Long, long ago before MUSIC U.K. appeared on the scene, your faithful scribe actually used to take drum lessons down in deepest Streatham. Whether or not the lessons had any effect has been a matter for much debate around a few bars since then, but one thing that was made very clear to me by my long-suffering teacher — Slingerland were his favourite make of drums, and he's been through the lot. It was thus with much eagerness that I awaited delivery of the review sample of Slingerland's XM5 Kit, also with the knowledge that Carmin'e Appice had switched allegiance to Slingerland after many years with Ludwig (see last month's issue).

The XM range is really the top of the shop for Slingerland and the drums come in either 'standard', concert-tom or 'mega tom' format. If concert toms are specified, then the rack mounted drums come as concert toms with the floor tom remaining as for the standard layout. The mega tom sizes offer the now familiar feature of extra depth for a given diameter, but Slingerland have really gone a bit further than most of the other manufacturers, as their version of power toms can add anything up to 4" to the depth of a standard shell (eg 12x8 standard would be replaced by 12x12 in the mega range).

The kit which I had for review (alas only for a weekend) comprised 13x9 and 14x10 mounted toms, a 16x16 floor tom, 22x14 bass drum and the new 14x8 maple snare, with a set of Magnum series hardware to go with it. The kit looked absolutely superb when set up and I was raring to go!

TOM-TOMS

The double headed toms which came with the kit were fitted with pinstripe heads, which is standard for the magnum range but no dampers (or tone controls as the Americans call them) were fitted. The construction of these drums is based on Slingerland's 5 ply shell which although quite thick leads to a drum that is of medium weight. Slingerland claim that their manufacturing process needs less glue and therefore allows the wood to give its full resonance to the sound. I think it best that your own ears be the judge of that claim, but there is no doubt that these shells are extremely well made and finished (the review kit being finished in red gloss), and there is no way that the sound can be described as lightweight! The hoops are also worthy of note as they are not shaped the same as most others. Instead of the upper flange being turned outwards, it is rolled inwards, thus giving a much smoother profile and hopefully cutting down on the amount of 'stick chewing' that the rim causes.

The remaining hardware attached to the toms was also of an excellent standard, with the nut boxes beautifully chromed and, naturally, having sprung nuts throughout — eunuchs beware! (Sorry, Ed — hard day at the office!)

The tom-tom mounting arrangement is definitely worth a mention as at first sight it could almost be a model of one of the Star Wars fighters! A very substantial casting contains the mountings for the tube which slots into the bass drum and also the two swivels which hold the tom-tom mounts themselves. The tom-tom mounts are made from hexagonal section bars, and overall the arrangement gives a mounting that is very secure and pretty straightforward to set up. Thoughtful use of plastic has reduced the possibility of squeaks or rattles developing, but at the same time it has not been used in areas where wear would be a problem. The final point to note here, and in fact this applies to the whole Magnum hardware range, is the use of a special quick-lock type arrangement for areas that traditionally use butterfly nuts. This allows positive fastening of the tom-toms onto their mounts (and in fact the floor tom legs) with only a 90° turn of the quick lock lever.

SNARE DRUM

The snare drum supplied with the kit was not the standard model, but instead was from the new deep shell maple range. As stated earlier, it was a 14x8 so I was really expecting a solid sound (a 14x9 is also available). As with the tom-toms, the construction of the drum was excellent throughout, and a damper was fitted, as would be expected for the snare. The snare tensioning mechanism on this drum is the Slingerland 'slap shot' parallel action arrangement, and excellent it was too. It provides very straightforward adjustment of snare tension and snare engagement both horizontally and vertically and also has a pleasant throw off action. I must say that I found the action a little stiff, but this would have soon eased off with a little use.

BASS DRUM

After having put the tom-toms under the microscope, the bass drum held no surprises in the construction department, and was certainly up to the same high standard as the rest of the kit. Ten tensioning lugs are provided for each head with the usual tee handles being nicely sized and, again, very well chromed. The mounting point for the tom-tom holder was firmly attached, and in keeping with the very solid construction of the rest of the mounting.

Two spurs are provided on each side of the drum, raked forward to provide positive non-slip working.

"THE XM RANGE IS REALLY THE TOP OF THE SHOP FOR SLINGERLAND..."

HARDWARE

If I began this section by saying that the Magnum range of hardware was very solid and well made I think that would be something of an understatement. About the only negative thing to say about it is that if you buy some, just make sure you can get someone to carry it around for you, unless you're on a body-building course!

The hardware sent with the kit amounted to a boom cymbal stand, straight cymbal stand and hi-hat stand. A bass drum pedal was unfortunately not available at the time of review, so for this area I can only suggest that you try to get a look at one if possible. The cymbal stands offered wide, heavy bases with large non-slip rubber feet and very positive adjustment at the cymbal tilt mechanism thanks to a deeply cut ratchet arrangement. The chroming was again just about flawless and very fancy memory locking collars were provided throughout which not only set height but also rotation of the various sections. The actual cymbal mounting point is covered with a sottish but tough rubberised material, rather better than the normal plastic covering, but for some reason only one cymbal felt is supplied on each stand.

The most unusual feature of these stands, however, is the locking arrangement between sections. This is achieved without any metal-to-metal contact and also with a quick lock arrangement that requires only 90° rotation of the fastening handle.

The arrangement works by allowing the tubular elements to pass through a rubberised section which provides the basic location of the tube. A quarter turn of the fastening handle then distorts the rubber holder enough for the tubular member to be held in an absolutely vice-like grip but without any metal-to-metal contact within the stand itself.

The hi-hat stand featured the same type of quick lock fastening as the cymbal stands, and the memory locking collars too. It had a very solid foot-plate and, naturally, adjustable spring tension. The clutch assembly was well-made and provided for accurate adjustment of cymbal felt pressure. The action was certainly very smooth, but Slingerland have recently released a revised cymbal stand with chain drive which should make it even smoother.

The Magnum hardware range is unquestionably a very fine one, and I have yet to see better engineering in a set of hardware. It is consequently very heavy, and in fact can be ordered with even heavier weight stands if desired.

"...I FELT THAT WITH THE STANDARD DOUBLE HEADED DRUMS OFFERED SLINGERLAND HAVE MANAGED TO A VOID PLEASING JUST ONE MARKET WHILST ALIENATING ANOTHER"

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

Having stated earlier that the shells came out as medium weight it would not be at all fair to say that they had a sound to match. I found that it took a little time to get the kit set up properly, but having achieved this I found that the power could be matched to almost any make of standard sized drum. For some reason I was particularly happy with the sound of the floor tom which was really giving a great "jungle" feel.

In order to assess the quality of sound provided by such a kit, you're invariably going to have to listen to it for yourself, or have the kit played to you, but as a general guide it would be fair to say that overall this kit did not appear to have any obvious vices. The sound would certainly keep most drummers happy as I felt that with the standard double headed drums offered Slingerland have managed to avoid pleasing just one market whilst alienating another. My only area of slight concern was in the snare drum department, where, despite quite a bit of fiddling around, I could not really get a sound that I felt quite lived up to the promise of the drum. I would hasten to add that I was not able to take as much time as I'd have liked to set the drum up and this could well explain the fact that I considered the drum to be a bit on the resonant side. There is no doubt that the snare mechanism gave excellent control to the snare sound and provided first class control of the snare engagement. With plenty of time to set the drum up properly and perhaps the addition of a Deadringer or similar type of extra damping to really deaden it. I imagine that the Magnum maple shell snare would undoubtedly live up to the high quality of the rest of the kit.

The kits are distributed by American Percussion who keep a stock of kits and hardware for immediate delivery around the country. If a kit is in their UK stock, it should be available within a few days. If the item has to come from Slingerland in America then a wait of about 7 to 8 weeks will be necessary.

SLINGERLAND XM5 5 Drum Kit (RRP £1560 inc.VAT)

Further details from American Percussion at (Contact Details).