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Above: Original Cream-era Ginger Baker

"The bass drums have single-ply DW heads with full front heads. Damping is a little DW pillow which just touches both heads. He uses the felt side of the DW beaters with no impact pads. The main thing is he loves that open sound, no muffling. He wants them to sing, as he puts it."

"He taught me this technique where he hits the floor tom and then works his way up and taps the snare drum with the snares off so the drums are all in tune with each other. He'll work out the tension of the snare from how the toms sound."

"The snare is fairly low, a fat sound. The bottom tom heads are tuned a quarter turn higher than the tops. His main thing is the snare and he leaves the toms to me. He'll say, 'I don't really care how often you change the toms as long as you leave the snare alone'."

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