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Updated: 12/06/2017

At a Glance:

 

See our new page Counterparts drums: After Rush to explore many more details about this kit.

  • Acoustic drums: Ludwig Super Classic with Black Cherry finish with "Vibra-fibing"

  • Used during 1993 and 1994 to record and tour Counterparts; heard on Different Stages tracks "Bravado," "Show Don't Tell," and "The Analog Kid."

  • Electronic drums: d-drum, KAT malletKat (aka midi-marimba)

  • Cymbals: Avedis Zildjian, Wuhan (China type)

  • Sticks: Pro-Mark 747 wood tip Neil Peart Autograph model (played "backwards")

  • 5.5 x 14 "Old Faithful" Slingerland Artist Model snare with matching Black Cherry finish: 3-ply shell with 8 lugs. This was the last tour Peart used this snare.

  • Drum tech: Larry Allen

From the Counterparts tour book, by Neil Peart:

This photo was taken in October '92, during a Bicycle Africa tour of Mali, Senegal, and The Gambia. Djenne is a medieval town in the inland delta of the Niger River, not far from Timbuktu. The "Great Mosque," like the rest of Djenne, is built of mud, and every year after the rains they have to climb up and resurface that mud, using the exposed beams as scaffolding. The minarets are topped with ostrich eggs, and altogether it's about as amazing a thing as this reporter has ever seen. My friend Mendelson Joe says this photo looks like "a retired hockey player visiting another planet." And that's about how I felt ― except for the "retired hockey player" part.

So anyway... what's new in Drumland? Well, not a lot really. After the big changes I made to the kit for Roll The Bones, this time I just got a new color (Black Cherry, another one of the "hot rod" paint jobs.) The kit was coordinated, assembled, and "vibrafibed" (a thin layer of fiberglass on the inner shell) by Neal Graham, Larry Allen, and XL Specialty in Fort Wayne. The drums are still Ludwigs, and the cymbals are Zildjians (except for the two Chinese Wuhans).

Electronically, the aging Akai samplers are driven by d-drum pads, a KAT midi-marimba, Shark pedals, and Sid the amazing mini-trigger, while a Dauz pad also triggers occasional keyboard "events.

Otherwise, I still use that old Slingerland snare, a Remo "Legato" marching snare, a 13" Ludwig piccolo on the back kit, Tama gong bass drum, Promark sticks, Remo heads, LP cowbells, some wind chimes, and ― probably our most-asked-about piece of hardware―two little squirrel-cage fans to help keep my hands dry.

And those, despite any claims to the contrary, are my biggest fans...

Drum kit details

Drumset (Ludwig except where indicated):

  1. 3 x 14 Remo Legato snare
  2. 5 1/2 x 6 tom
  3. 5 1/2 x 8 tom
  4. 8 x 10 tom
  5. 8 x 12 tom
  6. 9 x 13  tom
  7. 13 x 15 floor tom
  8. 16 x 16 floor tom
  9. 22" gong bass drum (with 24" head)
  10. 5 x 14 "Old Faithful" Slingerland Artist model snare drum
  11. 3 x 13 Ludwig Ensemble snare drum
  12. 14 x 18 bass drum
  13. 16 x 24 22 bass drum (Note this is listed incorrectly in the infographic below; Peart switched to a 22-inch bass during Roll the Bones, and there's no indication from his tour book intro that he changed back to a 24-inch bass.)

Hardware, pads, electronics

  1. Kat malletKat
  2. Shark pedals
  3. "SID" electronic trigger
  4. ddrum pads
  5. Dauz pad (keyboard trigger)
  6. Yamaha double bass drum pedal
  7. Camco bass drum pedal
  8. Single cowbell (small)
  9. Triple agogo bells
  10. Single cowbell (large)
  11. Wind chimes

Cymbals: Zildjian (except where indicated)

  1. 20" crash
  2. 16" crash x 2
  3. 10" crash
  4. 8" spash
  5. 22" ride
  6. 18" crash
  7. 18 3/4" Wuhan China
  8. 20" swish (rear/front)
  9. 18" crash (rear kit)
  10. 16" crash (rear kit)
  11. 19" Wuhan China (rear kit)
  12. 13" New Beat hi-hat (front and rear kit) x 2
  13. 22" ride (rear kit)

Heads: Remo C.S. (clear dots) on tops and Ambassadors (snare side) on bottoms of Ludwig and Slingerland snares, Falams K series (kevlar) on the Remo Legato snare, Emperors on tops and Diplomats on bottoms of toms, clear Ambassador on gong bass drum, Remo Photo-Logo on front of bass drums, C.S. (clear dots) on bass drum batters, and Evans two-ply black Hydraulic on ddrums.

Sticks: Pro-Mark Neil Peart autograph 747 model

Drum Boards: Oak plywood cut in an octagon configuration, painted and sealed, then cut into four pieces fo traveling convenience.

Drum RIser: The main section of the riser consists of two aluminum pieces that bolt together. It rotates by the use of a three phase industrial motor with a control switch for forward and reverse.

Sampler: Four Akai 900s conrol both the malletKat and the  ddrums.

Stands: Ludwig Modular stands, including hi-hat, cymbal (convential and boom), snare, and throne. Tama hardware and stands for mounting the gong bass drum. The tom mounts are all Ludwig, except  for one single mount (for the 10" tom), which is a Tama.

 

Photo Gallery

  • Portrait from Counterparts tour book
  • Filming "Stick It Out"
  • Taking a break: "Stick It Out" video

After Rush

Lorne Wheaton, Neil Peart's drum tech, wrote the following about this kit's current whereabouts in November, 2010: "I reassembled that Ludwig kit around 7 years ago, for display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was on display there for a year, then it was off to a new home in a museum in Ottawa, Canada (Canadian Musuem of History in Quebec)."

See our new page Counterparts drums: After Rush to explore many more details about this kit.

Thanks to Cygnus-x1.net for the hi-resolution scan of Neil's Kit from Modern Drummer.

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