Want Taylor's big, open sound? Here's how courtesy of the Foos drum tech Yeti Ward.
There is no better person to explain just how a
drummer gets their original sound than their
drum tech. Even more than artists themselves,
techs know the ins and outs of kits, the set-up
quirks and the best way to tune them, simply because
it's what they do all day, every day.
Currently looking after Taylor Hawkins' requirements,
Yeti is something of a tech legend among hard rockin' US
drummers. He's worked for everyone from 311's Chad
Sexton to Korn's David Silveria and, perhaps most
famously, Limp Bizkit's John Otto. Yeti joined the Foo
Fighters camp toward the tail end of the recording of the
band's new acoustic output, but he has known Taylor
for almost a decade...
  "It's been a longtime," he recalls, "since Taylor was
doing Sass Jordan in fact. He really wanted a tech that he
could hang with as well as someone who could look after
his gear. And I'm really happy to be here - I just did a long
stint on the American Idol Tour (not unlike our own Pop
Idol) and through that whole time I guess that about 50
percent of my iPod time was taken up with the Foo
Fighters. I love the band and Taylor's great to work with."
  So what exactly does Mr Hawkins look for from his
set-up - a rig that is, you'll notice, characterised by its
enormous dimensions...
  "Taylor plays real big drums and cymbals for sure. And
since I've come in, his floor tom is tuned a little deeper
than it was before - the 18" is really low and boomy -
although I actually take the 13" rack tom a little higher. Big
drums can get a little flappy and hard to play, particularly
with a big 24" kick, so you have to balance the low tuning
with getting the head so there's still some response there.
  "Taylor loves '70s rock. His influences are all about
Queen and The Police and Bonham and so I try and get
the drums as big and open-sounding as possible. He uses
clear Emperor batters with an Emperor X for the snare and
a Powerstroke 3 kick drum batter and those heads let me
tune exactly how I need to get that big tone with projection.
  "As far as Taylor's cymbals go, it's a pretty unusual set-up.
He uses three Zildjian rides.. but he has two of them
as crashes. The 20" Vintage ride and 20" K Custom Dark
ride are both crashes, and he actually rides on the 21"
Sweet ride. The Vintage and Dark rides sound amazing'
as crashes - the Vintage in particular, which is his main.
one, has a huge sound with lots of upper mid-range that
really works well for Taylor."
Publication;
Rhythm
Date;
July 2005