DIY Octobans

[plutonic]

TAMA prices are ridiculous for these things.
But check this out:

http://www.arrickrobotics.com/tubetoms.html

[Rusty James]

Cool...I remember Spec A! posting something like this.
Post some pics Pluto if you make some.

[ltwoman]

My condolences about Becky, Rusty James. Sorry for the thread hijack, but I lost my Nike in December at 18+ years and when I saw your avatar and location I just sighed.

[Rusty James]

Thanks Itwoman and other nutters.
Our kitty was 19 1/2 years old, we were hoping she would make 20 this summer.
I've had a lot of pets over the years but losing our Becky really hit hard.
Sorry for the threadjack, pluto...now back to your regular scheduled programing.

[Marshmallow Jones 1]

I was thinking of going this route, but after adding up the costs (and my lack of handyman skills), I wound up going with ddrum deccabons which are about half the price of Tamas. They're acrylic like the Tamas (not aluminum like the Peace tubetoms which don't sound as good IMO). The only drawbacks are the kind of awkward stand and the placement of the mounts on the toms themselves. I dont know why ddrum and Peace haven't figure this out. If you place the mount for the drum right near the head, you don't get any 'reach', ie. the playable surface of the head cant be far away from the stand itself. Tama's system is smarter since you can put the stand behind the hit hat or wherever, and the octobans extend out from the stand giving you flexibility on where you place them. I simply redrilled the holes further down on the ddrum deccabons to address it. Ideal? No, but i dont think i lost too much in the way of sound, they still have that octoban sound. I am more than sure that in the crappy little bars I play out in, I've got to be the only drummer who lugs octobans along!

[plutonic]

I'm leaning towards deccabons, too. I'm going to pick up a pair used tomorrow at a shop outside B-more.
The 22-24 inch set.

If they work out, I'm thinking seriously about making custom lengths. The limitations Rusty mentioned on the placement, and the tube length combinations available for these drums aren't optimal, it seems.

They sell deccabons in sets of two, each being two inches longer than the other.
24-22" set
20-18" set
16-14
12-10
8-6

The available sets of ratios don't make musical sense to me.
I started thinking about pan pipes and string lengths: simple musical ratios.
I think that would be interesting, and really musical with these drums.

Right now I'm thinking these lengths, followed by a hypothetical 'tuning note' so you can see, musically, what i'm talking about:

24" (C) [1 full length]
16" (G) [2/3 length tube]
*13.72" (Bb) [approx 4/7 length tube]
12" (C) [1/2 length tube]

That funky length I'm not sure about.
I'm also considering substituting something any one of these lengths:

20" (Eb) [5/6 length tube]
18" (F) [3/4 length tube]

I'm getting a quote on getting some tubes made.
I also just got a quote on acrylic tubing.
Acrylic; $70 for 5 feet of tubes, which is enough to make what I want.

I read somewhere on the interwebz that Octobans are actually made of this:
http://www.pptube.com/products/prod_vulcanize.html
Anyone know if this is true?

I submitted for a quote on that tubing too.

Curious to see what comes back.

We could do an sc.net group buy or something.

dc

[plutonic]

I am not very DIY, and ddrums very close to my spec were on sale stupid cheap via ebay.
So I went for it.
The heads are crap, I'm told.
I'm going to have to order replacements...

So, what is the recommendation, nutter drummers?

[Marshmallow Jones 1]

Plutonic - I went with the Remo black dots. I had trouble getting the exact tone I want out of them, they were still a little ringy, but I use a really small piece of moongel and they sound pretty darn good. I have the 18-20" combo. Just some advice, if you end up thinking about re-drilling the mounts, BE VERY CAREFUL, these things will crack.

[plutonic]

Plutonic - I went with the Remo black dots. I had trouble getting the exact tone I want out of them, they were still a little ringy, but I use a really small piece of moongel and they sound pretty darn good. I have the 18-20" combo. Just some advice, if you end up thinking about re-drilling the mounts, BE VERY CAREFUL, these things will crack.

I think if I have trouble with placement, I'm going to just get some cymbal booms.
I really want to cut the 22" down to 21".

But I'll be careful.
Thanks for the tip on heads.

Pix, Check it out:

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