Chip Clemmer plays a standard four piece 30 year old Pearl drum kit with a rosewood finish.

For most classic rock and blues sessions: 24" bass drum, 12" rack tom, 15" floor tom slung from a stand, either a 6" brass snare, 5" steel shell snare, or a 6 1/2" wood shell snare depending on the room. All snare drums are 14" in diameter.

For smaller rooms or big band hits, substitute a 22" bass drum for the 24" one.

For small group jazz gigs: 18" bass drum, 10" rack tom, 14" floor tom, 4" wood shell snare drum.

For slightly larger jazz ensembles, or for real small rooms on blues hits: 20" bass drum, 12" rack tom, 14" floor tom, 4" or 5" wood shell snare.

Chip uses Evans Genera G1 coated heads as batter heads on his snare drums and tom toms, and Evans Emad heads on his bass drum batter heads with the small muffling ring. The front heads are Evans EQ3 heads with a small port hole. The 18" and 20" bass drums use Evans EQ1 coated heads as their front heads. There are no holes in the front heads of the 18" and 20" bass drums. Addional muffling, when needed in the 22" and 24" bass drums, is accomplished with one or two towels inside the drums. He only uses additional muffling if the bass drums are close miked. Other than that, the heads ring wide open with the only dampening being provided by the dampening built into the head.

Chip is an avid cymbal collector and currently uses Paiste Cymbals on all gigs. His main cymbal rig for most big band, blues and country gigs is as follows: 22" Dark Energy Ride Mark I, 18" Signature series Mellow Crash, 17" Signature Series Mellow Crash, 14" Signature Series Heavy Hi Hats.

For more highly amplified gigs he substitutes a 22" Signature Series Dry Heavy Ride for the Dark Energy Ride and uses Signature Series 17" full crash and 18" full crash cymbals.

For softer gigs, very live rooms, and most small group jazz gigs, Chip uses Paiste Signature Series 17" fast crash and 18" fast crash cymbals instead of the mellow crash cymbals. They are a little lighter.

Alternate Paiste Signature Series cymbal sets include:

22" Dark Energy Ride Mark II, 18" Dark Energy Crash Mark I, 19" Dark Energy Crash Mark I, 14" Dry Crisp Hi Hats.

20" Dark Full Ride, 17" mellow crash,17" Full Crash, 14" Dark Full Hi Hats.

20" Traditional Medium Ride or 20" Traditonal Light Ride, 16" Mellow Crash, 16" Full Crash, 14" Medium Hi Hats... 16", 17", and 18" Traditional Thin Crashes can be substituted on some traditional style small group jazz gigs.

Some extras in the collection that will show up on gigs from time to time are: 2002 Series 20" Ride, 20" 2002 Series Jazz Rock Heavy Ride, 2002 Series 16" Crash, 2002 Series 18" Crash, 2002 Series 14" Sound Edge Hi Hats, 602 Series 20" Heavy Ride, and a 602 Series 20" Medium Ride.

His standard set up for most gigs is a four piece drum kit with a ride cymbal, two crashes, and a set of hi hats.

Chip also uses Vic Firth drum sticks exclusively. For most gigs he uses model 5BN nylon tips, but uses 5AN or 7AN for lighter jazz gigs when needed. For loud amplified playing, Chip uses the Rock model with nylon tips. For light jazz gigs, he uses Vic Firth SD4 Combo sticks and occasionally will use Vic Firth AJ series sticks when it's time to play REAL soft. Chip also uses several types of brushes as well as Blastix and other dowel bundle sticks as needed.

Chip Clemmer proudly uses Paiste Cymbals, Evans Drum Heads, Pearl Drums and Vic Firth drum sticks.