This late 90’s Yamaha Maple Custom kit is the most recorded of all our beloved house kits at Narwhal. It is on hundreds of recordings: from gospel to pop, jazz, rock, latin, indie, soul, metal and everything in between. It has a clean and focused sound that sings when tuned high, a rounded and musical midrange and a big but controlled low end when tuned fat.
The bass drum is 22” and the toms are 12’,13’,16’ and 18”. It usually has either Evans G2, EC2 or Onyx heads on it depending on what sound our client is looking for. It tunes easily and stays in tune because of the die cast hoops, which also focus the sound, which is great for recording.
During one week last year we used it on a Donald Lawrence gospel session with Tavarious “Varo” Johnson, a funk-rock session with Ernie Adams and a jazz session with Paul Wertico. It sounded different and great on all three sessions with the same Evans G2 Coated heads and a little tuning.
It also survived a catastrophic fire and sounds even better.
HISTORY
We bought this kit used in late 2006 from a used instrument store on Chicago’s north side called The Music Store. The owner called us right after it came in on consignment because he knew we liked Yamaha. It was bought new and never played by a Chicago avant garde jazz recordist named Malachi Ritscher who self-immolated at the Flame of the Millenium sculpture off I-90/94, in protest of the Iraq war.
Here’s a Pitchfork article about Malachi: https://pitchfork.com/features/article/6483-malachi-ritscher-1954-2006/
We told the owner of the store we’d be honored to have it especially because of Malachi’s poignant and tragic statement about the war.
Unfortunately a year after we bought it our rehearsal studio business was burned down by an arsonist who burned down the vacant building next to us and wiped us out as well. These drums suffered direct flame and sat in a few feet of water for hours after the fire was put out. They were covered in a thick black film and we assumed they were a complete loss. We put them in storage with the heads still on and focused on getting back on our feet.
A few months later we discovered that the shells were still perfectly round and after months of cleaning they miraculously sounded amazing! Even better than before. Their tone was a little more open and clean while retaining the round musicality of maple from before. Removing the black film revealed a new purple color in the grain. The gold plated lug casings have superficial damage which reminds us of its history every time we use it.
We also have a Yamaha 5 ½ x 14 Copper snare that survived the fire with some scars and sounds amazing! Its tone is darker than brass and it has a nice midrange presence whether tuned high or low.
You can enjoy these drums and many others from our gear list: https://narwhalchicago.com/gear-1