Danny Carey - TOOL - Tour Kit Rundown

Welcome, fellow audiophiles, drumming enthusiasts, TOOL fans, and lovers of all things progressive! Today, we've scored an exclusive backstage peek into the rhythmic labyrinth that is Danny Carey's drum kingdom for TOOL's Fear Inoculum Tour. Surrounded by instruments, Danny is joined by Modern Drummer CEO David Frangioni as they peel back the layers of Carey's one-of-a-kind drum arsenal.

World renowned drum tech, Joe Slaby, graciously provided a detailed gear list of the components that Danny used for this particular show (gear list below). Joe emphasized that the setup is constantly changing and evolving, so the list is just a snapshot of the decisions for that day.

Danny's Gear in this Video:
The drums are Sonor SQ2 with Vintage series lugs. Sonor made Danny two versions of this touring kit, one beech, one maple. These toms are beech, these kicks are maple. The kicks and toms are wrapped with a design by Alex Grey. The shells on the smallest tom are thickest and they get thinner as the drum diameter increases.

Drums:
The main snares are two Sonor HLD590’s (one with 10 lugs, one with 12 lugs) both 14” x 8” bronze drums. Also, he has a new Dunnett 14” x 8” purple bronze snare and a Sonor 14" x 8" beech snare that has a wrap that matches the toms.

From left to right, the drums are: 8" x 8" and 10" x 10" SQ2 rack toms, 14" rototom with custom mount by Brian Totten (this drum was formerly owned by Terry Bozzio!), 16" x 14" and 18" x 16" SQ2 floor toms with legs, 16" x 22" SQ2 Gong Drum (with Danny Carey's portrait by Alex Grey), 18" x 22" and 20" x 24" SQ2 Bass Drums.

Cymbals:
All cymbals are paiste except where noted;
- 22" "Monad" Danny Carey signature dry heavy ride
- pair 12” Stewart Copeland signature hi hats
- 18" Signature full crash with 2002 5” cup chime inverted on top
- 18" Signature power crash with Hammerax 6” bell inverted on top
- 20" Signature power crash with 5” Hammerax FX inverted on top
- 24” NOVO china
- 22" signature thin China
- Noiseworks stack, 18" china, 11” top
- “Twenty” series 10" splash with Dark Energy 8" splash (inverted on top)
- 8” 3000 series bell with 6” 2002 accent (inverted on top)
- Cup Chime #1 8” and Cup Chime #3 7” (inverted on top)
- 38” Symphonic gong
- 60” Sound Creation Earth gong (seperate from the kit)

Electronics:
- Roland Handsonic (original version)
- Roland Octapad
- Drum tech FAT and HAT trigger pedals
- Seven @MandalaDrum drum triggers, connected via CAT5 to the Mandala brain, which is sending signal to Battery software by @Nativeinstruments on a MAC computer, which passes audio through an Apollo X3.
- Buchla Marimba Lumina Gold mallet keyboard, which is triggering a rack mounted Access Virus synth
- Rupert Neve 16 channel summing mixer for all electronic drum components to FOH
- Original Korg Wave drum ('94) with custom rack mount by Brian Totten
- “Toolbox” modular Euro rack synth by Peter Grenader, used on “Chocolate Chip Trip” drum solo.

Hardware:
- Pearl "Eliminator" Kick pedals and remote hi hat Danmar 206 beater and blue cam on kicks.
- Sonor hardware for cymbals, electronic drums, mic and tom arms, and snare stand
- Pearl Rack System
- Roc n Soc Throne

Drum Heads:
All drum heads are Evans
- Toms: clear EC2s on batter, clear G1 on resonant side
- Rototom and gong drum: clear G1
- Snare: coated Power Center on batter, 300 weight snare side w/ Puresound snare wires
- Kicks: Clear EQ3 on batter (removable ring out), Inked EQ3 on resonant side with 4" air vent, with Evans EQ pillows barely touching each head.

Sticks:
- @VicFirth Danny Carey signature model, wood tip
- Vic Firth Tim Genis roller mallets

Monitoring:
- JH Audio "Roxanne" In-ear monitors
- Shure P10R Wireless bodypack receiver

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Follow TOOL, Modern Drummer, and friends on Instagram :

Extra Special Thanks to the Modern Drummer Team:
Felipe Laverde, Jason Mehler, Alex Kluft

[ModernDrummerOfficial]

Hey all! Be sure to check the video description for a full gear list of Danny’s setup for this show.

FYI, Danny has been on four Modern Drummer Magazine covers since 1997. Subscribe to the digital magazine to read them all! (Cover links are in the description)

[CC_Babblecock]

The best thing about Danny Carey is that he has no idea he’s Danny Carey.

[BatmanWangChung]

I love how casual Danny said he goes through 2 or 3 snare heads a night 🫠

[ileutur]

Danny and Justin have always been the most open members of Tool, love seeing details of their gear

[predictivesolutionsltd]

I love how humble he is. He acts as if he is not the best drummer on earth

[JustLilGecko]

I know this is wishing for a lot, but man, a big fat drumeo feature with Danny would be an absolute dream, would love to just hear him talk about... Well. Drumming. For hours and hours. Such a unique brain on him.

[kleepo]

This is why he's one of the most well-respected drummers in the world.

[royals]

Im just amazed at how humble Danny is. I saw them a month ago in OKC and purchased VIP tickets, and him and Justin were obviously the most cordial and friendly. You could definitely tell Adam was not comfortable around people, and thats who I was there to see the most, but they still came out after the warm up session (which was by far one of the coolest things ive ever seen) and took a pic. I was literally 3 feet from Danny and 10 from Adam. Danny shook everyones hand he walked past, and you could just see how nice of a guy he is by his interactions. They were all so cool, but I remember thinking, man, Danny is genuinely just a really nice dude.

[carryingfire]

Danny is kinda like your friends dad whos a little awkward but he comes down to the basement while you guys are playing video games to talk for a while and youre secretly stoked hes there.

[criticolehits]

Danny Carey seems like the kinda dude that'd be stoked to meet Danny Carey.

[adamantiumrage]

Damn. Ive been waiting over 20 years for a video like this.

[TheBurdenOfHope]

One of the best drummers of all time just shooting the breeze and sharing his wisdom and knowledge like it’s no big deal. What a guy.

[tara-leedawn]

“I’m not warmed up”… then produces a god damn masterclass hahaha greatest drummer ever! 💜💜💜

[iloveNgany]

Absolute drum nerd right there. He’s seems like he would be clumsy because he’s so tall…but plays with such finesse. You’d never guess he is a rock star. Awesome personality.

[LuisMoura-kg]

Let’s also appreciate Joe Slaby for taking the time to write a list of all drums parts!

[erikbond]

I know absolutely nothing about drumming, and am still mesmerized by his kit and the sounds he’s able to make with it. Very doubtful he will ever see this comment, but shout out to my friend Cody for introducing me to Tool back in the late 90’s. Much love to him, & the whole Tool crew, & community.

[PuttinOnTheRiffs]

16 year old me is soooo happy. 35 year old me is even happier. Thanks for doing this Danny

[BrendanRWolfe]

Imagine being the greatest drummer on Earth, and being this humble and open

[jimbo-nelly]

I was watching him play on YouTube yesterday and was like how the hell is he getting different tones and entirely different sounds out of one 🥁 individual drum…. It dawned on me that it must be the actual mats on top.. but I didn’t actually get the recommendation to watch this until just now…. I didn’t discuss my confusion or curiosity about the sounds being used, but still I find myself sitting here today being taught a lesson about how it works by the GOAT HIMSELF!!!! This universe is absolutely filled with wizardry and I love it

[LuisMoura-kg]

What a chill dude! The fact that he always credits his team and band, always refreshing to see guys at this level keeping themselves grounded and not letting ego takeover