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From The Desk Of Ash: Gretsch Drum Group

Ash is back after eight years with sixth album KABLAMMO! (Edel/earMusic). The Northern Ireland trio—vocalist/guitarist Tim Wheeler, bassist Mark Hamilton and drummer Rick McMurray—will be on tour supporting the LP in the U.K. starting later this month. Ash will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week.

3GretschDrums

McMurray: A group dedicated to the amazing drums that were once made in Brooklyn. I started this a couple of years ago along with a friend, and it’s slowly grown into a 2,000-member community. It’s proper drum-geek stuff, but I’ve learned a lot from many members all over the world. My friend from the band Arab Strap, a Scottish band from the late ‘90s, has become a teacher at a music school, which is quite close to my heart. So I’ve gotten very close with him over the last couple years and he reignited my love for vintage drums and he’s kind of addicted to it; he buys or sells a kit once or twice a month. I’m not quite that bad, but I thought we’d set up a Facebook group for Gretsch drums. We’ve got people from Norway and in the states, maybe some from South Africa so it’s pretty worldwide but it’s a pretty niche group. It’s a pretty cool thing, because I only know a couple people who are in the group, and the rest are kind of total strangers to me. Out of all the people, I’m probably actually one of the least geeky over Gretsch drums. But I’ve learned a lot about vintage drums and restoring them. There was a guy, my friend in Scotland David Jeans, he’s the music guy who started the group with me, he got into contact with one of the members and had me meet this guy in New York at 10 o’clock at night, a total stranger, to pick up a drum for him. It subsequently got flown back to Scotland for a festival. So I kind of smuggled it two-thirds of the way around the world. So it gets you doing all sorts of interesting things.

Video after the jump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMDSI3B01MM