Aaron’s Drums, Cymbals, and Hardware
The first kit: "Mrs. Esterhaus"- Dixie jazz kit
Aaron's original kit was a fixture of the Farmington, Maine music scene. He bought it from Crayon drummer Brian Chick, and its lineage could be traced back over three or four previous owners to eventually lead to Branden Maxham who was the star of the Mount Blue High School marching band the year they won a place in the inauguration ceremony for the elder president Bush.
Regardless, it saw a lot of use in Aaron's hands, though rarely on stage. In those days, bands would backline shows, with Chris providing his Marshall guitar amp for anyone who wanted it, Jason Wilkins from Ernie's Disease would lend his Fender Bassman 60 to all the bassists (the same one Chris would later use in the Boston era of the band), and the drum kit was usually courtesy of Brian Chick or Ausverksuften's Jeff Kidder. This also meant that nearly every show was built from the same two or three bands, but that's how scenes work.
Despite the general lack of stage time, there are a handful of pictures of Aaron using this kit. It was a jazz sized kit, with a 20" x 14" kick drum, plus 12" x 10" rack and 14" x 14" floor toms, all in a red sparkle finish. The snare was a standard 5" x 14" metal shell Ludwig student snare, and Aaron's cymbals were extremely affordable Pearl models: 14" hats and a 16" crash. The kick pedal was a Ludwig speed king. Hardware was flimsy, single braced stands, hailing from the late 60s and early 70s by the look of them, many of them reinforced or held together entirely with duct tape.
None of this sounded particularly good, but it's what he could afford, and it allowed the band to get started. It can be heard on Happy Punk Workout, which was also when he adopted the habit of using a sparkly green motorcycle helmet strapped to the tom mount as a percussion element.
Recording Not Quite Human: TJ Percussion standard kit
In an attempt to better the overall sound of the band, Aaron borrowed the same drum kit that was at most of the shows, Brian Chick's blue TJ Percussion kit. While still a student model, it was an improvement over Mrs. Esterhaus, mainly because it was bigger. 22" x 16" kick, 13" x 10" rack and 16" x 16" floor toms, which also had bottom heads and were tuned better. The snare remained the same, as did the motorcycle helmet, but the cymbals were upgraded as well, mixing the Pearl ones with a set of Paiste 302 14" hats, and a Camber II 16" Crash/Ride. Hardware was a mix of single and double braced, but still on the cheap side.
On "STaLE", Chris combined the two kits in an attempt to play with a double kick. He figured that he'd just be able to do it naturally like he did everything else, but was wrong. Good thing he realized that and only tries to do one fill rather than a part involving it.
A step up: The Mica Sonic and Zildjians
For Christmas of 1993, Aaron's dad bought him a better kit. This was a complete surprise as he'd not asked for it, but it was obvious that Mrs. Esterhaus was kinda shabby.
This kit was a Mica Sonic, again with a 20" kick, though with larger toms in 12" x 10", 13" x 12", and 16" x 16" sizes. Curiously, the toms and snare had been stripped of their wrap and painted black while the kick had the original "orange abalone" phenolic wrap still intact. His snare was still the Ludwig, despite the fact that there was a wooden shell 5" x 14" included with the kit.
Like a lot of budget gear in that era, these were made in Japan, most likely in the mid to late 60s. The company that built them went on to launch the Tama brand, which will become important to Aaron's story very soon.
Even though these were really nice drums on the cheap, the big upgrade here was the cymbals. Most important were the 15" Zildjian New Beat hi-hats which Aaron used for the rest of the band's original tenure, along with a pair of Avedis thin crashes, specifically a 16" and 17". The broken remains of the Pearl crash were employed as a trash cymbal to simulate a China. Hardware was single braced, but was heavier duty than the previous kit.
It was also around this time that the motorcycle helmet was retired, since Aaron was experimenting with two rack toms and had nowhere to put it. However, the two ALF dolls used to muffle the kick drum did get transferred over from his previous kit.
Also new to his gear pile courtesy of this kit was a cowbell. It did make its way onto a demo, but was (thankfully) never heard on any officially released Amoebas songs.
Recording Narcissism: the studio kit
Like many recording studios, The Outlook had a house kit, and since it was dramatically better than Aaron's, he used it instead, albeit with his own snare. The kit itself was a Sonor 2000. Sizes were standard rock dimensions with the deeper toms that were popular in the late 80s and early 90s, specifically a 22" x 16" kick, 12" x 13" and 13" x 14" rack toms, and a 16" x16" floor tom. He did use the included 6.5"x14" wood shell snare for overdubs on "Postapocalyptic" and "Before".
The cymbals were his Zildjians except for the Paiste Sound Creations 20" ride owned by the studio, and an 18” Zildjian Scimitar China borrowed from Tony Daigle of The Latter Day Saints.
The Big Guns: The Tama Rockstar kit
Summer of 1994 brought the biggest change in Aaron's equipment yet– a brand new, name brand drum kit. This would be the Tama Rockstar that he acquired from the now defunct Rock Enterprises store in Mexico, Maine.
It's not a secret that Aaron was hugely influenced by Dave Grohl, and in the same way that Chris bought a guitar that was just like the one Keith Richards had, Aaron went full-on Dave with this kit.
While not the giant sizes of Dave's, it was a Tama and he outfitted it with Aquarian heads. Sizes were the deeper standard sizes Tama was known for at the time, namely a 22" x 16" kick, 12" x 12", 13" x 14" and 16" x 16" toms, though the 12" was ultimately retired since Aaron prefers a four piece kit.
This was also when his dad custom cut him a new length of pipe and tapped a new rod for his hi-hat stand that allowed Aaron to set them several inches higher than normal. Since he almost never used 16th notes, there was no benefit to having the hats close to the snare. By getting them further away, he allowed more room for his left hand to really whack that snare, which was a 6.5" x 14" metal shell model included with the kit.
Cymbals were all Zildjian at this point, and would stay that way for the rest of the band's tenure. He went through many different models, including Avedis Rock weight crashes, K Dark Medium crashes, and an Avedis ping ride, but generally in 16", 18", and 20" sizes, with the 15" New Beat hats alongside. Occasionally there was also a China, complete with an Aquarian cymbal spring, but this eventually was retired due to the fact that it was really only used on "Identity".
The receipt for this kit.
Hardware included the custom hi-hat stand and double braced, heavy duty Tama stands that were included with the kit. However, they weren't heavy duty enough, so Aaron asked for an upgraded Ludwig boom stand the following Christmas which he had found in a catalog. Unbeknownst to him, it was massive – a beefy, weighty monster that still exists in his collection.
Around the same time as his acquisition of this kit, his kick pedal was upgraded to a DW 5000 accelerator, which stayed with him well after the band split up.
Like Chris' new guitar and pedals, this kit made its debut on the "So Do i" single, where it was supplemented with a second floor tom courtesy of the Sonor described above.
Over time, the snare got swapped out. First it was replaced by an 8" x 14" Premier discovered in a pawn shop in Lewiston, Maine, the purchase of which was inspired by Dave's use of something similar on the "Live And Loud" concert on MTV.
Similar model pictured
While sounding amazing in person, it was all but impossible to mic, so it eventually got traded in towards the next snare which was a Pearl 3.5" x 14" birch shell piccolo with a zero ring to reduce the rim resonance. This was inspired by seeing Shellac in concert, and noticing that Todd Trainer used a piccolo snare to get the amazing tone Aaron had become enamored with.
This was also when he noticed that Todd used 15" New Beat hats, too, but flipped them upside down, which was a habit Aaron adopted from then until the initial breakup of The Amoebas.
During the More. era, Aaron had added a rubber skull inside his kick drum, to which Chris installed glowing red eyes.
Post Amoebas and reunion: DW kit
To quote Aaron: “I don't know too much about the kit... I know it's maple. I bought it at Guitar Center in the late 90's. It has larger toms... 14” and 16''; they are deeper than usual. The tag on the shells just says ‘all maple shells’. There is a number as well, but no model. The maple is stained a somewhat translucent black”.
Other than the depth, this seems to be a pretty standard sized kit with a 22” kick. The snare is a 14” x 5 1/2” Premier Signia Marquis. Hardware is all double braced, including the snare type stands holding both toms, and he still has a DW Accelerator kick pedal. Cymbals are Zildjian A Customs all around: 14” hats, 16”, 17” and 18” crashes, and a 20” medium ride. Heads are good ol’ Remo Pinstripes on top with an Evans snare side head.
Unique to this kit is the addition of a plastic woodblock, used in lieu of rim shots on the snare and prominently heard on the “Taste” version of “Ultimate” (a rough mix exists where Leon can be heard yelling “his woodblock’s made of plastic!” as the cymbals die out).
Other kits
On the cover of Not Quite Human, Aaron can be seen playing Jeff Kidder's white Hohner kit. Like Brian's TJ Percussion model, it was a student kit in standard sizes.
On the live version of "Fast Car" heard on Not Quite Human, Aaron used a Slingerland rock kit used by all the drummers that night. Like most of the kits used in The Amoebas, it was a standard sized kit. While there is video footage of this kit, it's too dark to see clearly.
For some rehearsals with Todd, Aaron used Todd's brother Tony's kit, which was also a Tama with Zildjians. It was, in fact, where Aaron discovered DW kick drum pedals, though Tony's was a double. This kit was also used for the four song jump up set on new year's eve 1993 that became the inspiration for the second verse of "After". There are no photos of Aaron using this kit.
Rehearsals for the 25th anniversary reunion were done at the practice space of Chris' band at the time, where a house kit was provided. The first few were done on a Mapex student model belonging to Sean, the singer, though when the band relocated to a different space their drummer, Chuck, provided his own kit in the form of a Yamaha oak custom. In both cases, Aaron used his own snare and his collection of Zildjians. He also brought along the Ludwig heavy duty cymbal stand, but otherwise used Chuck's hardware, including his Yamaha kick pedal. Both kits were standard sized.
On Full Charisma Bypass, Aaron used a Paiste 21" ride as a second, "dry" ride on multiple songs.
Sticks:
Classic era
No preference for brand but 2B flipped backwards until Boston, at which point Aaron started using 5B sticks conventionally
Modern era
Goodwood 5B or 5A