Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Bucket Drums!

The other day, I ran across this photo while looking through some old files. Gave me a chuckle, so I thought I'd throw it on the blog (I spruced up the pic with a new background...60's style).

One of my "fun activities" is playing percussion (congas, bongos, djembe's ,etc.). Some time back, the church worship band I played in needed another drummer. I was encouraged to give it a try. Rather than waste a bunch of time and money buying a "real" drum kit, I decided to see if I could build my own to practice at home with.


I put this "bucket drum kit" together after a trip to the local hardware store. (Okay, I bought the hi-hat and kickdrum pedal, but I got 'em real cheap.) I found out really quickly that I wasn't coordinated enough to make my feet cooperate! Eventually, I disassembled my "PVC Special"...except for the snare drum...you never know when you might need a plastic bucket snare drum.

Til next time...
-W

8 comments:

Cat Ludwig Studio said...

You are a rock star! Glad you are enjoying all sides of your creativity. You definitely enrich my life:)

Steve Willaredt said...

You could join the Fat Albert band with that thing. Or sue Rockband/Guitar Hero folks. Just sayin'.

Anonymous said...

Makes me sad for poor Cathy that I gave you that snare drum for Christmas when you were about, what, 10 or 12 years old? Big mistake! Mom

MSU DAWG! said...

Cool !

Dan said...

Could you please tell me what you used for the heads?

Warren Ludwig said...

Hey, Dan...kudos for digging way back into the archives for this ancient post.

The blue-colored "heads" were made from a rubbery vinyl material that I found at the fabric store. I just wanted to soften the hard plastic sound when hitting the bucket. I used "SUPER 77" spray mount to glue the blue vinyl on. The black material was some "peel and stick" foam rubber from MICHAEL'S hobby shop. It helped muffled that hard plastic a bit better for the toms...but did not give a lot of bounce back with the sticks...so not ideal. Hope that helps!

Unknown said...

how did you get the snare sound?

Warren Ludwig said...

For the snare sound, I bought a set of snare springs for a mini-sized drum. I cut the one end of the springs off (where the springs are soldered to the metal bar). I then attached the springs to the inside of the bucket (drilled holes on the side of the inside of the bucket...then used nuts and screws to attach) and had the loose springs pressing agains the "drum head" (the inside of the bottom of the bucket). It was not a great sound, but did have a snare feel.