Welcome, fellow audiophiles, drumming enthusiasts, TOOL fans, and lovers of all things progressive! Today, we’ve scored an exclusive backstage peek into the rhythmic labyrinth that is Danny Carey’s drum kingdom for TOOL’s Fear Inoculum Tour. Surrounded by instruments, Danny is joined by Modern Drummer CEO David Frangioni as they peel back the layers of Carey’s one-of-a-kind drum arsenal.

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World renowned drum tech, Joe Slaby, graciously provided a detailed gear list of the components that Danny used for this particular show (gear list below). Joe emphasized that the setup is constantly changing and evolving, so the list is just a snapshot of the decisions for that day.

Danny’s Gear in this Video:
The drums are Sonor SQ2 with Vintage series lugs. Sonor made Danny two versions of this touring kit, one beech, one maple. These toms are beech, these kicks are maple. The kicks and toms are wrapped with a design by Alex Grey. The shells on the smallest tom are thickest and they get thinner as the drum diameter increases. Advertisement

Drums:
The main snares are two Sonor HLD590’s (one with 10 lugs, one with 12 lugs) both 14” x 8” bronze drums. Also, he has a new Dunnett 14” x 8” purple bronze snare and a Sonor 14″ x 8″ beech snare that has a wrap that matches the toms.

From left to right, the drums are: 8″ x 8″ and 10″ x 10″ SQ2 rack toms, 14″ rototom with custom mount by Brian Totten (this drum was formerly owned by Terry Bozzio!), 16″ x 14″ and 18″ x 16″ SQ2 floor toms with legs, 16″ x 22″ SQ2 Gong Drum (with Danny Carey’s portrait by Alex Grey), 18″ x 22″ and 20″ x 24″ SQ2 Bass Drums.

Cymbals:
All cymbals are paiste except where noted;
– 22″ “Monad” Danny Carey signature dry heavy ride
– pair 12” Stewart Copeland signature hi hats
– 18″ Signature full crash with 2002 5” cup chime inverted on top
– 18″ Signature power crash with Hammerax 6” bell inverted on top
– 20″ Signature power crash with 5” Hammerax FX inverted on top
– 24” NOVO china
– 22″ signature thin China
– Noiseworks stack, 18″ china, 11” top
– “Twenty” series 10″ splash with Dark Energy 8″ splash (inverted on top)
– 8” 3000 series bell with 6” 2002 accent (inverted on top)
– Cup Chime #1 8” and Cup Chime #3 7” (inverted on top)
– 38” Symphonic gong
– 60” Sound Creation Earth gong (seperate from the kit) Advertisement

Electronics:
– Roland Handsonic (original version)
– Roland Octapad
– Drum tech FAT and HAT trigger pedals
– Seven @MandalaDrum drum triggers, connected via CAT5 to the Mandala brain, which is sending signal to Battery software by @Nativeinstruments on a MAC computer, which passes audio through an Apollo X3.
– Buchla Marimba Lumina Gold mallet keyboard, which is triggering a rack mounted Access Virus synth
– Rupert Neve 16 channel summing mixer for all electronic drum components to FOH
– Original Korg Wave drum (’94) with custom rack mount by Brian Totten
– “Toolbox” modular Euro rack synth by Peter Grenader, used on “Chocolate Chip Trip” drum solo.

Hardware:
– Pearl “Eliminator” Kick pedals and remote hi hat Danmar 206 beater and blue cam on kicks.
– Sonor hardware for cymbals, electronic drums, mic and tom arms, and snare stand
– Pearl Rack System
– Roc n Soc Throne

Drum Heads:
All drum heads are Evans
– Toms: clear EC2s on batter, clear G1 on resonant side
– Rototom and gong drum: clear G1
– Snare: coated Power Center on batter, 300 weight snare side w/ Puresound snare wires
– Kicks: Clear EQ3 on batter (removable ring out), Inked EQ3 on resonant side with 4″ air vent, with Evans EQ pillows barely touching each head. Advertisement

Sticks:
– @VicFirth Danny Carey signature model, wood tip
– Vic Firth Tim Genis roller mallets

Monitoring:
– JH Audio “Roxanne” In-ear monitors
– Shure P10R Wireless bodypack receiver

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Follow TOOL, Modern Drummer, and friends on Instagram :
TOOL: @toolmusic
Danny Carey: @dannycarey_tool
Modern Drummer: @modern_drummer
David Frangioni: @davidfrangioni
Joe Slaby (Danny’s drum tech): @joeslaby
Peter Grenader (mod synth designer): @petergrenader
Tim Dawson (TOOL studio tech & electronics guru): @theacidhelps
Alex Grey (Artist): @alexgreycosm
Sonor Drums: @sonordrumco
Vic Firth: @vicfirth
Evans: @evansdrumheads
Mandala: @mandaladrum
Ronn Dunnett: @dunnettclassicdrums
Van Kleef custom drums: @vk_drums
Brian Totten: @briantotten

Extra Special Thanks to the Modern Drummer Team:
Felipe Laverde, Jason Mehler, Alex Kluft

Thumbnail Photo by Alex Kluft: @alexkluftphotography

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