The term acoustic drums.

[Centeau-DePina]

Someone mentioned to me that the term acoustic guitar was never used until the invention of the electric guitar. Couldn't the same be said for acoustic drums?

I never gave it much thought until a buddy asked if I was going to use my acoustic drums at the show tonight.

Just a thought rattling around in my sleep deprived brain.

[stickinthemud]

Until the invention of electronic drums, there were only various types of drums. The differentiating term "acoustic" was unnecessary, just as with guitars.

I was born in 1957, and never heard the term "acoustic drums" until I joined this forum.

[Centeau-DePina]

Yeah exactly! I was born in 1972 and now that I think about I never heard the term until I started browsing this forum and I have used electric drums since 2000.

[M_C_M]

Interesting point there, just another way that electronic drums are making an impact...

[Big Bopper]

Necessity is a mother, or something like that.

Once upon a time, when I got my TD7 around 1997, and without exposure to others who were also using E drums, I was thinking about the difference between the (new to me) E's and the 'others.' 'The others' though didn't make a good descriptor. Nobody knew what I was talking about unless they were in the room with my E's.

So the next thought was that the others must be acoustic like a non-electric guitar could be acoustic. This was a better descriptor, even though people didn't always realize what I was talking about at the time (non-musicians or non-musicians who hadn't given it much thought. Or who didn't give a flying fig ). Obviously I didn't invent the term, it invented itself. One of those "what else would you call it" type of inventions.

'Non-electric' would've made sense, but it was more syllables and just didn't have the poetic flair that was in a word like 'acoustic.' Although 'acoustic' doesn't make a lot of sense either, because both types produce sound; except maybe for the fact that acoustics rely more on moving air to produce it.

I called my acoustic set various names, especially when I couldn't get the sound I wanted from them. Or when I banged my knuckles hauling them around or after I smacked a rim while playing. Though the names were fairly common, they didn't make a great deal of marketing sense and the manufacturers just never picked up on them. Don't know why; some of them were very descriptive. Even poetic.

Shalom
Bruce

[BarT]

I think the trouble is that most people except us still refer to acoustic drums as "real drums".


Bruce

[jjdrumz]

I just got the "real drum" comment yesterday. I was setting up a small V-drum set up at my office and one of my coworkers said, "Oh I thought you were bringing real drums up here, you know ones that I could hear." I didn't fly off the handle on him but I said "When I crank the amp up you will not only hear them you will feel them too."

[Michael Render]

Yeah, what BarT said. I make a conscious effort to say "acoustic" vs. "electric" so as not to say "real" vs. "electric".

[Big Bopper]

When I was in foster homes growing up, I'd get a lot of the "real parents" comments. What, were the foster parents 'fake?' I was adopted at 14 (asked my 'real' parents to give up their rights) and still people ask me about my 'real' parents. Part of this is fueled even by foster kids and adoptees. It won't go away anytime soon, because many people are just too dippy for words. I think the '60's were more traumatic for some people's brain cells than they realize.

There is a big difference between a parent and a sperm-donor (or an egg donor). But still the ideas persist, even in the minds of people who have experienced the difference. When people ask about my 'real' parents I ask them if they are talking about the sperm/egg donors. Not sure how this would apply to A's and E's, except maybe the A's are the parents of E's in a distant sort of 'sperm and egg' way.

Like the term 'love,' 'real' gets used a lot when people don't really know what they are talking about. Then there are the people who want to talk about 'really real' who've probably taken one too many acid trips.

How can you explain 'real' to a person that has no concept of reality? Or E drums to a person who has no concept of what a 'real' drum is? Ahh, grasshopper, if you know the answer to that then you can snatch the pebble from my hand. Or something like that.

Shalom
Bruce

[daveybabes]

Ok yes! erm no! erm yes - maybe? what was the question again?

Well thats interesting soooo

Would my home made V snare that looks like an acoustic snare but with fiddly wire bits inside now be known as an Electro Acoustic drum? just as guits are and as i've cut it in half would it be an Electro Acoustic cutaway drum?

The goal posts are always moving ....

You heard the name "Electro Acoustic Drum" here first - hee haa!

[tablatom]

Since i have had a td-20 upgrade from a td-6/v the lead singer of a band i play in introduces me as playing "DRUM KIT" and not "ELECTRIC KIT".

personally i prefer that, maybe its because i know the band except the kit now and enjoy it, where as they never really did with the 6/v

[Centeau-DePina]

I have 3 kits. 2 "Acoustic" and 1 "Electric" I don't differentiate the difference between regular or decaf.

Usually it's I'm using the Rolands tonight or I'm bringing the Ludwig's.