Memories – My old Pearl Export drum kit

Here they are!

I got these Pearl Exports about 22 years ago! (Yes, I’ve just dated myself, but it’s better to be honest here)

I still remember the day I got ’em. I went from playing a used kit my parents had bought me, which lasted several years and several gigs…. to opening the boxes that contained my very own brand new Pearl drum kit.

Pearl was a brand that I had a fondness for, back in the early 90s many rock and metal drummers whom I looked up to were playing Tama and Pearl kits…. and for some reason the Pearl brand was one that was quite attractive to me!

The feeling that I had opening these boxes was one of amazement, it was thrilling to see these new drums and to think of tuning them up and playing them with the band I was with at the time. It’s really a youthful memory for me… so many new things to experience.

Many, many gigs were played with this kit. Most in small clubs on small stages, some on theater stages and small arena gigs. They even made a few recordings!

These things were workhorses and they served me well!

In recent years, I haven’t served them very well! They were stored in a basement and weren’t in use at all for about the last 6 – 7 years and towards the end of their (gig) use, some parts began to wear and break down. They were all but forgotten about.

But recently, I was thinking about this kit and thought they deserve to be looked after. I already fixed up (it was a quick fix) the old snare drum and got a great sound out of it. It was actually used in the studio a couple of weeks ago on the first 2 tracks of the upcoming Aron Scott Earthquake album that we’re working on. You could really get a great sound out of these old snare drums!

So over the next several months, I’ll be pickin’ away at trying to get this kit back into “game shape” and might use it live from time to time (depending on the gig).

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