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Owning a kit this size would require a van to transport it, a garage or lock-up to store it in and a roadie to do the lugging

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As with all unusual finishes, visual inconsistencies reduce the impact. The tuning rods, for instance, gleam away in standard stainless steel, as do the floor tom legs and all the wingnuts on the kit. Even the tom suspension mounts feature rivets that have been added after the painting process. The result seems hasty and not properly thought out.

More worryingly, when we were putting the kit together we came across one too many threads that needed a little persuading to screw in. That’s most unusual these days, and we wonder how many lugs on Travis’s own kit have required re-threading after a life on the road. No stands are supplied with the kit, but four ball-and-socket tom arms, complete with clamps to attach them to cymbal stands, are included. They are Warrior Coat free.

The most perplexing aspect of the kit is the choice of heads. Travis is an Aquarian endorsee, so there was a huge opportunity there for the taking by the two companies. Instead the kit is fitted with generic clear heads that are evidently only fractionally thicker than a cigarette paper. Even looking at them, it’s obvious that they are cheap and substandard. An inexplicable decision.

Hands On

Size is an issue with a kit this big, as we found out. Once we had assembled the bass drums we were only just able to get them through a standard doorway, and we have scraped knuckles as proof. Owning a kit this size would require a van to transport it, a garage or lock-up to store it in and a roadie to do the lugging. And pub gigs? Forget it...

We began with the enormous bass drums. Unsurprisingly, they are big sounding with a clear emphasis on bottom end. Other than that they didn’t reveal a great deal of character. Their vast length ensured that there was no attack at the top of each pedal stroke, just a huge, deep wallop. They were also intriguingly dry, to the extent that only minimal dampening was needed.

The thick-shelled snare gave a tight, hard crack that had no problem cutting through. Its die-cast rims ensured that rimshots really bit and kept any ringing within reason. Again, little in the way of dampening was required and it sat well with the bass drums. In fact, the kick and snare combination would be as at home in experimental dance or industrial music as the metal it was designed for.

The wonderful array of toms bore the brunt of the poor choice of heads. The rack toms were reduced to rototom-like ‘boing’s, with only the floor toms producing anything resembling the growl that they are so surely capable of. Fitting branded heads to a couple of the toms brought an instant improvement. There is no disguising cheap heads – up to 80 percent of a drum’s sound comes from the head – so to leave six drums out of a nine-piece kit so vulnerable to criticism is an extraordinary oversight.