Chip is very happy and privileged to be an endorsee of English drum company Jalapeño Drums http://ww.jalpenodrums.co.uk
These drums are beautifully hand made somewhere up north by the awfully talented clever chap and good mate David Nuttall. Chip uses two main Jalapeño kits which are at rather different ends of the scale.
THE RUSSIAN DOLL
Being a clever chap David has devised these kits where all the drums fit inside the bass drum (just like a Russian doll would you believe!)
Chip’s is the prototype (the first one David made!), has a 16 inch bass drum and all fits inside a floor tom case. Looks like a toy but sounds great.
THE DUKE TOURING KIT
When we wanted something that would look, sound, and reflect the music being created by Duke Special, I asked David if he could design something with that in mind.
And here it is!
KIT ADDITIONS AND QUIRKY SOUNDS
Over the years Chip has found himself in many situations where the demands of the music have required more than a conventional kit set up and has found the music and songs are often enhanced by particular sounds and flavours.
“The drum kit seems to be limited in most settings to kick, snare, tom, another tom and a few cymbals, but for me there are no rules. There are wealth of instruments and sounds to be discovered. I hope to enrich the music I support or create with all kinds of delicious noises. Of course there is a thin line between gimmicks and playing for the song but those times where you get it right can be magical.”
