For any drummers interested in gear, I thought I'd share my preferences.
For Jazz and other small bands.
This is a tiny customised (by me!) Sonor Phonic kit. The sizes are:
Bass drum 16 x 14, toms 10 x 6 and 12 x 7, snare 13 x 5. The bass drum was originally a 16 x 16 floor tom. The two toms were 10 x 10 and 12 x 12 respectively.
Cymbals 18" and 19" Istanbul Mel Lewis crash/rides, 13" Mel Lewis Hi-hats, 14" Istanbul china. Stands are DW Flushush base stands.
The kit is amazing and has been recorded on a few CDs. On the jukebox page, the Martin Pickett Group playing Come Now Monarch and Doug Hodge's Wish I'd Found You First were recorded on these drums but with different cymbals.
Big band and Pop stuff.
Sonor S Class Pro
Bass drum 18 x 16, toms 10 x 10, 12 x 12 and 14 x 14. Snare Sonor 14 x 6 1/2 COB.
Toms fitted with wooden hoops made by Jody at www.stellardrum.com
Cymbals - usually 20" Zildjian A Custom ride, 15" and 14" A Custom Fast Crashes, 6" and *3 A Custom splashes, 14" China and 14" Paiste Alpha hi hats. All stands Sonor 400 series.
Although still a small kit, it is pretty powerful and is so easy to tune.
Seem to now use all the time!
Yamaha 9000 Pro Recording
I got this kit a short while ago and it's taken over as the main kit for almost every type of gig or recording. I think it's 1982 and has been about a bit so has a few marks on it. But the sound is amazing and tuning between jazz and pop gigs takes seconds.
Bass Drum 20 x 17, Toms 10 x 9, 12 x 9 and 14 x 12. It came with Evans heads and they sound great.
I recently was lucky enough to go to the Istanbul cymbal factory (amazing experience). The guys were very friendly and helpful and let me try out loads of stuff....so I bought a set of Istanbul Turks (in the above picture) and some Istanbul Sultans. I now never think of taking anything out other than the Istanbuls (Turks for jazz, Sultans for pop).
Taking over from the little Sonor
Yamaha Hipgig Rick Marotta
I've been looking for one of these for a while and one came up for sale complete with the throne. It's a great sound, especially for jazz gigs and of course very compact as the snare and toms store inside the bass drum and the stands inside the throne.
Bass drum 16 x 20, toms 12 x 6 and 13 x 7. Snare 12 x 5.