FURTHER DETAILS ON THE PEART BELLS

This week I received an email from someone who inadvertently ended up on this website and read my post about the infamous cowbells of Rush drummer Neil Peart.  The post I reference is HERE.

In that post I described one possibility for attempting to duplicate the cowbell setup of Peart.  This was an idea that I read about while doing the extensive research that I do on such subjects as the cowbell selection of Neil Peart before writing about it.

The idea was to take three Latin Percussion Tapon cowbells and cut them down to re-create the Gon Bops Triple Agogo Bell that Neil uses but is no longer available due to the stubborn idiocy of Gon Bops.  I tried this experiment and featured my results in the aforementioned blog post, but this accidental "reader" who I will randomly refer to as "Steve" wanted to know what the bells actually sound like.

So "Steve," this post is for you, dude.  Here I will post a brief audio-visual demonstration of the results of my experiment.  I also include in this clip the Pearl "Tri-Bells" to give you an idea of how my homemade bells compare to them.  ROLL THE FIRST CLIP:

That video above should give you a good overall impression of how the cut-down Tapons sound.  Not too bad but not as awesome as the Gon Bops Triple.

For additional clarity and specificity, here is a bonus clip that details the exact "notes" that the bells make.  ROLL THE SECOND CLIP:

The Peart Tri-Bells produce a D#, a B and a G, while my homemade bells sound more like an E, a D and a C, according to my calculations on the glockenspiel.

As to your question about the difficulty of cutting down a trio of Tapons, my dear "Steve," YES it is somewhat difficult to do with a vise clamp and a hacksaw.  The main issue is making the cut straight and uniform across the mouth of the bell without veering off your line of demarcation or bending up the bell in the process.  Those Tapons can be somewhat delicate when being manhandled and dismembered.  I had to use a metal file to even out my sloppy cuts because I was in a tremdous hurry to complete my experiment so I could finish my article on the Neil Peart cowbells.  And now I am in a hurry to be done with this post as well so I will sign off for now.

Thanks for reading, "Steve!"  And thanks for the questions and comments!