Manfred's Acoustic Gear

Sonor Delite drumkit		Premier Artist Heritage drumkit
This is my pride and joy. It consists of: - 8"x8", 10"x9" and 12"x10" rack toms - 14"x14" and 16"x16" floor toms - 20x17" bass drum These drums consist of thin maple shells with reinforcement rings. Their sound is warm and direct - simply amazing. The outer ply is birdseye maple. Color is Azure: in dim light it looks green, but in daylight or under a flashlight it changes to bright blue. Check out the pictures section for more photographs.		This is my jazz kit.It consists of: - 10"x8" rack tom - 14"x14" floor tom - 18x14" bass drum These drums are made of birch wood, in dark walnut lacquer finish. Nice sounding kit with lots of projection and overtones. Check out the pictures section for more photographs.
Pearl W-5 series drumkit
This is the first serious drumkit that I bought and still own up to today.  It consists of: - 12"x8" and 13"x9" rack toms - 10"x8" Vintage rack tom (made by Fox, not Pearl) - 16"x16" floor tom - 22"x14" bass drum Current color is white marble. Most of the hardware is made by Pearl, except for the Dixons rack. For more info on this kit and shell redecoration, refer to my Pearl W-series page.

Snare drums

Sonor Delite 14"x5" Birdseye Maple (Azure finish). 9-ply 6.3mm Vintage Maple Shell with 2.1 mm 3-ply dynamic edges.  Die cast hoops. This is a beautiful instrument with a very wide tuning range and pleasantly warm wood sound.	Sonor Lite LD547 14x7.25, in Scandinavian Birch. 12-ply 7mm shell, throw-off II strainer, seamless ferromanganese steel rims, original 24-strand sonorlite snares. This is a real beauty!	Mischa Machine® SnakeSkin Custom 14"x6" snare, brass lugs, with white powder-coated die-cast hoops. This is a custom-built maple snare with a nice full woody sound.
Mapex 13"x4"Maple deLuxe. 6-ply 7.8 mm maple shell, 2.3mm Mapex power hoops, made in Taiwan. Nice cutting sound, especially when tuned high.	Pearl Sensitone Classic II 14"x5" Brass shell with black Nickel finish. Mastercast hoops. Vintage-look chrome plated solid brass tube lugs. Very sensitivite snare with a wide tuning range and typical warm brass sound.	Rogers DynaSonic 14"x6.5" COB (chrome over brass). Built in the 70s. Wonderful sounding drum: warm and deep sound at both low and high pitches. Almost no overtones.
Sonor force 3005 12"x5" Maple shell, Autumn High Gloss finish. With prism holder. High pitched auxiliary snare.	Ludwig LM404 Acrolite, 14"x5" Ludalloy aluminum shell, B/O badge, P85 strainer, built around 1980. Classic sound with few overtones.	Ludwig LB417 Black Beauty 14"x6.5" smooth nickel plated brass shell, keystone badge, P85 strainer, imperial lugs. A classic!

Cymbals

My cymbal setup varies quite a lot. I like to have my ride cymbal low and my crashes slightly tilted (and loose!!!). My collection consists mainly of Zildjians, and several Italians (Ufip and Zanki).

3 ride cymbals: 22" Zanki, 20" Ufip Class and 21" Zildjian K custom special dry	Top view showing some of my K crashes and splashes	Top view of K crash and ride, 18" Z Custom china and trash hat combi (8" splash on top of 10" china)

Hardware

Bass drum pedals

I use the following pedals:

Both my twinpedals are "left-handed" models.  The P882 TWL is from the early 90's when twin pedals first became available.

Percussion instruments

Sometimes I also use percussion instruments such as cowbells, a Latin Percussion jam block (LP1207 low pitch red) and tambourine.

My own custom-built PVC "octoban" drums

I have always liked the sound of Tama octobans, as played by great drummers such as Steward Copeland and Simon Phillips. With the help of my brother, I built my own pair of 'octobans' several years ago out of PVC piping, some used lugs I still had laying around and 6" pressed hoops. Mind you that I was a student back then and couldn't afford real Tama octobans or alternative (such as the Pearl quarter toms).
I bought the hoops and other hardware from Ebbers Slaginstrumenten .  I mounted 'Taiwan imitation" tom mounts together with a Dixon tom holder. PVC is a very easy material for sawing and drilling. The piping we used was a bit too wide (as far as I know it doesn't come in 6"), so we used a circular saw along the length of the piping to make it fit. We then melted the seam back together with a soldering iron. Note that this construction hold up pretty well due to the internal stress in the piping (the internal stress pushes the seam back together). We made two pipes, 10" and 16" in length. This was an arbitrary choice. I smoothened the bearing edges of the PVC drums with sandpaper.  For decoration I used the same white marble plastic decoration foil (both on the inside and on the outside) that I have on all my other drums. I mounted Remo clear ambassador 6" drum heads.
The sound of these drums is pretty good. The 10" and 16" long pipes give me a nice and clear high pitch and low pitch sound.
   

Schlagwerk Cajon La Peru

Made by Schlagwerk Klangobjecte in Germany. Constructed out of beech wood with burl veneer front.  Beautiful cajon with rich "snary" sound. Excellent for playing along with an acoustic guitar.