Tempus Fiberglass Drums

THIN IS IN

By Brad Schlueter Published June 2008

In the 1970s a company called Milestone Drums appeared on the scene with a mission to make a better-sounding fiberglass drum than any currently on the market. A decade later, a man named Paul Mason, having apparently decided Milestone had succeeded in its quest, purchased the company and renamed it Tempus Drums. Mason set about improving the quality of the hardware, though he wisely opted to leave the shell design alone.

While Tempus has fought an uphill battle at times trying to convince drummers to choose a non-wood drum set, the company has established a comfy niche and a rather devoted fan base sold on the sound, look, consistency, and virtually indestructible nature of its drums. One stat many other drum makers are sure to envy is that Tempus saw a 15-percent rise in sales last year, proving that more drummers are beginning to come around to fiberglass.

Fiberglass is not to be confused, however, with another manmade drum shell material: clear acrylic. Fiberglass is not transparent and has a woven texture that can be seen on the inside of the shell. Like acrylic, their finish is part of the shell itself, not simply applied to its outer surface. But one big advantage fiberglass shells have over most acrylics is that they are very thin, making them noticeably lightweight and easy to carry. They also seem to have the capacity to get a smidge louder than comparably sized wood drums. However, for those who like what Tempus is doing but just can’t get down with fiberglass, the company also offers carbon fiber kits.

SHELLS AND HARDWARE

Due to a shipping problem, the snare for the kit didn’t arrive in time, so a carbon/Kevlar came in its place right at the end of the review period. What I did receive right off the bat was a kit comprised of 10" x 7", 12" x 8", and 14" x 14" toms, and a 20" x 16" bass drum. Tempus also offers a variety of in-between sizes that are different than those shown on the web site, like the 7"-deep small tom on this review kit. The shells of the fiberglass drums are very thin, about 3/16" thick, and have rounded, double 45-degree bearing edges. I tend to favor thin shells since they enhance a drum’s low end. Plus, lightweight drums are a blessing on a difficult load-in, a point these drums proved yet again.

The mounted toms employ Gary Gauger’s superb aluminum RIMS mounts suspension system. Yamaha’s classic TH-945 tom mount was also supplied with the kit, which, as you might know, conveniently features an extra hole that can be used to attach a cymbal arm, thus saving floor space and eliminating the weight of another full stand. The floor tom legs have air pocket feet, which are designed to enhance the drum’s sustain. The drums all feature triple-flanged hoops and Tempus’ elongated hexagonal lug casings. The bass drum spurs worked great, and feature retractable spikes for carpeted surfaces.

There’s a definite seam where the shells were joined, but it’s hidden beneath two lugs so it’s not very noticeable. The drums have Tempus’ tasteful badge and nice die-cast grommets for the air-vent holes. One small negative is that the textured inside of the bass drum hoop seems to act as a bit of a dust magnet. I’d be tempted to spray paint the interior of the bass drum hoops a glossy black since the dust that had accumulated on the flat black finish made the hoops look charcoal gray.

FINISH

The drums I received had a Copper Sparkle finish that really popped under stage lighting. It had a nice depth to it, and gave the outer surface of the shells a nicely smooth, glossy appearance. If I didn’t know better, I’d have assumed it was a nice lacquer finish on a wood shell. At points the finish had the visual impact of a glass glitter finish. I prefer the sparkle finishes since the solid color choices on a fiberglass shell don’t have quite the depth of a lacquer-on-wood finish. However, there’s no noticeable difference with Tempus’ sparkle finishes. The Copper Sparkle had a slightly chameleon-like quality under stage lighting. My girlfriend teased me a little because they appeared pink with one combination of par cans shining on them. Unlike any other kit I’ve ever reviewed, these drums weren’t new. They’d been used on tour and so they arrived with a few minor blemishes. But the vibrant sparkle finish helped make the road wear hard to spot.

SOUND

For the rock gig where I first demoed the drums, I chose to tune the floor tom to a pretty low note and then work my way up the kit, looking for a fat and deep sound from the toms. All of the drums were easy to tune and, I discovered later, featured an impressive tuning range. The drums came outfitted with a kaleidoscope of head brands – Evans EC1s on the tom batters, coated Remo Ambassadors underneath, and on the bass drum, an Aquarian Superkick II on the batter side and a ported Evans EQ1 resonant head. The EC1/Ambassador combination on the toms provided a lot of attack and meat while dampening all of the brighter overtones – a bit like a head with a Mylar muffling ring. This head gave the toms a contemporary if slightly dampened rock sound. I had another drummer sit in at the rock gig and had a chance to stand out front and hear how the drums sounded unmiked.

They sounded great, with lots of attack and enough lows to please anyone. The thin shells gave what are basically fusion-sized drums a fat sound that belied their size. The bass drum with the Superkick head sounded awesome as well, with nice lows and plenty of attack. I used this kit with the included heads on both rock and jazz gigs and the toms sounded great in both contexts, although it certainly wasn’t a traditional jazz sound. I also brought the kit to a wedding gig outfitted with some single-ply heads on the tom batters. Again, I found they easily produced the sound I was after, except this time the sound was noticeably livelier, which worked well for the dinner music set.

Not one of the several gigs at which I used this kit did anyone suspect these weren’t wood shells – and those I told were genuinely surprised. I had to prove it to a couple of people by having them look inside the shells or feel the texture on the inside of the bass drum hoop. At the rock gig, the drummer who sat in on the kit is a die-hard, old-school Rogers drum owner, and even he didn’t suspect they were fiberglass – he only referred to them as “modern” sounding.

ENTER THE SNARE

After I’d gigged with the kit for a while, the Carbon/Kevlar snare finally arrived. The drum is a prototype 13" x 5.5" with a finish that sports a navy bluish background dotted with small flecks of bronze glitter. I preferred the kit’s Copper Sparkle finish to this one since it seemed to have more depth. The snare featured an eight-lug design, triple-flanged hoops, and came with a coated Evans G1 batter head. The shell was even thinner than the toms on the kit, but despite this thinness, it is strong enough for very high tunings. The Gibraltar/Dunnett swiveling snare throw-off rotates to easily accommodate right- or left-handed drummers.

Even when I cranked the heads, the unique shell composition gave the drum a darker tonality without a lot of brightness. When I cranked the wires, the drum spoke more clearly and I got a little more brightness from the wires, but the sound was still generally fat. It would make a killer ballad snare. The tone wasn’t overly ring-y, and even with the triple-flanged hoops it gave nice rimshots and rim-clicks, which can be problematic on a smaller diameter snare drum. If I were recording with it I’d definitely want to mix in some of the snare-side mike to balance out the meatiness of the tone. I liked this snare, but it’s really more of a specialty drum than an all-purpose one. Tempus’ fiberglass snares are reported to be a bit brighter than this one.

If you’re still skeptical, I can completely understand. As a teenager, I bought a used Pearl fiberglass kit because the price was right and it had a lot of toms and two bass drums. Unfortunately, that kit never sounded very good to me, and the purchase left me feeling dubious about the virtues of fiberglass. That is, until I checked out Tempus’ drums. In retrospect, my drums were thicker, brighter, and louder. Tempus drums are thin, lightweight, and have a nice sound with a good balance of attack and bottom end.

VERDICT

There is value in owning something made to a high standard that’s out of the ordinary. Tempus makes unique, high quality fiberglass drums with striking finishes that sound great. They also never failed to be a conversation starter. At each of the gigs I took them to, drummers were certainly curious and amazed when they found out they weren’t wood. Sadly, some drummers aren’t open-minded enough to consider a drum set made from any material but wood. But if you march to the beat of a different drummer, you might want to stop and ask him if that’s actually a fiberglass drum he’s playing.

DETAILS
SHELLS 100-percent fiberglass drum shells with double 45-degree bearing edges.
CONFIGURATION 10" x 7", 12" x 8", and 14" x 14" toms and a 20" x 16" bass drum and a 13" x 5.5" carbon fiber/Kevlar snare drum.
FINISH (Reviewed), Copper Sparkle on kit; Navy Blue with Bronze Glitter on snare; dozens of other finishes available.
FEATURES Gauger RIMS mounts; die-cast grommets for the air-vent holes; a variety of sizes and finishes; ultra-thing, lightweight shells; Gibraltar/Dunnett swiveling snare throw-off.
PRICE CONTACT
Tempus Drums
1503 Columbia St.
North Vancouver, BC
V7J 1A3
Canada
tempusdrums.com