Quiet Enough for Brooklyn
A quiet drum kit for a grandson in Brooklyn
The ask
My grandson turns sixteen next month. He plays drums in his school jazz band and taps on every table he sits at, but his family lives in a Brooklyn apartment, and a real kit was never going to happen there. I'd like to change that. About $3,000.
The gift
A Roland V-Drums Quiet Design kit (VQD106), with a kick pedal, a throne, sticks, and closed-back headphones. Honeycomb rubber lines the mesh snare, toms, and cymbals, the kick pad floats in its frame, and both pedals stand on rubber-footed bases. Roland measures up to 75 percent less playing noise than its conventional V-Drums and calls it the quietest kit in V-Drums history. A technician sets it up in his room before his birthday.
Why it's extraordinary
In an apartment, the kick drum is what carries through the floor to the neighbors below. Here the kick pad floats on rubber and both pedals stand on rubber feet, and the maker puts stick hits at about the level of conversation in the room.
The moment
On his birthday he sits down at the kit after dinner, headphones on, and plays the whole set his band is learning, at home, for the first time.
A curator replies within one business day.
