G E A R ( F A B ? )
My drum kit is almost all Premier, manufactured in the 70’s and imported from England (as they weren’t available here in the States). They feature die-cast hoops, stay in tune incredibly well and I found them more resonant than the other kits I tried before I bought them.
Natural blond wood finish they are, all except for that one Pumpkin Pie colored one made by Tama. I used to have a matching Premier tom there but it was a metric size (yes, I suffered from premature metriculation in the 80’s), and one day without warning, Premier announced that they were no longer going to manufacture drumheads in metric sizes. I tried to order a replacement tom in the same finish in a standard size, but they didn’t make one. Neither did all but two of the world’s drum manufacturers, but both of those were a special order finish I’d have to wait forever for. SO, in my disgust, I bought an oddball pumpkin pie finish Tama, and promised to tell everyone how Premier screwed me (and everyone else on earth with metric drums).
My sizes are a 14" Premier Chrome snare drum, 8”, 10”, 12” (the rack toms), a 14” floor tom on my right and a 16” one on my left (NOTE to RUSH fans : I’ve been playing this setup with a floor tom on the left since the early 70’s, two decades before Neal Peart adopted a floor tom on his left – I love Neal’s playing, I just want you to know I didn’t copy his setup).
I also have a 22” bass drum, a 22” Paiste ride cymbal, Paiste hi hats, and crash cymbals by Paiste, Zildjian and Sabian (the Eliza Dushku, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jessica Alba of cymbal makers respectively), two UFIP ice bells, a 22” China cymbal that got a crack and I cut it out to try to get 6 more months out of it. That was 10 years ago and it still sounds like Marlon Brando farting on a million pie tins (massive and thunderously clanging ) Nick D’Virgilio absolutely loved that cymbal when I backed him up and he told me never to give it up.
If it looks like I have two hi-hats, well, not exactly. On my right side, I have what I call my “Goodbye-Hat” – that’s where I stack cracked cymbals on a busted old hi hat stand to try to get some more use out of them since I can’t afford a remote hi hat. I also have a Remo Spoxe mounted on top of it that I use in one song.
My double pedal is made by Yamaha.
I also use Vater FUSION sticks, wooden tips, and the Aquarian heads Nick D’Virgilio sent me.

Other critical pieces of equipment I use are:
Bunn airpot brewer (soon to be upgraded to a FETCO Extractor, the greatest brewer ever made)
SCAA TDS tester and Golden Cup testing kit (for checking mineral content in water in parts per million for acceptable brewing standards as well as evaluating proper extraction of coffee solids)
Rancilio Sylvia espresso machine
Rancilio MD-50 espresso grinder
Bunn G1 coffee grinder
Newco commercial airpots
Bodhum French Press Pots
Various Corroded Spatulas to bite down on while watching Eliza Dushku movies.