alexvanhalendrums.com
Welcome to the Alex Van Halen Drum kits page. This site attempts to list the various drum kits and specs used by Alex Van Halen throughout his life and career, from his early childhood days of being born and raised in The Netherlands, to moving with his family at the age of nine to California, USA and finally building one of the biggest, most successful rock bands in the world along with younger brother and acclaimed guitarist, Edward Van Halen. This site is a work in progress as all the information gathered here is from various heavily researched sources including from archived interviews (by either Alex Van Halen himself or others that have worked or been associated with him), forums, books, drum magazine articles and from many existing photos that were carefully studied to determine what the details of each drum kit consisted of. The best effort was done with all the information available to try and be as accurate as possible with details such as drum kit brand, drum sizes, finish, hardware, heads, sticks, etc. Any additional photos, errors or factual input on Alex Van Halen's various set ups are welcomed by sending an email to here. Any photos used here are also not owned by this site and are strictly for drum spec purposes only. If there are any photos that should be credited to the owner or have copyright issues, please contact this site.
|
---|
|
"When I was a kid, I'd go out in the audience and just stare at the drummer. The first thing I did was let my hair grow, but suddenly I realized, 'Hey, this isn't right. There's got to be more to it' " - Alex Van Halen
Alexander Arthur Van Halen was born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on May 8, 1953. On February 22, 1962, the van Halen family left Holland, after receiving several letters from relatives describing the wonders of California. In their possession were a few suitcases, 75 guilders and a piano. The trip took nine days by boat to New York, followed by another four days by train to California. Sometime after their arrival in the United States, they changed their last name from van Halen, to Van Halen.
|
"The reason I started playing drums was when I heard the Dave Clarke Five and when I saw Ringo getting all the girls in the Beatles' movie. He wasn't exactly the handsomest looking guy, but I figured if drums could do that for him, I'd give it a shot. Also, we [his family] always did have a very musical thing happening. I started out on piano, and went through violin, clarinet, saxophone - you name it, I tried it." - Alex Van Halen
Alex’s father, Jan Van Halen, was a working musician. Alex developed an interest in music as a young boy and as a grade-schooler in Pasadena, CA, he began taking flamenco guitar lessons. At around the same time, his younger brother Edward had begun playing the drums. Edward had a paper run to pay for the 4-piece $125 Japanese-made St. George drum kit (believed to be in a blue pearl or ripple wrap) he bought but as fate would have it, Alex lost interest in the guitar and spent more time pounding on the drums, especially to the Surfaris' 'Wipe Out' whilst Edward was out delivering papers. They soon switched instruments permanently. Below is a photo of Edward Van Halen at age 11 (1966) behind the St. George drum kit he bought.
Alex graduated from Pasadena High School in 1971 and attended Pasadena City College for a brief period of time where some of his classes included music theory, scoring and arranging. Some of Al's early bands, all of which included his younger brother Edward, were The Broken Combs (who performed lunchtime concerts at Hamilton Elementary School and featured Alex on saxophone), The Trojan Rubber Company, Genesis, and The Space Brothers. Alex also at times filled-in on drums with his father's band. Among his early influences are Buddy Rich, Keith Moon, John Bonham and Ginger Baker.
|
"[On teaching himself drums] Just by listening and by working. When I finally started playing drums full time - which was about when I was 18 - we were playing all the clubs. To be able to work those clubs, you had to be able to play every song that existed, so aside from learning how to arrange songs anywhere from James Brown to Led Zeppelin to the Doobie Brothers, with only bass, drums, guitar and vocal, you really had to really manipulate things. That's partially how Van Halen got such a fat sound out of such a small group" - Alex Van Halen
In around 1972, the Van Halen brothers formed a trio called 'Genesis' with Mark Stone on bass. As the group gained popularity doing high school gigs, backyard parties, weddings, etc, they changed their name to Mammoth as there was already another band in England called Genesis (which included Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel). In the photo above, it appears that Alex was using a double bass Ludwig drum set in what looks like a Black Diamond Pearl wrap finish. More info is still being sourced regarding this kit so any details or corrections will be be updated as they come to light. One interesting consistency about Alex's kits, even back in the early 1970's, is the way he sets the height of his hi-hats - all the way up!
|
"Ed and I both played piano, but I gravitated to the drums. When my dad's band would practice at the house, I would jump on the drums. They felt very natural to me. If the drummer couldn't make it to my dad's gig, I would fill in." - Alex Van Halen
Alex, at some point in his mid to late teens, began his long association with Ludwig Drums. The first Ludwig kit he acquired seemed to be either the previously mentioned Black Diamond Pearl double bass kit he used in the Genesis trio, or as shown in the upper photos, a Ludwig Classic Silver Sparkle four-piece set consisting of possibly a 14"x24" bass drum, 8"x12" & 9"x13" toms, 16"x16" & 16"x18" floor toms and a either a Supersensitive or Supraphonic 5"x14" snare. He then expanded this kit into a seven-piece double bass drum set with additional toms and a 14"x26" bass drum which he used at first for the left foot side. Alex used Zildjian cymbals in the early days (before later on switching to Paiste). In the above photos, circa 1973/74, Alex removed the resonant heads from the bass drums and some of the toms (floor toms at first before eventually removing the bottoms from all the toms). Removing bottom heads from toms seemed to be common practice with a lot of rock drummers in the 1970's. The bass drums were muffled with horizontal felt strips. Heads were either coated Ludwig Weatherkings or Remos.
In 1974 Mammoth brought in David Lee Roth as their singer and soon afterwards, the band was renamed Van Halen. Mark Stone was also soon replaced by Michael Anthony. This line-up would become known as the classic Van Halen line-up and would later go on to enormous success. It seemed in around 1974/75, Alex changed to a deeper 6.5" Ludwig Supersensitive snare drum and also added a deep 14" Slingerland tom in the same silver sparkle finish as the Ludwigs although in the second upper photo, at a band rehearsal, Alex has a different tom set up without the deeper tom. The resonant or front heads were also put back on the bass drums with felt strips for muffling. Alex also started using CS Clear Black Dot heads as well as can be seen on the bass drums batter side in the bottom photo. The left foot bass drum is also noticably larger than the right. There is also a Ludwig L-Cymbal arm attached to the left bass drum tom mount bracket. |
"On "Van Halen I" [engineer] Don Landee asked me to take the front heads off the kick drums and I said "what's the matter with you, the drums are supposed to have two heads!" But he knew a lot more about recording than I did, so I accomodated him and his style of working at that point." - Alex Van Halen
In 1977 Van Halen signed to Warner Bros. and recorded their first album titled 'Van Halen', which was released in February, 1978. Van Halen then embarked on an extensive tour supporting the likes of Black Sabbath and Montrose among other large acts. Alex put together a new, customized Ludwig Silver Sparkle drum kit although it is unclear if pieces of his earlier silver sparkle kit were used or not. What made this kit unique at the time was the use of four bass drums and joining them together in pairs to create two extra deep bass drums. They were joined, sealed and bolted with black straps (along with chains, added for visuals) to the shells. The right foot bass drums are also larger in diameter than the left ones so it seems Alex acquired an additional 14"x26" and 14"x24" and joined them to the existing ones. It also seems he then decided to use the bigger ones for the right foot side. The tom sizes appear to be 8"x12", 9"x13" and a Slingerland 14"x12" (mounted on a snare stand). Floor toms are 16"x16" & 16"x18" and a 402 Supraphonic 6.5"x14" snare. All Paiste 2002 cymbals with 15" Sound Edge hi-hats and all clear CS Black Dot heads top and bottom. A cowbell is mounted at the front off the large tom via the tom bracket. Another common feature with Alex's drums in those early tours were one or more small fire extinguishers around the kit with one mounted on the left bass drum shell in this case. It is also believed that this drum kit was used for the recording of the first Van Halen album in late 1977, but before Alex did the joining of two extra bass drums as this was done in the short period after the album was recorded and when Van Halen were getting ready to go out on tour.
|
"I don't approach the drums as an instrument per se, more an attitude, viciously attacking something." - Alex Van Halen
|
In 1980, Van Halen released their third album, 'Woman And Children First' and embarked on the 'World Invasion' tour in support of it. Alex put together a new customized maple white finish Ludwig drum set for the tour. This time around, he went a step further when it came to the bass drums by not only once again, joining two pairs together, but using 'accordion' style large rubber type tubing to adjust the depth as well as angle of the resonant sides. The right foot bass drum is 26" in diameter and the left 24". Toms are 8"x12", 9"x13", 10"x14" with 16"x16" and 16"x18" floor toms. Snare is either a 6.5"x14" Supersensitive or Supraphonic. The insides of all the drum shells are black and Alex also added a large Paiste Symphonic 50" gong mounted on a black and white striped Paiste gong stand. All Paiste 2002 cymbals and a cowbell mounted off a stand next to the hi-hat. Clear Ludwig CS White Dot batter heads on the toms with all the bottom/resonant heads and rims removed. Front bass drums heads were cut out (partially to still display the Ludwig logo). The bottom three photos show this kit on display at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Museum in Cleveland, USA. Another interesting feature with this kit are the two Pearl Vari-Pitch roto toms mounted over tom shells (just above the floor toms).
|
"Well, in the past I had the Vista-Lite set by Ludwig. It had the black and white stripes and it was put together by gluing the different strips together. One of the first things we do before anything—because Dave tends to jump on the drums, stand on them and humiliate them—is to test them for strength. I stood on the drum and it promptly snapped in half, so we took it to a place where they coated the inside with a quarter inch of fiberglass and the sound on it was unreal. That is what I used in '81." - Alex Van Halen
In 1981, Van Halen released their fourth album, 'Fair Warning' and embarked on another tour. Alex conceived a new concept for a drum kit and had it put together for the tour. The most obvious feature with this kit is the use of six bass drums. Alex, once again had two pairs of bass drums joined together but this time took it another step further and added two additional single bass drums with each 'connected' to the left and right main ones (via holes cut out of the shell) with 'accordion' style black tubes. This kit's shells were contructed by gluing Vistalite black and white strips together and then coating the insides with a quarter inch of fiberglass for strength. All clear CS Black Dot batter heads with the bottom heads and rims removed. All Paiste 2002 cymbals, Paiste 50" gong and a cowbell next to the hi-hat. Octobans are also included once again with two clear acrylic ones at the front. Alex had also started sometimes using a Tama rosewood 6.5"x14" snare and this was also used on some of the 'Fair Warning' album.
|
---|
© This site designed by LAC Productions 2020 |