The Drum Guide was created by me, Jeff Mason. I created the site to let other drummers and would be drummers out there know about the brands available.

So now to introduce myself. Why am I so qualified to bring you this information. Well it all began about 26 years ago. At the age of 6 (almost 7) I took an interest in drums as an instrument. Probably because you got to hit them and make music. So I joined the summer music programs through the school system. Back in the day, the school music system was great. It has since been strip mined of course because politically sports are more important. So the music programs get cut as the would be criminals get to ply their sports trade. But I digress.

I played in the school system all the way through grade school. At one point I was in the actual school band, but some little biatch complained I was too loud, so I didn't get to continue with that. But I continued to get private lessons through the school with Mr. Virgil. At the time I really didn't care too much for dynamics and crescendos and such. I just wanted to be loud. Somewhere in this time frame I got my starter drum set, a Golden Beat. I started to toy around with that.

As I joined Middle School I entered the School band with Mr. Reed. And actually started to become decent. It was around my second year in Middle school that I got my first name brand kit. A Seven piece Pearl that was used, and came with some shit cymbals. But they were good enough. As I started to jam out it wasn't long before I realized I wanted double bass. So I bought another used set. A five piece Tama, and more shit cymbals. (One of the cymbals actually was all bent all over by the time I was done with it.) So basically I had 2 drum sets that made one. That means of course that I had two 12' toms, two 14' toms and two 16' floor toms. So I had to tune the Tama set down real low to make up for it. It sounded bad, but at the time I thought it was cool. As middle school went on I did performances with the band and started to get the orchestral experience.

It was in Middle School that I also started private lessons with Russ at Notable Music. We later found out his mom sold Pretzels at the High School, but that is irrelevant.

Middle School ended and High School began. I was asked to join the High School band but I opted out. I was starting to become cool, and didn't want to be a "band fag" as they were called. So I took a music theory class which was really a study hall.

I also started meeting people to Jam with in a garage band situation. The first person I met was Rogash, in my Spanish class. He was a quiet guy, and I was the loud obnoxious guy. We sat at opposite ends of class and actually started talking because our girlfriends were friends. I then realized he played guitar, and we started jamming. He knew Bighead, who was a bassist, and we brought him into the mix. We had several band names, but none are relevant, and we had several short term members. We had two sisters, one sang one played guitar. The guitarist was cool, but the singer was a flake. (Gee what a shock). We jammed awhile and eventually kicked the singer out. Her sister had voted against her as well. But the next week it seemed their parents made the Guitarist quit because of what had happened. So then we got Paul. Paul was absolutely horrible on guitar. Bighead had met him while Paul was working on his house. Why did we jam with Paul if we knew he was a terrible guitarist you ask. Simple, we were all 15, and 16. Paul was older and had not only a licence, but a truck to carry gear if we got a show. But then Paul borrowed Bigheads Faster Pussycat CD and went off into the sunset. (We later crank called Bighead after Faster Pussycats second release, claiming to be Paul and asking to borrow the new CD.)

It was in this time period, that I bought my first new drum set. Which is actually still my Drum set. A Tama Grand Star Custom, Heather Metallic, seven piece, with the Tower of Power. While I say that it is still my drum set, it has grown throughout the years. And currently has double bass, two floor toms, five mounted toms, an octoban (that itself counts as eight more drums), and two high hats, one ride cymbal, three crashes, two china, some splashes, a weird V shaped cymbal, some chimes, some cowbells, and latin things, and a bigger rack system that I tend to use as an instrument as well. But anyway we aren't there yet, but it was big enough that once we started playing out, it was referred to as "The Nuclear Weapon."

One day my cousin Melissa told me that two guys she knew were looking for a drummer. Dean and Rich. Frustrated with the way we weren't getting very good with Bighead and Rogash, I thought about it. I was friends with Bighead, but he was a weak link. So I accepted the invitation to jam with them, but under the condition that Rogash jammed too. That way the only person who could been angry was the weak link anyway. So the four of us got together, and jammed out some cover tunes. Mostly Metallica, but don't tell Lars, my old Idol is Lawsuit happy. Anyway, it sounded decent, and we all got along, so me and Rogash decided to ditch Bighead and stay with these guys. We started doing all covers, in the speed metal genre and started writing some originals. We became The Gladiators Of Pain.

The Gladiators raged on for several years. The set went from all covers to all originals. At about the half way point Rich decided to leave the band, and do something a little more mellow. At that point Rich actually found his own replacement ,Stein, which eased the transition. We played several shows and made a four song demo. But after a few years Dean decided to move to be with family. The three remaining Gladiators wanted to go on, but never found a replacement.

I at this point was attending Jersey City State College for Media Arts. But the original reason I went to this school was the music program. Fellow Gladiator of Pain and close friend, Rogash was currently attending and spoke of a great music program. I enlisted, but only stayed in the music program for half a semester. At this point he realized that the type of job he would get from this program really didn't interest him, and he didn't need the training even if it did. He had a real good drum teacher Barry from outside of school, and that was all he needed. Though only in the music program for a half a year I played many concerts, along with Tom from the band Snag, Clarence, and some others. These performances included The Operetta Die Fleidermouse, and various concerts with The Symphony of Winds And Percussion, and The Percussion Ensemble. As a favor to the teacher of The Percussion Ensemble, myself and Tom(who was also leaving) decided to do one more semester of The Percussion Ensemble, because the teacher was stuck, and had always been cool to them. It was at this point That I recommended setting the drums on fire at the concerts while they were playing. Though Clarence and Tom were also into this idea, the teacher wasn't, so it didn't happen.

That brings to a close all the my formal training, other then lessons from Barry that lasted for several years. To backtrack, I started going to Barry, a few months before college. My current drum teacher had not wanted to help me get ready for the college tryout. I had then tried another who wanted me to start from scratch learning Drums his way, and then put off what I needed to learn for the tryout. Barry said he would get me ready for it, which he did.

So it was in Jersey City that I joined with two others to form my next band. Classmate, friend, and apartment-mate at the time The Whip, and new friend The Beholder. The band Vlad The Innhaler was totally original, with no boundaries. Had a heavy basis, but ventured into any genre you could imagine. Probably my favorite band, but nothing concrete was written except a handful of songs. Was more of a feel the music jam. We have about 20 or more tapes of good material that needed to be formatted. This band lasted several years off and on, but the flakiness of The Whip, always halted the band when things started to pick up. Book a gig, and he would go AWOL, things like That.

After the breakup of Vlad I joined another band of friends to do cover tunes in the hopes of making money. We went through several lineup changes, so although had a decent amount of songs to play out, never made headway because there was always someone learning. This new band became Vlads Mystical Minstrels, and I named the other two constants The Watcher and The Toker respectively.

Vlad then reformed one last time, and it was a merging. The original Vlad The Inhaler members with the two remaining members besides myself of Vlads Mystical Minstrels. But this incarnation was no different. An AWOL Whip discouraged my two members that had come from the Minstrels. The two lost interest after missing a show at the hands of the Whip. Then it was the original three members of Vlad The Inhaler again. I brought in another guy, Drew. Starting over again with Drew went well but in the end the band fell apart.

Currently I am not in a band. Would like to be, just hard to find something origional enough to get involved with.

The Drum Guide was created by me, Jeff Mason. I created the site to let other drummers and would be drummers out there know about the brands available.

So now to introduce myself. Why am I so qualified to bring you this information. Well it all began about 26 years ago. At the age of 6 (almost 7) I took an interest in drums as an instrument. Probably because you got to hit them and make music. So I joined the summer music programs through the school system. Back in the day, the school music system was great. It has since been strip mined of course because politically sports are more important. So the music programs get cut as the would be criminals get to ply their sports trade. But I digress.

I played in the school system all the way through grade school. At one point I was in the actual school band, but some little biatch complained I was too loud, so I didn't get to continue with that. But I continued to get private lessons through the school with Mr. Virgil. At the time I really didn't care too much for dynamics and crescendos and such. I just wanted to be loud. Somewhere in this time frame I got my starter drum set, a Golden Beat. I started to toy around with that.

As I joined Middle School I entered the School band with Mr. Reed. And actually started to become decent. It was around my second year in Middle school that I got my first name brand kit. A Seven piece Pearl that was used, and came with some shit cymbals. But they were good enough. As I started to jam out it wasn't long before I realized I wanted double bass. So I bought another used set. A five piece Tama, and more shit cymbals. (One of the cymbals actually was all bent all over by the time I was done with it.) So basically I had 2 drum sets that made one. That means of course that I had two 12' toms, two 14' toms and two 16' floor toms. So I had to tune the Tama set down real low to make up for it. It sounded bad, but at the time I thought it was cool. As middle school went on I did performances with the band and started to get the orchestral experience.

It was in Middle School that I also started private lessons with Russ at Notable Music. We later found out his mom sold Pretzels at the High School, but that is irrelevant.

Middle School ended and High School began. I was asked to join the High School band but I opted out. I was starting to become cool, and didn't want to be a "band fag" as they were called. So I took a music theory class which was really a study hall.

I also started meeting people to Jam with in a garage band situation. The first person I met was Rogash, in my Spanish class. He was a quiet guy, and I was the loud obnoxious guy. We sat at opposite ends of class and actually started talking because our girlfriends were friends. I then realized he played guitar, and we started jamming. He knew Bighead, who was a bassist, and we brought him into the mix. We had several band names, but none are relevant, and we had several short term members. We had two sisters, one sang one played guitar. The guitarist was cool, but the singer was a flake. (Gee what a shock). We jammed awhile and eventually kicked the singer out. Her sister had voted against her as well. But the next week it seemed their parents made the Guitarist quit because of what had happened. So then we got Paul. Paul was absolutely horrible on guitar. Bighead had met him while Paul was working on his house. Why did we jam with Paul if we knew he was a terrible guitarist you ask. Simple, we were all 15, and 16. Paul was older and had not only a licence, but a truck to carry gear if we got a show. But then Paul borrowed Bigheads Faster Pussycat CD and went off into the sunset. (We later crank called Bighead after Faster Pussycats second release, claiming to be Paul and asking to borrow the new CD.)

It was in this time period, that I bought my first new drum set. Which is actually still my Drum set. A Tama Grand Star Custom, Heather Metallic, seven piece, with the Tower of Power. While I say that it is still my drum set, it has grown throughout the years. And currently has double bass, two floor toms, five mounted toms, an octoban (that itself counts as eight more drums), and two high hats, one ride cymbal, three crashes, two china, some splashes, a weird V shaped cymbal, some chimes, some cowbells, and latin things, and a bigger rack system that I tend to use as an instrument as well. But anyway we aren't there yet, but it was big enough that once we started playing out, it was referred to as "The Nuclear Weapon."

One day my cousin Melissa told me that two guys she knew were looking for a drummer. Dean and Rich. Frustrated with the way we weren't getting very good with Bighead and Rogash, I thought about it. I was friends with Bighead, but he was a weak link. So I accepted the invitation to jam with them, but under the condition that Rogash jammed too. That way the only person who could been angry was the weak link anyway. So the four of us got together, and jammed out some cover tunes. Mostly Metallica, but don't tell Lars, my old Idol is Lawsuit happy. Anyway, it sounded decent, and we all got along, so me and Rogash decided to ditch Bighead and stay with these guys. We started doing all covers, in the speed metal genre and started writing some originals. We became The Gladiators Of Pain.

The Gladiators raged on for several years. The set went from all covers to all originals. At about the half way point Rich decided to leave the band, and do something a little more mellow. At that point Rich actually found his own replacement ,Stein, which eased the transition. We played several shows and made a four song demo. But after a few years Dean decided to move to be with family. The three remaining Gladiators wanted to go on, but never found a replacement.

I at this point was attending Jersey City State College for Media Arts. But the original reason I went to this school was the music program. Fellow Gladiator of Pain and close friend, Rogash was currently attending and spoke of a great music program. I enlisted, but only stayed in the music program for half a semester. At this point he realized that the type of job he would get from this program really didn't interest him, and he didn't need the training even if it did. He had a real good drum teacher Barry from outside of school, and that was all he needed. Though only in the music program for a half a year I played many concerts, along with Tom from the band Snag, Clarence, and some others. These performances included The Operetta Die Fleidermouse, and various concerts with The Symphony of Winds And Percussion, and The Percussion Ensemble. As a favor to the teacher of The Percussion Ensemble, myself and Tom(who was also leaving) decided to do one more semester of The Percussion Ensemble, because the teacher was stuck, and had always been cool to them. It was at this point That I recommended setting the drums on fire at the concerts while they were playing. Though Clarence and Tom were also into this idea, the teacher wasn't, so it didn't happen.

That brings to a close all the my formal training, other then lessons from Barry that lasted for several years. To backtrack, I started going to Barry, a few months before college. My current drum teacher had not wanted to help me get ready for the college tryout. I had then tried another who wanted me to start from scratch learning Drums his way, and then put off what I needed to learn for the tryout. Barry said he would get me ready for it, which he did.

So it was in Jersey City that I joined with two others to form my next band. Classmate, friend, and apartment-mate at the time The Whip, and new friend The Beholder. The band Vlad The Innhaler was totally original, with no boundaries. Had a heavy basis, but ventured into any genre you could imagine. Probably my favorite band, but nothing concrete was written except a handful of songs. Was more of a feel the music jam. We have about 20 or more tapes of good material that needed to be formatted. This band lasted several years off and on, but the flakiness of The Whip, always halted the band when things started to pick up. Book a gig, and he would go AWOL, things like That.

After the breakup of Vlad I joined another band of friends to do cover tunes in the hopes of making money. We went through several lineup changes, so although had a decent amount of songs to play out, never made headway because there was always someone learning. This new band became Vlads Mystical Minstrels, and I named the other two constants The Watcher and The Toker respectively.

Vlad then reformed one last time, and it was a merging. The original Vlad The Inhaler members with the two remaining members besides myself of Vlads Mystical Minstrels. But this incarnation was no different. An AWOL Whip discouraged my two members that had come from the Minstrels. The two lost interest after missing a show at the hands of the Whip. Then it was the original three members of Vlad The Inhaler again. I brought in another guy, Drew. Starting over again with Drew went well but in the end the band fell apart.

Currently I am not in a band. Would like to be, just hard to find something origional enough to get involved with.