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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.
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Slingerland Chrome
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Ludwig White
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Tama Superstar
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Tama Superstar
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Tama Superstar
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Tama Superstar
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Tama Superstar with Alessandro
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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”-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”-10” splashes
- Two 16” crashes
- 18”-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”-10” splashes
- two 16” crashes
- 18”-20” crashes
- 22” ping ride
- 18” pang
- 20” swish (no rivets)
- 19” Wuhan china
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