December 2012

Product Close-Up

Canopus

Ash Standard Drumset

by Eric Novod

Step into leading New York City jazz clubs like Smalls, Smoke, the Jazz Gallery, Cornelia Street Café, and the Zinc Bar, and you’ll find a house kit supplied by the Japanese drum manufacturer Canopus. The small custom company formed in 1977, but it didn’t start producing full kits until a decade later. Yet superior quality, construction, sound, and appearance, along with high-profile endorsers led by jazz great Brian Blade, have propelled Canopus pretty far, pretty fast.

The new Canopus kit for review this month is the Ash Standard, with a 15×20 bass drum, 7×10 and 8×12 rack toms, a 13×14 floor tom, and a matching 6 1/2×14 snare. All of the drums, which feature 7-ply ash/poplar shells in a light-black satin finish and are outfitted with solid brass lugs, were remarkably lightweight yet sturdy feeling. Their tone was full, deep, resonant, and dynamic. They felt new but sounded old—a winning combination in our book. And while Canopus is not in the business of manufacturing inexpensive products, these Ash drums fall in the more affordable section of the company’s catalog. (The five-piece setup reviewed here lists for $2,700.)

Click here to check out the Canopus Ash Standard kit at a high tuning.

 

Click here to check out the Ash kit at a low tuning.

 

Be sure to check out the December 2012 issue of Modern Drummer for the full review.

[PCUStat]