Homes must come with really big basements in East Granby, Connecticut. Otherwise, it’s hard to imagine how Granby-ite John Cloutier manages to store his outrageous 53-piece clear acrylic RCI Starlight kit. With its 8 bass drums, 6 bass drum woofers, 8 snare drums, 11 Octobons, 17 toms, and 3 timbales, this monster — mounted on a custom Gibraltar rack — incorporates three separate kits into a single setup so that he can rotate between each configuration without getting up from his throne.
Cloutier explains that he wanted to be able to cover more than one drumming style at once: “The kit to my right is for R&B;/funk, the middle kit is for basic rock, and the kit to my left is for heavy metal, Bonham style.” What, no polka kit?
Naturally, when you have lots of drums you must have lots of cymbals and this setup includes a whopping 70 of them from Zildjian, Sabian, Paiste, Wuhan, Ufip, Istanbul. And don’t forget the 40″ Zildjian gong — couldn’t live without that. Heads are from Evans, Remo, and RCI, while the pedals and hats are all remote DW kickers, customized with extra lengths on the linkage to reach all bass drums.
Okay, here’s the rundown:
Bass Drums:
(3) 22″ x 20″ (1) 20″ x 18″ (2) 24″ x 18″ (1) 26″ x 22″ (1) 28″ x 22″
Snare Drums:
(3) 14″ x 7″
(1) 13″ x 3.5″
(1) 13″ x 7″
(1) 12″ x 6″
(1) 10″ x 8″
(1) 10″ x 6″
Toms:
(2) 8″ x 8″
(1) 8″ x 9″
(1) 8″ x 10″
(2) 10″ x 8″
(1) 10″ x 10″
(2) 12″ x 10″
(1) 12″ x 12″
(1) 13″ x 9″
(2) 14″ x 12″
(1) 14″ x 14″
(1) 16″ x 16″
(1) 18″ x 18″
(1) 20″ x 20″
Octobons:
(1) 6″ x 6″
(1) 6″ x 8″
(1) 6″ x 10″
(1) 6″ x 12″
(1) 6″ x 14″
(1) 6″ x 16″
(1) 6″ x 18″
(1) 6″ x 29″
(1) 6″ x 22″
(2) 6″ x 24″
Sub Woofers:
(1) 8″ x 20″
(2) 8″ x 22″
(1) 8″ x 24″
(1) 8″ x 26″
(1) 8″ x 28″
Timbales:
(1) 6″ x 6″
(1) 8″ x 6″
(1) 10″ x 8″
You might wonder how in the world John can afford all these drums. Let’s just say he was able to pull some strings at RCI (he’s the company’s artist relations rep).