Lp 229 Mambo Cowbell

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Azalee Rowling

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Aug 3, 2024, 4:10:00 PM8/3/24

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I remember reading on the internet what the make and model of Neil's cowbells were... but as of late I cannot find the source! Oh well, bookmarks tend to get lost whenever you have to reformat your computer...

Well, during the bulding of my Tama Superstar '79-'81 replica set I've made a lot of research about Neil's cowbells and I can say the most difficult thing to recreate is the frame with the three cowbells of different pitch. This is what I've used for my project and I can say is quite accurate (at least for me) in terms of sound and pitch.

In my opinion the triple cowbells frame is Gon Bops and I've been lucky enough to find one on Ebay but unfortunately I don't like how they sound, I also have bought a set of Afro ACB20 (now Pearl) which you can find on Ebay at $9.95, they're nice but too big and the pitch don't match Neil's cowbells pitch. Let me know if you want to see a picture of my cowbells tree.

I use these: Pearl Tri-Bells. They're awesome. I also think that the bottom one is an LP Mambo. The Tri-Bells are mounted on a straight stand, screwed on from the very back using a separate nut rather than the one that comes with them. If he screwed it on with the regular nut, the top bell would cover the Tri-Bells and he wouldn't be able to reach them.

Nobody knows what cowbells Neil currently uses. People who viewed the SS Professor on it's recent tour saw no markings on them, and even Lorne Wheaton, his drum tech, did not know. Several people asked him. Apparently only Neil knows who made them.

I was the one person, (and I know that because Lorne complimented me on asking him a question that he had never been asked before), that asked Lorne Wheaton specifically about Neil's cowbells at the Las Vegas Drum Clinic Tour. Here's precisely what he said to me.

The manufacturer of the three highest cowbells have gone out of business and he couldn't for the life of him remember the name of that company. He did confirm that the 4th pitched (from high to low) and the 5th pitched (lowest) cowbells were in fact LP brand. I then asked Lorne what the pitches are for his current R30 cowbell setup. Lorne just shrugged his shoulders and said, you tell me! Then he played each cowbell from high to low twice for me. I video taped the entire clinic. When I arrived back home in Florida, I replayed the tape and was able to verify that the Neil Peart 5 cowbell setup on his current R30 drumset is pitched as follows...

Alessandro (who's NP 79-81 replica drumset is absolutely stunningly accurate and very beautiful too...maybe he can re-post his pictures again here!) is correct that Neil had a chrome cowbell added to his '79-'81 cowbell setup, and a set of LP agogo bells also. However, the most current cowbells that are present on Neil's R30 drumset total only 5 and are pitched as I notated above. I hope this helps you out, Mr. Ludwig.

As a side note, Neil has referred to his melodic cowbells in all of the tour book equipment lists as LP (Latin Percussion)...with one exception, of course. In the 1990 Presto tour book, on page 7, Neil lists the manufacturer of his current cowbells as Guernsey & Holstein. This exhibits Neil's great wit and comedic subtly...just in case anyone thought he was actually serious about that!!!!

Jim, yes it'a custom stand, I didn't want to drill the cymbal so I put a cylindrical piece of solid brass inside the top section stand which is female threaded and it screws to the bottom part of the stand.

This is crazy! I'm up late trying to buy an LP white cowbell tree. Three of them. I have one on my DW kit at the office. It's perfect for "The Trees" but my main kit is home in my garage. It seems the cowbell tree is out of print. I will just put the tree on my home kit. Damn.