Johnny Sillers' Tama "White Monster"


The spirit of Neil Peart's drums is alive and well in Johnny Siller's Tama Granstar kit. Hearkening back to Hold Your Fire era and before, this white kit includes two bass drums, four concert toms, a gong bass drum, glockenspiel, and a cowbell tree. The final touch is the outdoor picture shoot that recalls the lake shots of Neil playing his candy apple red Artstars.

You can also hear Neil's influence in Johnny's playing, which you can watch on YouTube. I've included a short video below of a solo Johnny did which I thought was excellent.

See more pictures and videos at Johnny's website: www.johnnysillers.com

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My name is Johnny Sillers and I have been a die hard Neil Peart fan for over 20 years. I dreamed of having a kit like his from the first time I saw his red set of Tama Artstars.

15 years in the making...I finally have my dream kit..p>

The White Monster as my son calls it is a 1990 model Tama Granstar II with a few mods... Here we go..

  • 2 22 Bass Drums
  • 6,8,8,10 Concert Toms (yes there is two 8" toms)
  • 10,12,13,14,15 Toms
  • 20 Gong Drum
  • 10,12 Timbales
  • 5 cowbells
  • bell set
  • 16,17,18,19 Zildjian Z Custom Crashes
  • 8,10 Zildjian A Splashes
  • 13 Sabian Paragon Hi-Hats
  • 16 Wuhan China
  • Roc-n-Soc Throne
  • 2 Camco Pedals
  • All Tama Hardware including Legless Hi-Hat Stand

Custom Work

The concert toms are Keller maple shells with single lugs from Tama Granstar model toms I gathered from Ebay over a few years. They are mounted using clip style mounts I ordered directly from Tama. I wrapped them in gloss white drum material and topped them with Remo Black Dots to finish them off. The reason I chose to go with two 8" drums is I wanted to keep the toms going in order..If I would have ended my last concert tom with a 12" my first rack tom is a 10"...you get the picture..

The Gong Drum was made basically the the same as the concert toms..Ebay Granstar lugs, Keller shell, and White gloss wrap. It is mounted on two Tama RoadPro single tom stands and is topped with a Remo Emperor Head. Sounds like THUNDER.

The Cowbells consist of a LP Black beauty bell, Pearl Tri-Bells, and a LP Mambo Bell. The stand consists of a tama remote HiHat top and boom stand base. The 8" Splash is mounted to the top using an Aquarian Cymbal Spring with tape wrapped around the spring to keep it straight.

The footboard of my legless hi-hat has been modified too..I bought a matching Camco foot board off Ebay and replaced the longer factory foot board. This is basically for my own obsessive needs..but it looks cool.

My floor tom stand and my timbale stand have been shortened to fit my low style of playing. I basically removed the upper clamp on the base of the stand, cut the pipe to fit and replaced the clamp! Short stands for a short drummer.

My Bass Drum heads are Evans Eq3s with Chrome Holz, Remo Flamslam pads and Starman stickers I bought off you guessed it Ebay.

My Snare is a 6.5x14 Birch Tama. It originally had Granstar Bowtie lugs, standard hoops, and had a chrome wrap on it. I added the Tube Lugs, Die cast hoops, and the Gloss White Wrap. I use a variety of heads that consist of: Remo Emperor X, Coated Ambassador, and Clear Ambassador.

My Rack Toms have Remo Clear Emperors on top and Ambassadors on the bottoms.

And finally...My sticks are from a stick company I co-created with a good friend of mine Lasersticks. They are laser engraved Pro-Mark 747s with nylon tips.