Ok, so this isn’t exactly a new release as such. That said, lightweight hardware is still a growing interest to many, especially those of us starting to get on in years. For about 15 years I did hundreds of gigs with Yamaha’s (at the time I bought them) lowest end disappearing boom 700 series cymbal

I’m sitting here writing this review a good few months after doing the accompanying video, nothing particularly unusual about that. However, I mention this because, listening back to the audio side of things, I’d actually forgotten how good these drums sounded in relation to the price point.  These aren’t expensive drums, but to be honest,

A new year and some new cymbals. So first off, this new line replaces the ZBT series which has now been discontinued. Zildjian says that this new line features modern weights and profiles as well as some new sounds. The cymbals I was sent were from the gig pack (14” hihats, 16 & 18” crashes

Trap Style Drumming - Gregory “Torch” Sgrulloni It’s one of those sounds that is now everywhere and a style of drumming that on the surface of it, seems pretty straight forward. As with most things though if you dig a little deeper, it opens a door to a whole bunch of new sounds and ideas.

When Mike told me he had a new British Drum Company snare for me to check out, I was really interested. That said, when I finally got it home, it didn’t actually turn out to be exactly the drum I was expecting, but as it happens, it was a happy misunderstanding and I certainly wasn’t disappointed.

Sabian had a big year, what with the logo change and all, but they also found time to release some new models in the AAX range too… The review cymbals we were sent were 15” medium hi hats, 18 and 19” thin crashes, 20” stage crash, and 20” medium and heavy rides. They all had

Vater recently sent us some sticks to try out. These are all from the 'Classics' range which are apparently all more 'old school' designs, based on the original designs that Vater made before they became Vater (when them made sticks for another very well known stick company), meaning they are slightly different from the current

Beats Exotiques - Gary Leach If you’ve ever sat down and tried to play some latin rhythms, or have worked through books of Afro-Cuban or Brazilian ideas and thought to yourself “this is cool and everything, but when am I really going to use it?”, then perhaps Gary Leach has written the perfect book for

I’ll come clean straight away; I’m a fan of the UV1 line. I have been since I tried them. When I tried the UV1 heads back in mid 2018 - http://mikedolbear.com/reviews/uv1-drum-heads/ - I pretty much instantly liked them and I’ve been buying them ever since to put on my toms and snares. The funny thing

Exploring Jazz Drums - Clark Tracey If you’ve ever studied jazz you’ll know just how many little avenues the genre will take you down. This book from British jazz drummer Clark Tracey aims to open some of these avenues and does so by introducing a certain concept, talking a little bit about where it came