France's Patrice Bardin has come up with a stylish and eye-catching twist on self-accompaniment. Rather than stomp out a backbeat on a kick drum, home-made rhythm board or even an empty suitcase out front while thumping the strings of a battered acoustic guitar and throwing out soulful vocals, the Drumstooled is a mash up of a stool and an acoustic kick drum, with some colorful LED lighting thrown in for good measure.
Drummer, recording musician and teacher Bardin began playing guitar a while ago to give his students something to jam along with. Then last July he was hit by the idea of a kick drum variation that musicians or vocalists could use to accompany themselves or others. The now patented Drumstooled, as the name suggests, combines a kick drum with nifty reversed pedal and the kind of stool you might find at the breakfast bar in the kitchen.
Two versions have been designed – one with a 6 mm-thick acrylic shell sporting a chrome plated drum hoop and transparent head that tips the scales at 33 lb (15 kg), and another with a 7 ply (5.4 mm) American Maple shell, a wood drum hoop and a white head, and which weighs in slightly heavier at 34 lb. The acrylic Drumstooled has a battery-operated RGB LED lighting system built in to add a bit more magic to the performance. The height-adjustable stool on the Maple model is padded and covered with faux leather instead of plain old acrylic. Both models promise quick and easy setup, have a drum size of 18 x 15 in, and a shiny chrome base.
Bardin and team have launched a flexible funding campaign on the Indiegogo platform (which means that all funds raised will be released to the project, whether the campaign goal is reached or not) to engage like-minded musicians in discussions about future direction and development, and get the first 200 products into the hands of players for roughly 25 percent less than the expected retail price.
A pledge of €600 (about US$830) will put your name on the list for a Maple version of the Drumstooled, with an estimated delivery date of September (assuming all goes to plan). The acrylic, LED-packing model is pitched at €100 more. The campaign closes on June 13.
Bardin's latest YouTube video shows him playing a Yamaha RGX-A2 guitar while sat on a Drumstooled, or you could watch the campaign pitch video below to get a feel for what's on offer.
Sources: Tweaked Drum, Indiegogo
