Some years back... like ummmm... geeze 1999 when my wife found this drumframe on ebay being sold pretty cheap. We ended up buying it and I thought it might be time for me to share my love/hate relationship with this drumframe.
The negatives:
The chair for version 1 didn't rotate... it was a set and forget...
so no swiveling of the chair to reach an extra tom.
Big clunky pieces to move... and it takes more time to move them if you
have to break them down.
The snare mount in the first version was limited in range...
additional support legs do wear and eventually snap. But this has been the ONLY thing to break... everything else works perfectly. This support leg is less than a foot long and goes on the very bottom of the main legs. It is easier to see them in a picture. Look just to the left and right of the main deck plate.
The bass drum cradle on version one had two supports that sit perfectly against
the front and back rims.. and were adjustable. This in combination with the straps locked the bass drum to the frame... it could vibrate fine but wouldn't creep if you wanted it to. The bad part is you have to adjust the supports if you are tuning up/down the bass drum since they hug the drum from inside.
Now they have improved on a lot of this... so most of these problems don't
exist on the later versions.
The positives:
With the proper memory locking devices on your set there is MINIMAL fiddling with drum position. Imagine getting your whole drum set in the perfect spot the first time. But the increased time in set-up/tear down kinda evens out with the fiddling.
The drums open up in the frame... they sing nicely and project well. Everything feels natural.
sitting in the seat feels SOOO good. When I sit down I feel energized.
The drums feel locked in place and I find it easy to get into the pocket.
pain I was having is gone from my back.
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Anyone who hasn't been able to sit behind one of these should try to
find time to test one out. I have got so much out of the drumframe. I never
fiddle with my drums because they slip or are just not in the right spot. My
band practices for 6 hours every Saturday... I walk in and out feeling fine.
The seat is comfortable, playing is comfortable, the sound is great... the
bass drum just sings so well being suspended.
Outside of one of the support legs breaking the frame had been solid. I have
been using c-clamps on the hi-hat stand and slave bass pedal to keep them from relying on Velcro to keep them in place. So far this has worked perfectly.
Thanks for reading... I hope you get a chance to test this out sometime.