The Shelters' Sebastian Harris - GEAR MASTERS (Revisited) Ep. 98

I'm Sebastian Harris from The Shelters. This is my beautiful kit. I've got a 74 Rogers. So grateful to have it. It's got all the great characteristics that I was looking for in a vintage kit, but it could also take a great beating. So pretty standard for the time period. I've got a 13 by 9, a 16 by, I think it's an 18, and a 22 by 16 bass drum. It's really, really meaty, can dig in really nicely, has nice warm, round characteristics. Love it. When we were cutting the record, I was using a 62 Ludwig, and you know, that thing is absolutely stunning, but it isn't meant to come out on the road, it's a bit of a museum piece. And so I wanted to find something that could emulate those same characteristics, but like I said, take a bit of a beating and still sound great every night. So man, this thing, it kind of found its way to me through Craigslist, and couldn't be happier. As far as the snare drum goes, it's a Pearl Free Floater, stainless steel, 6.5 by 14. I've got a 30 snare wire on the bottom to give it that extra white noise sound. I really, really like that for this particular group. Couldn't be happier with it. I actually picked it up at a pawn shop for $150. Had a broken throw, fixed the throw, here we are. I love the brightness that the steel has, it cuts, when you crack it, it really projects. And so I have it tuned fairly low, pretty loose, but then the contrast of the loose heads with the steel shell creates kind of a very well-rounded tone. So I love it. Very responsive, die-cast hoop so you can wail and wail and wail, and it sounds great every night. Really, really stoked on this thing. Heads, Remo. Always loved my Remo heads since I was a wee one. Up here I've got Remo Ambassadors. I also really like the Remo Pinstripes, but those seem to be hard to come by. So Remo Ambassadors, I got them taped up a little bit just to mute them slightly. But they're absolutely fantastic. They're durable as can be, and they project, they sing, and the way I have them taped up, they've got a pretty quick decay. So yeah, absolutely love it. Over here on my snare, I've got a Powerstroke 3-coated, and I made a little ring. They sell these, but they're never quite big enough for what I'm looking for, so I took an old head and cut it out, and it's kind of pretty perfect, nice and dry. Rezzo heads on my Toms, I have also-coated Ambassadors, which isn't that common. I think for the time period it was, most guys tend to go for a clear head, but I'm looking for a slightly quicker decay, and so that just seems to be the right configuration for this kit and for the tone that I'm looking for. On here I have what they call a Remo Ambassador Hazy, so it's an Ambassador, slightly thicker resonant head, but still much thinner than a batter head. Absolutely great. And then cymbals. I am all about, I am wild about my cymbals. I am very, very grateful for Sabian for taking really good care of me and helping me find what I was looking for to express my creativity. So starting with a hi-hat, these are relatively new, it's the HH series, the HH Vanguards. These are 15 inches, really, really nice, thin, so I get a really nice wash and a really nice spread, quick decay, but it isn't chunky, it doesn't feel like I'm playing on some trash can lids or something like that, so there's still a lot of stick definition, I can get a lot of different colors out of it, and couldn't be happier, couldn't be happier. That was a real special hookup to me, really grateful for those guys. And then up here I have both a 20 inch and a 22 inch artisan light ride, and yet again it was similar characteristics that I wanted to match the hi-hat. Really washy, a great spread, can really dig in without it having too much attack, it washes it out and it blends really, really nicely, and you can get a million different colors because they are technically a ride cymbal, so you can ride on them and get a nice stick definition, or you can use the shoulder of the stick and get a really beautiful wash, and then they're great for accents. Couldn't be happier with them. And then over here, as my main ride, I have an artisan 22 inch medium ride, so that's going to give me a little more stick definition, a little more ping, and cuts through really nicely. It's got a great sounding bell, I absolutely love the bell. Couldn't be happier. I've been playing Sabian for about 10 years now, and man, just absolutely love their product. Sticks, I'm all about Vader. I've been playing Vader for about 15 years now, and they just feel great. They're consistent, they're always weighted really well, they feel dense. I particularly like a dense feeling stick, I kind of want it to feel heavy for the particular size. For the shelters, I play a 5B typically. I like to let the stick do the work for me, so I can wail without working way too hard. Wood tip, pretty standard, never been much of a fan of the nylon tip. So good old-fashioned, old-school 5B Vader drumsticks, couldn't be happier. Talking to them right now, hopefully going to be able to create a bit of an endorsement or something like that, because I'm a huge advocate for these guys. Pedals, I have a DW-9000, it's so smooth, so responsive, I can dig into it or I can also just play heel down and get really nice finesse out of it. So many, many colors, I really think that that's probably the most superior bass drum pedal out there. And hi-hat stand, believe it or not, it was my first more expensive hi-hat stand that I bought when I was about 12 years old. It's a Tama, I don't think it even has a model, it's just a Tama, and I love it because I know it so well. It's just, it's so a part of me, and so, like I said, I can get so many different colors out of a hi-hat, because not only are these cymbals great, but I just have great connection with this, and my left foot loves it, so. We have a great Allen & Heath IDR, well we have an IDR and then the Allen & Heath Mise, and so what I do for this particular group is we mic the bass drum, the snare, and the hi-hat, we run that into the IDR. All the guys out front can submix that to whatever level they need, and then I can submix everything here. So I have my kick, my snare, my hi-hat, and then I have all the vocal lines, I have all the guitars, and so I'm able to just dial it in, and honestly, you can kind of set it and leave it. This slightly changes from night to night in the room, but honestly, you're tweaking a couple dB here or there, really, really minor. I am so over the moon with this system, because when you're doing these quick turnaround load-ins at clubs and theaters, you don't necessarily have all the time to connect with the sound guy and get that ideal mix, and so this is kind of bulletproof, it's gonna be the same every night, and if it's not, I can tweak it on the fly, and everything's groovy. This one in particular is a Dubb DW, kind of standard run-of-the-mill round-thrown. Never been a fan of the, what do they call it, the saddle seat. I like a good round-thrown, kind of firm, so I feel well-rooted and planted, and can wail away.