BucketDrums was started from my 30+ years of being a professional drummer for the band Queensryche. I had always wanted the designs of my own drum kits to be as unique as possible, and along with my love for playing any type of object that could be used as a percussion instrument, I realized that a standard 'plastic' bucket could be easily designed to be played as an actual drum. The birth of BucketDrums was the result of this desire to invent a unique new product that could be used as a 'playable' drum.” – Scott Rockenfield
When you receive your BucketDrums, you will receive everything you see pictured to the right which includes:
When the BucketDrum arrives, it arrives in pieces with some assembly required. So I thought it was only fair to review that process of assembly as well as the drum itself!
As you can see, first I laid out all of the parts and consulted the easy-to-understand instructions, very un-male of me. I began by placing the drumhead and the top hoop on the top of the drum. Then I sat the drum in the middle of the bottom hoop to pull it up firmly towards the top of the drum. So far, so good! I haven’t incurred any problems or hiccups. My kind of drum, because if there is a problem to be found…I’ll find it whether I want to or not.
The next step (pictured below) was to line the holes of the hoops up and insert the tension rods. In a crisscross motion (the same as if I was tuning a drum) I would place the washers and wing nuts on the bottom of the tension rods and only finger-tighten them. This way, the tension on the head is spread out evenly. As far as I could tell thus far, the head and hoops were fitting snuggly together. Is it really this easy? We shall see…
Once I had all of the tension rods in and finger-tightened them, so it was now time to fine-tune the drum with the drum key (which was provided). I noticed the main thing to remember when first tuning the drum was to make sure I held on to the bottom wing nut as I tightened the top. Otherwise, you’re just turning the tension rod, not tuning it.
Again, I tuned in a crisscross manner to evenly distribute the tension. Which is probably one of the most important things to ensure you’re doing. Without evenly distributing the tension, it will be impossible to tune a drum properly.
The way the hoops lay over the bucket, actually makes it very easy tune. This was my biggest worry initially but without fail, the head stretched perfectly!
Next it was time for my personal favorite step, applying the decals! I chose the logo decal first. These decals, unlike many, are actually very easy to apply. Some as you know, can be a pain but these were easy to work with and obviously look great not to mention there are plenty to choose from. Below are some variations.
Now that I had the drum together and lookin’ good, I was ready to play! I set the drum up on a lowered snare stand and started to fiddle around with different tunings and tones. The drum surprisingly carries a wide tonal range. I went for a deeper/darker yet tighter sound.
I rattled off a few rudiments as a quick test run and was amazed by the tone and response of the drum! There is a lot of resonance but not to the point where you’re drowning yourself out.
Throughout out my jam session, I tested the diversity of the drum and even the bucket “shell” itself. All of which sounded great. So much so, this drum is now set up in the recording studio with me ready for action on the new record.
My over all experience with the drum from assembly to jamming was shock, amazement and complete satisfaction. I had the drum out of the box and put together literally in 10 minutes. You couldn’t ask for anything more simple! Its of the highest quality and you get everything you need. This will be a piece of gear that I plan on holding on to for a long time and will suggest to drummers of all ages to practice on or add to their own kit setup. Terry Bozzio could go nuts on a couple of these! For more information, I strongly encourage you to visit: www.bucketdrums.com