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Alessandro
Bianchini's Peart kit replicas
Alessandro sent me these pictures
of not one but three Neil Peart drum kit replicas. All I
had to say to him was, "Wow!" Once you take a look, I think
you'll agree. Thanks for sending these, Alessandro.
Added 12/26/07
New pictures of Alessandro's refinished Slingerland kit
  
  
Alessandro's note about the refinished drums:
"I
want to share with you my latest kit. Actually, it's not
totally new; it's my
chrome'o'wood Slingerland
which has been rewrapped with black chrome plastic material.
This way it looks as good as new and is a correct example
of Neil's drum set used for A Farewell to Kings
and Hemispheres albums and tours.
"The set has the correct Slingerland brass timbales and
red Starman bass drum logo bass drum heads which have been
hand painted by me from the inside to give that mirror effect
(any sticker applied over the head doesn't give the same
effect).
"Sizes are: 6"-8"-10"-12" concert toms; 12"-13"-15" toms;
18" floor tom and two 24" bass drums; the snare is the same
copper'o'wood Slingerland Artist I use with the
Tama kit."
Added 7/4/07
New pictures
of the Tama Superstar in concert with Alessandro's Rush
tribute band Starman.
 
To see more pics, go to
www.myspace.com/starmanband
Alessandro's Neil Peart replicas
    
Building Replicas of Neil
Peart's Kits
by Alessandro Bianchini
Slingerland chrome'o'wood
This the first of my replicas. It's a Slingerland from the
'70s with chrome�wood finish (actually Neil had a chromed
Slingerland with two 22" bass drums but mine has two 24";
later he had a Slingerland in black chrome with two 24"
bass drums). I started from a five piece set then I added
another bass drum, concert toms, and another closed tom.
The final setup is:
- 5,5x6-5,5x8-7x10-8x12
melodic toms
- 8x12-9x13-10x15 toms
- 16x18 floor tom
- two 14x24 bass drums
- 1973 5,5x14 Slingerland
Artist Copper over Wood
- Cymbals all "A" Zildjian
except where noted:
- 13" hi-hat
- 8"-10" splashes
- two 16" crashes
- 18" and 20" crashes
- 22" ping ride
- 18" Wuhan china
Ludwig SuperClassic white
This set is a 1989 Ludwig
SuperClassic. It has 4-ply maple-poplar shells, I ordered
this set as it is, I didn't assembly it from different pieces.
Obviously it has the same exact sizes as the Ludwig set
that Neil used for "Hold Your Fire" and the following world
tour, and you can see and hear it in "A Show of Hands."
Living in Italy I remember
seeing Rush for the first time in Stuttgart, Germany, in
1988 during the "Hold Your Fire" tour. It's interesting
to know that when Neil switched to Ludwig, he gave up for
the first time the melodic toms and started using three
power-depth closed toms. I customized the set having the
lugs and rims gold plated. Also I added sparkles to the
white finish to match the look of Neil's set. Finally, I
added a 5x5x14 Slingerland Artist snare drum, and a Tama
gong bass drum―both refinished like the whole set.
The hi-hat pedal is a Tama
Titan while the bass drums pedals are Camco.
- The toms sizes are:
- 9x6-9x8-9x10 power
toms
- 8x12-9x13-12x15
toms
- 16x18 floor tom
- Two 14x24 bass drums
- Cymbals all "A" Zildjian
except where noted:
- 13" hi-hat
- 8"and 10" splashes
- Two 16" crashes
- 18" and 20" crashes
- 22" ping ride
- 18" Pang
- 20" Wuhan china
Tama Superstar
Mahogany/Rosewood
Surely this is the hardest and most
difficult job I have ever been involved in my drum collecting
life. This drum kit is a replica of the mahogany rosewood
Tama Neil played between 1979 and 1981 for the recording
of "Permanent Waves", "Moving Pictures" and "Exit...Stage
Left"; it's the set I dreamt of when I was 18 years old.
This set is very complicated because
it includes a wide array of percussion instruments. This
set represents the period of maximum expansion for the acoustic
set. After this set, that Neil began experimenting with
electronic instruments like pads, trigger pedals, and electronic
marimba, which replaced the acoustic sounds.
So the hardest thing for me was to
find the exact instruments used for the actual set. This
was complicated by the fact that most of them are not available
in Italy, so Ebay has been of great help for me. Also it
has to be understood that often those instruments were customized
to Neil's specifications.
I studied all the pictures, video
clips, and books I own to better understand the "secrets"
of the set. Let's start from the drums: I used a '80's Tama
Superstar. I know that Neil's drum set has shells with reinforcing
rings, but I couldn't find them so I used standard Tama
Superstar shells, I tried to match the exact color studying
the pictures and all the rims. Lugs and tom mounts have
been gold plated and currently all the hardware is in the
process of being gold plated.
The setup:
- 5,5x6-5,5x8-7x10-8x12 melodic
toms
- 8x12-9x13-12x15 toms
- 16x18 floor tom
- Two 14x24 bass drums
- 6,5x13-6,5x14 wooden timbales
- 14x20-14x22 gong bass drums
- The snare drum is the only drum
which wasn�t refinished like the other toms, it is a
hard-to-find 1973 5,5x14 Slingerland Artist Copper over
Wood.
- The hardware was the first type
of Tama titan series, the hi-hat pedal was Slingerland
while the bass drum pedals were Ludwig Speed King.
- I built myself two sides rack
used to hang up the acoustic percussions; here's a list
of the instruments involved:
- glockenspiel, Deagan orchestral
bells, tubular bells, wind chimes, Taiwan wood blocks,
melodic cowbells, two triangles, Pakistan bell tree,
one octave of Zildjian low-crotales, Zildjian Burma
bell, one single crotale.
- The cymbals are all Avedis Zildjian
except where noted:
- 13" New Beat hi-hat
- 8" and 10" splashes
- two 16" crashes
- 18" and 20" crashes
- 22" ping ride
- 18" pang
- 20" swish (no rivets)
- 19" Wuhan china
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