I currently play a Sonor Designer Series 6pc drumset in a custom 'Black Bubinga Burst'. There are a few unorthodox elements about the way its set up. I shall explain the reasons behind some of these ideas.

REVERSED FLOOR TOMS - I place the most important drums in the most obvious positions first. When I move around to hit a floor tom, the one situated directly under the ride is usually the first one I go to. When I hit this floor tom, I want the biggest, baddest sound possible - and thats the 16". The 14" floor tom I still use of course, but mostly when its double floor tom patterns (which isnt nearly as often) hence why I place it 'out of the way' by having it as my last tom.

THREE PAIRS OF HIHATS - For the longest time I had an issue where I couldn't get a half-open sound out of my hats when I switched over to double kick. The hats would be open wide the moment my foot came off the hihat pedal and such a sound didnt work in the music that I was playing. I've never been a fan of hihat clutches, nor have I enjoyed having a hundred different pedals under my feet, so those two solutions were ruled out as feasible options for me. Eventually I got round the problem by having a second set of hats (pictured as 'H') which Ill move to if/when double bass kicks in. Sometimes in louder pieces of music Ill use them even with single kick patterns, and have the left foot playing quarter-note or eighth-note pulses over it. The third set of hats (a set of 10" Prototypes) are extremely thick. I sometimes use a little auxilliary snare, which is great for hip-hop, drumnbass and funk - and I felt that the best way to compliment a sharper snare sound was to add some really bright fast tight hats. The Battle Hats were created for that purpose. They actually weight MORE than the 14" hats - they are extremely heavy, extremely loud and ridiculously bright. They almost have an electronic sound. The inspiration for this came from watching what Jojo Mayer was doing with his custom cymbals when I saw him play in 2006.

THREE CRASHES - This is not uncommon within itself, but I make a point to place the cymbals so that when I move around my kit I will always have access to a crash for my left and also for my right hand.

THREE LEFT-FOOT PEDALS - The innermost pedal is the slave pedal for my double kick, the middle pedal is the hihat foot pedal and the outermost pedal is a standard pedal with a jam block or cowbell mounted onto it. I do not use this all the time but in the right scenario it can be a great way to add another layer of rhythm to my playing.

OFFSET RACK TOMS - Both the 10x8 and the 12x9 toms are setup to the left of the kick drum. Many more players are starting to do this but the most common way is still to have the first two toms directly over the bass drum. Having the toms offset puts me in a more comfortable playing position. If I had two kick drums, the offset setup is where my toms would be - directly between my right and left feet. Even though I play a single-bass drum setup, the same philosophy still applies - Place the toms between your two feet. When your toms are placed over the bass drum, you can see that the upper body clearly twists out of alignment with the feet, to acces the position of the toms. having the toms offset from the kick drum re-aligns your body. With some adjustment and practise, this setup has become very comfortable for me to play.