The Studio Drums of Lars Ulrich (Part 1) with Chris Russio - EP 243
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- Опубліковано 8 лип 2024
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Chris Russio joins me back on the podcast to do a super deep dive into all of the studio drum sets, cymbals, heads, sticks, accessories, percussion and everything else used by Lars Ulrich from 1982 to 2001! We talk about all of the earliest known recordings of Metallica on his Camco drum set, through all the Tamas, the famous Sabian HiHats, and the iconic Black Album Gretsch drums, up to Load/Reload/Garage Inc. Part 2 will cover St. Anger through to today!
Check out the other Lars episodes I have done with Chris here: • Lars Ulrich Gear Episodes
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I saw, I clicked and watched the whole thing. I do have two Granstars and a bell brass to replicate the black album studio kit for fun.
Petition for Lars to talk to these two . Someone who knows him has to watch this!
I’m not sure how much he’d know or remember to be honest, I think the person to talk to would’ve been his former tech Fleming Larsen but he died a few years ago
@@therandomrollercoasterride8751lars def ain't the guy to ask. there's a tama video, where's he's at guitar center in front of his kit, and he's kinda clueless about gear.hed rather sit there with the toothpicks,arms crossed, pretending to be in deep thought kind of fumbling his words like he's speaking poetry
@@NintenDub yeah exactly, well he’s always been open about not really caring about drums and just interested in the overall song, and I’m pretty sure his drum tech did everything for him when it came to his kits
I believe rhw picture during Load era is him as a kid!!!!!!!!!!!!
🤘🤘🤘
And Justice drumming is incredible. I've always loved this album and that bass drum sound blows my mind. Lars is an incredible drummer! Keep Rockin'!
Fantastic episode! Thanks for the shout out Bro!!!!
I LOVE these drum nerd festivals covering the gear of different drummers!!!! Thank you!! 🤟
I love his early 80's playing. Listened to some old garage demos and man, he was spot on. And honestly when I first started playing drums it was all Metallica. Solid riffs, fairly easy and fun drum parts.
That black kit with the white hoops were probably used for Low Man’s Lyric on ReLoad..loving these vids btw 🤘
Love this guy! Been wanting to know all this since childhood
Load and Reload are actually good albums. They’re more coherent and focused than anything Metallica has recorded since.
The older I get the more I understand and love those albums. The creativity and musicianship is criminally underrated.
More focused than MOP? The Load's had Ronnie and Mama Said. More diverse, not more focused.
I can't argue with that statement. I was done after Justice but I can't deny they haven't released anything I liked after Load and Reload which each have a few tunes I enjoy.
Awesome episode again guys!
Love this kind of content.
The gear of Lars Ulrich pt 1 + 2 were also superfun to watch.
I really appreciate the time and effort you both put in these videos.
Can't wait for part 2 :-D
Great video! RE Snare on Justice, it was a Ludwig Black Beauty - not Rick Allen's though. After recording Puppets, Lars went on to buy his own, and used it for the Justice recordings.
Just stumbled across this video and it was definitely cool seeing the progression of his gear over the years, great job and keep it up
Finally got around to watching this! Me as a drummer, I never cared too much about gear videos, but these Lars videos are awesome! Thank you both for all the effort in making this one yet another great video! And Chris, I love the cover on your Insta!
Thats a 6553 Tama external muffler on the snare! 1:12:01
Also mention that at least the large floor tom ( 18) looks like a Gretsch only cause it appears to have a grey/ silver interior or the Gretsch " silver sealer" as they call it.
The wood hoop kit is an Ayotte.
If I’m not mistaken , “ Garage Days “ is all covers , they didn’t write any of those songs.
Correct, it’s all covers
Thank you, I cringed every time he said they "wrote" Garage Days.
@@TheZappawizardside note, I always found it funny that most of Anthrax’s biggest songs were covers
Those percussion bits that you see them using such as the cowbell and tambourine for the Black Album did make it onto the album. In My Friend of Misery, a cowbell can be heard in the chorus. In the song The God That Failed, at the beginning of the song where the guitar comes in, you can hear the lever action rifle being stroked/chambered.
I'd have to say that Lars' tom sizes for his Load sessions, we're more like - 10x8/12x9/16x14/18x16/24x16/24x16. Also the photo on his kit on the Load sessions may well have been his Mum, who sadly passed around that period, although I think she didn't pass until 1998. The odd looking kit with the wood hoops etc could well have been an Ayotte kit. I believe it was the Sausalito SF 'Plant' studios for Load etc.. not the LA Plant studio. Lars even had the studio extend the ceilings to 30 feet, to allow for a bigger live tracking room 😍😎 it's the same studio that Fleetwood Mac used to track mostly for 'Rumours'.
Nice! Great info, good work guys!
Thank you so much for doing stuff like this, I love Lars and his kits and videos like these are great🤘
And yes Chris put videos on UA-cam please
I came up with "Live, Laugh, Lars"
I just like yelling, “dammit Lars!” for no reason at all😂
@@mztweety1374 there IS a reason
1:15:01 is an Ayotte
1:15:23 there is hand percussion in the background of Bleeding Me and other extended jams on that album
1:15:45 is a Zildjian Earth Plate Low
Backstage kits too? Granstar, Artstar, Rockstar and Later his former Starclassic kits became backstage kits
Yes for UA-cam Chris is the only one out here doing anything like this
I literally was just now trying to look up the the other Lars episodes to listen and this pops up says uploaded 10 mins ago. Pretty cool. Love this podcast.
Thanks for this. From time to time I get on this Metallica kick and learn new things every time I go diving into the history or re-watch a documentary on them. Great stuff!
Great episode
So So Awesome Episode’s 🔥🔥
That "Ride The Lightning" mystery. At least two people know the answer .Lars Ulrich and Flemming Rasmussen. I think it's worth tryin to reach out to Flemming.
I believe that strange kit was used for Low Man's Lyric.
That drum room for And Justice is HUGE! Especially considering how tight the drum sound is on that album.
This is amazing, As a musician, and mixer this stuff is priceless. Please keep this up!! The information amazinG. My one thing is on year in a life and one other bootleg in the studio i distinctly saw tama artwood snare 8.5 x 14 but who knows so sick
I talked to the Gretsch rep in New York quite often back in around 2001 and being a huge Grestch die hard he said that Lars uses Gretsch shells and puts all the Tama hardware on them or has it done but the point is supposed Gretsch shells all the time.
Wow, in the photo of Lars and Rick Allen together, Lars Damaged Justice kit has the rack toms without the interior of the shells painted! Very interesting 🤔
Chris rockin the bucee’s hat!
Hell yeah!! Chris is the best
That kit with the wooden tom hoops is an Ayotte. Another great episode guys!
concerning Tama drums :Crestar was introduced in the mid 80's when Tama did a wholesale revamp of their drum line. They discontinued Superstar, Imperialstar and Artstar and introduced Crestar, Granstar and Artstar II.
The Crestars were a lacquer finished version of the wrapped Granstar. For some reason Tama changed the name to Granstar Custom at the 11th hour. I've heard from various sources that the Crestar name was used for a while in other non-US markets but I've never been able to verify that information.
When Tama made new literature available to the dealers, we received small fliers on each of the lines. The Crestar pictured a lavender kit on the cover (all too "Miami Vice" for my tastes) but by the time they started to ship drums the badges read Granstar Custom.
We should get a video of Chris Russio playing that replica kit of his
AJFA kick was always my favorite from day 1, perfect mix of attack and low frequency. I chase that sound in every band i've ever been in. Was also really curious about the Chinas he used on that album too. Every setup diagram or post i've ever read has varying models listed, i've played them all in person and nothing ever sounded quite like the recording. One china is used sparingly and i has a really unique sound, and the other has a more traditional sound.
Another great episode like always. It would be cool to see episodes on nicko mcbrain or vinnie paul please
Fun fact! Bernard Purdie played drums on all the metallica tracks.
Lol good1!!
Yes lets start that conspiracy theory!
@@DrumHistoryPodcast I zoomed into the picture that was on his hi hat stand, and searched on google for it, it turned out to be a picture of Bernard Purdie.
I heard from a roadie that worked for Jethro Tull that it was actually Buddy Rich…
The pictures from Paris look like a premier kit.
I'm pretty sure the weird studio kit is a Ayotte kit, it also appears in St Anger photos too. He used the kick ar the Bridge School Benefit gig too
Not complaining, just a correction. the HP45 Probeat had one more footboard variation, the same footboard the first generation iron cobras used. The one with the giant TAMA logo going down the footboard.
Regarding the Black Album kit around the 42:00 mark. Chris first say's the 24s were Black Nitron, and the 22s were Antique Maple, then immediately says they settled on the 24s, which were the Antique Maple. Its an easy blunder to make in the moment, I'm just wondering if that was ever clarified (im still in the middle of the episode so I'm jumping the gun) what the kicks actually were size wise that they settled on. From the pics it looks like the Antique Maples kicks were the 24s.
Correction at 1:16:15. The Plant was not in L.A. it was in Sausalito in the Bay Area , 15 minutes from Lars’s house in Tiburon.
did you ever notice on the Black album recording kit that there is what appears to be a second hit hat clutch on the rod above the hihat Sabian rock hats. It is just there not holding any cymbals just chilling above the hi hat clutch being used...I wonder what that is all about...my guesss is it is used as a make shift memory lock. To double up on making sure the hi hat cymbals wont open to high incase the main clutch comes loose while playing.
The drum kit with the wood hoops on toms are Ayotte drums
The "Artstars" referred to all the way through this video are actually Artstar 2"s.
I've also never seen Charlie Benante play an "Aspin white imperialstar" in '84. He played a black Gretch kit from '83 to '86, then a black Tama Granstar. Would love to see any pics or more evidence to support this.
As far as recording before Bob Rock, Lars and James would play Together and they would record the song pieces at a time. Kind of like play until there's a mistake. Okay, Stop, then take it from there. Continue until there's another blurb then stop, and continue etc. Bob made them play the songs all the way through. Then Bob would go back through the takes with Lars and find the good ones and piece it together. I remember even the late great Vinnie Paul commenting that Bob made them a better/tighter band by making them play all the way through. Hope that helps.
Excellent video, and I don’t want “be this guy” but i’m 100% Lars use the 14 Dyno Beat to record The Load to Garage Days.
I still believe that the Black Album Gretsch has 12x8" (not 12x9") first tom, 13x11", 14x12" and it's clear from the pictures, that the 16" is 16x14" RIMS mounted rack tom, not 16x16" floor tom mounted bottom up to the one of the brackets as it was done in the Gunnar video. The 12, 13, and 14 in the video are Solid Black Nitron (wrap) or Piano Black Gloss (lacquer), but the 16" is Dark Ebony Gloss - transperent gloss nitrocellulose lacquer with black stained base, which means that it's not part of the set Ross mentioned in the video. He knows best, but that's what I see. The White Artstar from Lars's Dungeon has 10x9'' and standard sized 12x10" (not 12x11) rack toms I think. Same thing while recording Load/Reload - 10x9'', 12x10". The floor toms you are not sure about look like 16" Tama Starclassic (you can see the inside - yellowish collor of the sealed maple and black fixing screws which are specific to Tama and Pearl lugs) but the 18" is the Gretsch USA because of the silver sealer from inside, longer distance between the silverish collored fixing screws - the distance should be identical to the 16" if it was Tama. The splash over the 12" tom looks more like 10" natural finish, probaly pre A series like the crashes (except they're brilliant finish). He used 12" Z Custom on the silver sparkle live set. The hi hat is the 14" Z Custom Dyno Beat. But in the picture from '98 (Garage inc.) I noticed the brilliant Sabian hi hat Chris mentioned. Interesting fact to mention is that sound engineer rule to not change anything in the studio once you got the drums placed in the room, mic placement and sounds required. From the placement of the mics looks like those drums and mics are not moved from 95 'till 98.
24:47 - Looks to me like there's another kit set up behind Lars', also because of that empty cymbal stand and the angle from which that photo was taken.
Probably just a kit belonging to that studio which happened to _also_ be red
🙂
30:35 - Could it not also be possible that this is the _actual_ red Superstar kit and the chrome wrap was added to it?! Which also would explain the red hoops on the bass drums! 😉
Yes, I think a studio kit, looks like old pearl lugs.
As for the chrome wrap, I really think that’s the case. I believe they sanded the finish on the toms to get the wrap adhesive to stick, and left the drum interior finish because they liked the bass drum sound.
@@awesomefanger - If they even did go that far! That wrap may also just have been glued at its overlap!?
I guess only Lars himself would really know for sure! 😅
And I agree, those do look like Pearl lugs 🙂
@@mightyV444 yeah the lacquer finishes don’t survive long on tour, I’m sure it was the same story with the Camco set. All gouged and scratched
I’m almost positive that the rack toms on the Load/ReLoad/Garage Inc. studio kit were 9x10 and 10x12 and I’ve read that the ride was a 20” Ping or Rock ride that he used interchangeably.
You can tell at least the “18 floor Tom is a Gretsch is has the Gretsch silver sealer pain on the inside of the shell
The inside of the chrome Superstar bass drums look stained cherry wine as well. Is it possible that the chrome kit is in fact the cherry wine kit sanded and rewrapped? but not sanding the inside of the drums because it’s the sound that they liked. Plus it matched the hoops. I know the stain/lacquer finishes don’t hold up too well on tour
The wood hooped kit is an Ayotte kit from Canada. Now defunkt.
Yes they are beautiful. Hard to miss those beautiful hoops!
Those extra red toms in the background could just be reflections off of the studio glass
Or other in-house drums
During the video of the contest at Jason’s house, Lars says he’s never been there before. Maybe Jason got someone else in the Metallica organization to set up the drums, maybe Lars tech?
Alt drum set appears to be Ray-era Ayotte's. With Bob Rock being native to Vancouver, BC those drums could be Bob's of the studio.
The reason he likes the kick sound so much is because the bass isn’t getting in the way
you can say that again!
That's an Ayotte kit for sure
Do you have any info about the drums he used when he recorded the song "Return of the vampire" with Mercyful Fate ?
Good question!!!
The Hi hat on Load is not a Sabian is Zildjian Dyno beat very used. The floor Tom are one 16 starclassic and the 18 is a Gretsch Maple
1:16:04 zildjian earth plate
Ayote also came to mind.
Ayotte Drums!!
That & recording is out of public eye. So you can just say We brought in a whole bunch of gear.
Could that red mystery kit be them test driving kits for the next cycle? Some drummers get a free kit for each album.
at 1:14 :Ayotte custom drums with wood hoops
The 18” floor tom on the load kit is a gretsch for sure. Its got the silver paint on the inside
He went down to two toms on the 1994 shed tour.
I always wondered this: at 31:41 the inside of the kick interior looks red stained or mahogany but in others it appears to be bare wood colored like the inside of the toms of the same chrome o wood kit. Oh wait, the toms also have the reddish interior on another pic of that kit. 28:54 I would guess he maybe had the red ones that had red interiors in the pics wrapped in chrome possibly, or requested that for the interiors maybe. Or maybe there were two chrome kits. 29:34
Pretty sure that wooden hoop drum is Ayotte. The lugs look right.
So funny. In 1986 when we all had master you never hear one Lars bash.
Although i have read many times that Lars does not enjoy the company of ride cymbals to his immediate right while sitting behind his drum, swinging in the metal militia, and later on used a set of zildjian A custom 14inch remote hi-hat cymbals,(closed) or maybe at a slight sizzle perhaps?I always loved the bright but precise ching,ching ching a ling ride pattern Lars played, on the chorus of "FOUR HORSEMEN"....."And choose your fate and DIE!" ding,dingding,ding,ding-ding-dinga-ling-a-ding-ding-anyway, something like that, but really i think my love of old zildjian A series B20 22inch medium ride (or maybe ping ride? or mini cup maybe?) looking forward to the possibility the true identity of his "kill 'em all ride cymbal might be revealed hear tonight.......
😎🤘
That little ovular hunk of bronze hanging from the cymbal stand on the blue Starclassics just after the 1 hr, 15 mark is a Zildjian Earthplate. A hideous little instrument that made an obnoxious warbling clang when you hit the flat side. You could also run a stick down those ridges on the backside and make a slightly differing obnoxious warbling clang. Seemed like a lot of people had them back in the late 90s (one of those seemed like a good idea at the time things, I guess), but none actually seemed to use them.
Thank you!
I'm pretty sure he was wrong on the justice album being made at one on one in california.that album was made in Rochester NY
Ayotte drums are the ones with the wood hoops. Amazing kits before Ray Ayotte got let go from the company he created
What was that about?
Hoping to do an episode with Ray at some point
This critical guy who gave him super important pictures ...."his name was Leo or Peter or something." My friends call me Leo, you can call me Peter.
Just don't call him late for dinner
It was me that pointed that out to Chris after the first episodes. The most interesting thing about it, I think, is that the lugs seems to be swapped so that the batter sides have Tama lugs and the reso sides have Camco lugs. And the added bass drum might also be the reason the whole kit got painted black in the first place.
@@LeoNasstromgood call! That makes perfect sense. It makes me wonder if the Tama Camco lug and Superstar / Imperialstar hole spacing was the same to make the swap easy.
@@billyharrington5102 I think Lars's Camco kit was a Hoshino/Tama era Camco and therefore it makes sense if the hole spacing is the same. Tama used to have the same hole spacing for a long time on a number of models (70's into the 90's)
Ayatte kit wit a 26inch kit. That was the kit he did for the Tuesday gone covet.
I think he also used it for those unplugged fundraisers…
@@xxgil2 he did in the 90’s and uses the Tom’s still.
@@xxgil2 there’s a video of him playing that kit for the garage inc. for Tuesdays gone. I’ve seen it once on here but idk where to find it again.
@@garrettguadiana1327 ua-cam.com/video/-9K9RfowZjM/v-deo.htmlsi=y1IpdmZhV5QTZaaB
Not trying to bust your balls that much guys - very entertaining - but why doesn't someone just ask someone to ask Lars? What was the drum set on Ride? He'll know and would probably be pleased to send that info out to the fans.
Do you have his phone number :) Thanks for watching, glad you liked it
@@DrumHistoryPodcast it seems like he would have said something in an interview … my guess it’s the Ludwigs … those bass drums on Fight Fire and toms on Creeping Death … but who knows
The only problem is getting the phone number of a multimillionaire who plays for one of the biggest bands of all time
@@Twotontessieit can't be that hard to reach out to his office.
@@therandomrollercoasterride8751 who loves to take about himself - they have PR people. Fine I’ll do it.
Increíble episodio, pero que mal no mencionar que en el And Justice y en el Black Album Lars no usa ride! Por qué? Qué pasó, se los robaron?
Inquiring minds wana know who Gave Lars drum lessons, just prior to the MOP sessions......? For fun speculation I say it was Kirk Arrington because of his style..... Thoughts?
@@reddurt8153 Lars took lessons from Jeff Campitelli before recording AJFA. Jeff was the drummer in Satrianis band.
Those were definitely Ayotte drums.
I knew a guy that worked on the Black album and he said the 2” master tapes of just the drums takes ALONE filled up a minivan. Heavily, heavily edited.
The last kit looks a Ayotte kit
so if the 2nd bass is a different type I wounder if he painted them black because the new bass was black?
That makes a lot of sense
It was me that pointed that out to Chris after the first episodes. The most interesting thing about it, I think, is that the lugs seems to be swapped so that the batter sides have Tama lugs and the reso sides have Camco lugs. And the added bass drum might also be the reason the whole kit got painted black in the first place.
Out of all the Metallica members, I would say Lars can be replaced by so many drummers now as so many older people didn't listen to the insane metal drummers we have today like hannes grossmann. Some say if you replace the drummer the sound changes but I disagree. Some drummers like to try new things. Most professional heavy metal drummers would make the band much better.
Hannes has many albums that he wrote all by himself. Some parts he recorded on guitar, most part he gave to friends other than drums. He is also a studio engineer. He takes turns writing for songs for alkaloid (I recommend that band for anyone that likes super good death metal).
Sucks some of those bands get a fraction of the fans but also awesome because you can just walk up to them after the show. I talked to hannes (a German dude) because he guest drummed for a band touring in the US.
Imagine if Lars was that diverse and can play more than middle of the road stuff. And no, when you sit on a kit with a double bass pedal it implies you don't have one so you would absolutely not be able to be one. You usually start with the flams then maybe some fills with the flams. Until you proceed to practice slow single strokes. I remember learning faster double bass by the one slipknot album I liked, which is all hope is gone. Then moved to bands that did constant doubles. Then discovered technical death metal and got 240+ bpm. I guess I don't understand how Lars still has bad timing and basic beats.
The thing I am confused about is your research. You have photos, podcasts, and misalanious videos on Lars and his studio kits. My question is, why have you not interviewed Lars about his studio kits. Also yo say there are not many studio footage or photos to really know certain things. Metallica records everything they do. I am sure if you contacted Lars and / or the Metallica camp, you could get some of these videos and photos to help you out. I am not sure the point of the Lars podcasts as it is all based on speculation and hear say based on some photos, videos, and what others have said. If you redo these podcasts with Lars involved you and the watching listening audience would actually know things than just making conclusions based on some info you researched. If you talk to the producers as well as Lars, his tech, and the rest of Metallica, you will actually know the info for the podcast rather than just not knowing or understand things as well as just jumping to conclusions.
Lars didn't choose the gear. Bob rock did. The engineer and producers are the ones who pick the equipment. The artist hires them to make that call. Lars probably didn't know anything or cared
1:16:11 that hanging " cymbal plate " i believe is a Zildjian Earth Plate.
I like Load and Reload sounds better than the Black album drum sounds. I don't want to hear a Motley Crue record.
That 1987 EP sounded great. Cool drum sound. In a couple days. It was part of what made the Justice album so disappointing. Sounded so bad in comparison. Endless wait between albums and you get .... that? I started to lose interest.
Lars, Like Tommy Lee, was on a tractor to be a decent drummer. Lee more so, but both of them just dropped their packs decades ago. Both of them have ego's. I was a HUGE fan in the 80's and then I saw Metallica live in 91. That is when I lost interest. It occurred to me the other day that some of the most "successful" bands out there are or terrible players. When the justice Album came out, he seemed like he was on his way to being a good player, success and ego went to his head. The guy went out of his way to put down other bands of that era, and even derail their careers. That was the big clincher for me. Bad player? I can can almost look around that, bad person? Count me out.
The Gretsch were well recorded but give me the Tamas all day long. I get tired of the Gretsch hype everywhere I go on podcasts etc. "I have these extra special Gretsch. you could use if you're lucky." Is it really that special? They didn't even make their own drums. That's the thing that bugs me about all that hype. And yes I've played one. "Booooiinnnggg." I didn't get it. Tony Williams is that sound and nobody is as good as he is. He's the Gretsch sound not the drums. LOL.
I don’t like the Justice sound. Never did. Puppets was much better. Lombardo did it better on Reign and South and the early Korn snare was better until the new producer wrecked it with the low tuning garbage. I digress 😂