In July of 1994, I was hired to head up the Drum Department at Sioux Falls Music as the store expanded into its new building. The store already had a long history of selling drums, but now they would actually have a drummer concentrating on what was needed, freeing the guitar guys to do their thing.

When I started, we were dealers for Ludwig, Tama, and Yamaha drums. Shortly after I started, the Ludwig representative came in and wanted to throw his weight around. He tried to force a larger order on me, the newbie. I went to Kevin (the owner of Sioux Falls Music at the time) and asked him what I should do. He asked what my gut was telling me. I told him that, at that time, Ludwig was not keeping up with the sizing trends of the day and that there were other companies out there. He told me to tell the Ludwig rep no. We moved forward, and over the next few years we signed on as dealers for Pearl, Mapex, Sonor, Legend, and Gretsch, while still maintaining our relationships with Tama, Yamaha, and Ludwig—albeit to a much lesser degree.

That brings me to Drum Workshop. I am proud of what is now a 30+ year relationship with the company and its great products. Looking back, I had been planning my own personal DW purchase for several years. In the late '80s and early '90s, I started learning about this great company, which was famous for its incredible hardware, including the iconic DW 5000 series pedals. I ended up seeing many Petra concerts featuring Louie Weaver and his awesome black double-bass DW setup, and I would say he was a major inspiration in getting me interested in the company's products.

Our local drum hero who went international, Mark Craney (Jean-Luc Ponty, Gino Vannelli, Jethro Tull), was also part of the Drum Workshop artist family. I attended one of his drum clinics in 1985, but I really met him in 1994 after he, Mike, and Terry Miller played at Razzmatazz, an early jazz and blues festival here in Sioux Falls. Mark stopped into the store the following week. It was my third day at my new job. After introducing myself and showing him the new drum department, we chatted for a bit, and I asked him if he would come back the following year to do an in-store drum clinic.

The Drum Department was growing fast, and by early 1995 I was working to secure a DW dealership. Locally, not many drummers were familiar with the drums yet. The opening order required us to purchase at least two drum sets. Since they were so new, the store wanted those sets sold in advance, I guess to prove that people would actually want them. No problem—I was ready to buy one of them. I just needed another drummer who was ready to order a set.

Craig Spangler, Augustana's percussion instructor at the time, came in wanting a quote on a new kit. He was also looking to get a new DW kit in a blue lacquer finish. That was the push I needed, and I went into high gear to finish planning my own set. When he came back to place his order, he had changed his color choice to my favorite: Black Cherry Lacquer with chrome hardware. That made me change a couple of things about my own order. I decided to go with Black Cherry Satin Oil with brass hardware, and both orders were placed. Craig's lacquer set had a longer lead time than my satin oil kit.

I like big drum sets, so I ordered two bass drums, six toms, and a snare drum. I fell in love with DW's F.A.S.T. sizing concept and basically went all in. After much thought, however, I ordered two different-sized bass drums. I figured it would be nice to have some options in the future.

My original all-maple (Keller shells) Collector's Series set has thin shells with reinforcement rings. The smaller toms are 5-ply shells with 3-ply reinforcement rings (5+3), while the larger toms and bass drums are 6+3. The snare drum is a bit thicker at 10+6. As far as tom mounting goes, they talked me into their new STM isolation mounting system to replace the RIMS mounting systems they had been using. I ordered the following sizes:

5x14 SD, 7x8 TT, 8x10 TT, 9x12 TT, 10x13 TT, 11x14 TT, 13x16 TT, 16x20 BD, and 18x22 BD.

On June 14, 1995, my new drums—the first DW set to come to South Dakota, to my knowledge—were partially delivered to the store. The 16" tom and 22" bass drum arrived a couple of days later. I remember opening the first box, pulling out the first drum, and saying, "This isn't what I ordered." I thought they were going to be more of a red color than the rich burgundy that was in my hands. I don't think it took more than five seconds for me to completely fall in love with the color. Of course, I took them home that night to start getting to know them.

The very next day (June 15, 1995), I loaded them back up and brought them into Sioux Falls Music for our previously scheduled clinic with Mark Craney. Mark played my new drums that night in front of a very attentive audience of local musicians. He even talked about my drums, mentioning that he was thinking he should have his refinished to look like mine. The two missing drums were delivered the next day.

While I have personally bought and sold more DW sets over the years, I currently own three separate sets. This original DW set is still my favorite, and I tend to play it as often as possible.

Three decades later, it is interesting to see how many Drum Workshop kits are out there, especially remembering how it all began for us back then. I have been out of the retail drum business for eight years now, but I want to say thank you to all of you drummers who had dreams. I appreciate that you came to Sioux Falls Music and trusted me to help make those dreams come true.

We were a Drum Workshop Flagship Dealer for 24 years because of your support, and I truly enjoyed my time as "Al the Drum Guy."

If you have time, check out the following video from Mark Craney in clinic playing my kit on the second day of owning it.