Firchie Drums is a preferred choice for some of the best drummers in the world. Chances are, you have already heard it’s tremendous sound in the hands of Dennis Chambers, Jonathan Moffet, Tal Bergman, Sterling Campbell, Jonathan Mover, to name a few.
The Firchie Drum is an extremely useful tool for any drummer who appreciates versatility and quality performance from a single instrument.
It is like having a rack full of sampled snare drum sounds. It has a tremendous ability to change any aspect of the drum sound, in a snap!
I’ve got a lot of snare drums. Oftentimes it’s just a matter of mood because I can pretty much get a sound out of all of them, but I have a couple of Firchies that I really like.
They’re conically shaped. It’s an aluminum shell, and they’re totally free floating. He makes one drum that’s rotationally tuned, that has these RotoTom-looking castings on the bottom, and you can spin the entire drum and either raise or lower the pitch. That was the first one I got, and I love that drum–I love the way it sounds, I love the way it feels, it’s very responsive. But I really didn’t take advantage of its rotationally tuned possibilities; I would always play it at the same pitch.
No, you need two hands, because it’s not something that spins real freely. You have to hold onto the casting and then spin the drum; it’s more something you would do in between songs. Unless your snare stand was really bolted down: then you could just grab the top rim and spin it. There’s enough resistance there that there has to be something holding it steady.
But as I say, I found myself not using that part of the drum, so he made me one that just eliminated those bottom castings: now the drum is much lighter, it’s much smaller, it’s much easier to carry around. So I use that drum a lot. I have to say, though, that the one with all the castings on it sounds a little bit better; I think all of that metal has something to do with the sound, really contributes to it.
Tony Martucci, Artist
New York drum builder Ivan Firchie has also created what I think is one of the most impressive innovations of the past decade with his patented Firchie Drum, featuring “super fast rotational tuning that’s absolutely even on both heads”.
Dave J Mason, Drummer’s Database
For a Drummer on a live gig, it’s a unique creative experience, enabling you to tweak it from song to song thus achieving the optimum sound for each. From funky tunes with lots of busy syncopations in a piccolo range to power ballads and disco dance tuned for a big-as-a barn backbeat.
For studio performing – Firchie drum replaces a lot of different drums. It saves time and money needed for proper tuning while reaching appropriate sound impressions.