how is this sounding?,

Sounds like drums to me!

but why would I do that?

See above!

Perfect.

See, this is the kind of nuanced and constructive dialogue that only those deeply engaged in the thoughtful and collaborative crafting of art can hope to achieve.

I have not played the drums by Jenkins Martin. My perception is that fiberglass drums have teh fatness and teh bite, so it may be what you're looking for. I have a friend who bought an enormous lot of Blaemire shells and he makes kits out of them. I will have to find out what his preferred method of contact is, but I can assure you that it will be cheaper than a set of J-Ms and will also have that pale green, limburger cheese look of the Blaemire shells.

Fiberglass drums shells do what they do because they are thin and hard. The glass fiber is a filament that is spun around a mandrel on a thing a lot like a lathe. The glass fiber is drenched in polymer goop that hardens into a shell. So you get the fat, low timbre of a thin shell and the brightness of a hard, crystalline shell material.





I have a 5" x 15" Blaemire snare and it is.... lovely.

Shane posted a demo clip of his kit today on IG/FB: I think to show off his new Keplinger snare but the J&Ms are there too. There may be several clips, I haven't checked in detail..

https://www.instagram.com/howlstreetrecordings/?hl=en

I follow Tim Baltes @timbofromkeno on IG and he has a big Jenkins and Martin concert tom kit he's constantly posting, doing these hilarious over the top fills. Which is basically to say I've probably spent more time in the last couple years listening to Jenkins/Martin than any other drums, including perhaps my own.