Originally published in Images and Words fanzine 16 · January 1998
Mike Portnoy’s Drum Theater Act 2!
By Alan Muirden
Article4 min read
Since my last piece was written in August 1997 (see issue #15), there have been further changes to Mike’s set up, which I now want to update readers with. (January 1998)
I was incredibly fortunate to meet Mike at the London Forum show in December last year, and was able to see his set up first hand, and take a couple of quick photos! So here goes with the latest “bullet” point set of developments/things of interest...
• Mike has three identical kits, which include all drums, cymbals and percussion for the parts of the world the band happens to be touring in: white with purple rings for the US, white with red rings for Japan/Far East, and white with green rings for UK/Europe. The coloring even extends to his Tama “1st Chair” stools which are trimmed in the same color as the kits!
• The 10” China Kang cymbal which used to be on the left above the first pair of Octobans has been replaced with an 8” version and the 10” is now stacked on top of the 10” splash at the front top of the kit.
• The 12” Mini Chinese cymbal to Mike’s right is now stacked on top of a Jack DeJohnette 14” Encore crash. Both the 10” China Kang and 12” Mini Chinese sit directly on top of the cymbals underneath – this gives more of a unique sound and changes the decay of the original cymbals a little. The down side is that the edges of the cymbals get thrashed very quickly as they are effectively being played the wrong way round, but I think it works superbly and just adds that typical touch of originality.
• The 6” splash cymbal which sits to Mike’s right above one of his tambourines, now shares its stand with two Latin Percussion “Ice Bells” of 6” and 8” diameter.
• The 17” HH crash cymbal to his front right has been replaced by a 19” version and the 16” AA crash to his front left has been replaced by a 17” HH version.
• Mike uses a Tama “Rhythm Watch” which is a sort of electronic metronome which allows song tempos to be programmed in – this is present on all 3 kits and is used live as well as in the studio – it is mounted to Mike’s far left.
• The main snare drum, as well as using the “air ride” mounting, has an MP designed “3 way” foot operated snare strainer adjustment; this allows for the snares to be off/loose or tight giving more variety to the snare sounds. If you listen closely through “FII” you can hear it being put to good use. I would expect to see this in production before long as Mike showed it to me when I saw his kit and it works very reliably and is a neat idea from the man himself.
• Mike has photos attached to his cowbell! When I saw his kit, he had pictures of his wife, daughter Melody and his dog! These get updated regularly!
• The first two Octobans in the line of four to Mike’s left are mounted on individual brackets while the next two sit on the normal ‘shared’ mounting system – this is to allow freer placement. Also, when I saw the kit, all Octobans were fitted with Remo Pinstripe heads, rather than the more usual Ambassadors or CS – all his Octobans share the same nutboxes as the toms.
• In the December ’97 issue of Modern Drummer magazine, the eagle eyed reader may have spotted Mike using a unique snare drum head from Remo/Tama which had printed on it ‘Mike Portnoy Commemorative Snare Drum’ – we will try to discover what this was about!
• On his right hand side set of foot operated hi-hats. Mike has a ‘drop clutch’. This is a device that allows the plater to close the cymbals together whenever the left foot needs to be free, by operating the hi-hat again. The clutch engages and the cymbals become separated for normal playing.
• Check out Mike playing his triangle (though it could be one of his crotales or bell disks!) in “Take Away My Pain” at 3:14 to 3:31! Also, the first time his 6” splash was used in the studio was on “ACOS” – and you can hear it at 3:46 and 17:39 to 17:43!
• Finally, the Pro-Mark sticks Mike was using at the European “FII” shows in November and December were interesting in that they had black bands/lettering rather than the original red – they continue to be his 420n Signature model – I’m not sure why this was?
We will continue to bring updated information via “Technomania” on Mike’s set-up and also on other band member’s gear. As a further example, in the next issue of ‘I&W’, we have a feature on John Petrucci’s gear with some points that hopefully will be of interest.