Mötley Crüe - Theatre Of Pain - What drums were used in the studio?

[Jules]

The query posed to me was:

Challenge for you:
Tommy Lee became a Phonic Plus endorsed for the ‘Theatre of Pain’ album and tour. The Toms on that record sound incredible and I would love to know if he used them for the record (safe assumption). [END]

I know that lots of drummers (Lars being on of them) use drums from a cartage company in the studio. Plus, the research I found so far indicate that the producer used lots of layering, triggers and processing, so it would not have been a dry drum sound even if the Phonic Pluses were used.

Does anyone have any actual insight as to what was used and how the drum sounds may have been manipulated?

[tcbetka]

I don't have definitive information, but I can tell you that he popped into our RMMP usenet group occasionally, back in the mid-90s. He had been using DW, although I don't know the exact year he starting with them--it may been the early 90s, as (I think) that's when DW became a thing. I did have DW hardware though in the 80s, so it may well have been before the early 90s. But I ended up buying a set of DW drums around the mid-90s (actually two kits eventually), so I emailed with him a couple of times about those drums. I remember that he was very jacked about DW drums in general, and was quite adamant about how good they were back then. But what I don't know however, is how long he'd been using DW drums. It may well be that he was not using those back when that album came out. So this information may well be superfluous in that sense.

[Jules]

Tommy Lee was a Tama guy, then Sonor then Pearl then DW, unless my transmission is slipping. When he wasn't to DW he made that claim that Sonor and Pearl were sending him out of round drums. I already wasn't a big fan, but that nonsense closed my ears to anything else he would ever say. I am not saying that it is impossible for a drum to be or become out of round, but to insinuate that was recurring to the point of ending endorsements, BULL. And nobody else was having that problem.

[tcbetka]

OK, so then he probably went to DW in the early/mid 90s, about the time he was coming in the Usenet group I was in. I guess that makes sense.

[Frank Godiva]

Speaking of Phonic Plus

In an interview with Beato, Danny C. stated that his Phonic Plus bass drum was the best he had ever played and was on every Tool studio album.