A Tour of the Whitney Nesting "Penguin" Series

[MrB]

I would like to be very clear that everything that follows is based off the intellectual property of Mr. JT Whitney, and while I am not endorsed by him, I strongly urge those of you with the means and interest of doing so to support him and his business. Please refer to his website for pricing and further information.

Anyway, roughly a month ago, after years of watching the local listings, a used Whitney kit finally came up for sale. I've personally been interested in them for years, but did not purchase a new kit as I wanted the opportunity to personally investigate the instrument in great detail, as it is such a radical departure from traditional drum design.

Here is what a 4 piece Whitney kit and its accoutrements look like all packed up. The person I bought the kit from also packed his kick drum pedal and hihat stand into the main hardware bag. I have chosen to keep mine separate. Not pictured is the throne. As an aside, I have seen a video of one fellow that has figured out a way to pack the cymbals inside the kick drum case, something I would not personally advise.





The kick drum case, which houses the kick drum, two toms, and snare, weighs in at 55 pounds. I have a third tom which I do not use that also nests within this arrangement, and would probably increase the overall weight by another 3 pounds or so.

Here is the branded hardware bag that you get with each kit.



With the Quickstand assemby and two vertical rack towers and clamps, the hardware bag weighs in at roughly 40 pounds. As mentioned, there is room to include the hihat stand and kick pedal, but due to the fact that I already have cases for each, I chose to keep them separate.

[MrB]

Whitney Nesting Penguin Review, Part II: The Hardware Bag

Now that I have shown you what the kit looks like all packed up for transport, let's walk through the procedure of assembling it.

When assembling a traditional kit, I tend to start with the bass drum. When it comes to the Whitney kit, however, the first thing to reach for is the hardware bag.



As previously mentioned, mine weighs in at about 40 pounds. However, I do not transport my hihat stand nor kick drum pedal within, although there is sufficient room to do so. In order to open the bag, one must undo the shoulder strap, which attaches diagonally.



Undoing the strap is quite simple, and I find that compared to a duffle bag, rather sturdy. The bag itself is semi-rigid, with a large velcro pocket running along one side. There is ample room for several pairs of sticks, as well as a small tin box I carry with me of small essentials, such as extra cymbal felts, wing nuts, and drum keys.

Opening the bag, one sees a semi-rigid divider making two large compartments- one for the wooden quickstand base, and another compartment for basically everything else.



Let's unpack, shall we?

[MrB]

Whitney Nesting Penguin Review, Part III (Part 1 of 2): The Quickstand Base

JT Whitney's kits are cleverly designed and unique for two reasons: first, to create lightweight shells that nest within one another quickly without the need to tune each time; second, for his approach to hardware.

When setting up one of his kits, one must first set up the wooden Quickstand base. This is what it looks like from the audience perspective:



It is to this platform that one inserts the kick drum and two pieces of rack pipe. Here is what it looks like from the driver's seat:

[MrB]

Whitney Nesting Penguin Review, Part III (Part 2 of 2): The Quickstand Base

The Quickstand Base includes a wooden section to affix the kick drum pedal to, as highlighted here:



And a closer shot, since I have the camera handy:



From the driver's seat perspective, the stand is well-designed and affords great clearance. Here is a closer shot of the stand from the audience perspective:



Here you can see the channel that the hinge pin travels, allowing the whole unit to fold. I do plan on making a slight modification to this section, which I plan to forward to JT himself. More on that later, though. With the Quickstand unfolded, the next step is to unpack the shells.

[MrB]

Whitney Nesting Penguin Review, Part IV (Part 1 of 3): Unpacking the Shells

Now that the Quickstand Base is open, it's time to unpack the kit. Ready?



That's it. One 18" SKB hard case that weighs 55 pounds and everything else is nested inside the kick drum.





Now how do we get it open? Unlike the Yamaha Hipgig kits, Treehouse kits, or Ray Ayotte's Nesting kit, which all use a split-shell design and latches, JT's design is truly one-of-a-kind. On each drum, you'll find black thumbscrews, such as these:

[MrB]

Whitney Nesting Penguin Review, Part IV (Part 2 of 3): Unpacking the Shells

Once you have fully loosened the black thumbscrews (four for the kick drum), the head and a wooden collar that receives the tension rods separates from the shell. Boom goes the dynamite!



I am uncertain if this is a standard feature, but the kit I purchased came with a channel to run a microphone cable, which is clearly labeled.



As I bought the kit used, some rash is present. If you look closely, you can see that the thread housing for the black thumbscrews is black, which those for the tension rods is not. Another visual cue is the tension rod receivers have a bit of surrounding rash.



To speed up assembly, I've clearly marked where the thumbscrew receivers are with blue painter's tape.

[MrB]

Whitney Nesting Penguin Review, Part IV (Part 3 of 3): Unpacking the Shells

Here are the two toms and kick spread across my couch. The toms are wrapped in supplied fleece cloth for transport.



Here is a shot of the empty kick drum, cracked open.



This is the best illustration of the "fat in the middle" concept, where the name Penguin is derived from. The shell is 3 ply birch wrapped around the collar that receives the tension rods, and as a result of removing nearly all the metal from the shell (no lugs, badges, spurs on the kick, and in this kit's case, wooden hoops), the weight is a fraction of traditional drum design. Consequently, one can use smaller shell sizes to achieve tones equivalent to those of larger, traditionally constructed drums.

Let's put the kit together now that it's unpacked.

[MrB]

Whitney Nesting Penguin Review, Part V (Part 1 of 2): Securing the Kick Drum

With the Quickstand open and the drums unpacked, now we start assembly. The kick drum goes in the Quickstand first, and is secured by two wingnuts that fit into grooved channels. Here are the wingnuts:





Here is where they align in the Quickstand:

[MrB]

Whitney Nesting Penguin Review, Part V (Part 2 of 2): Securing the Kick Drum

Once the wingnuts are in their channels and fastened, the kick is now secured in place.







As an aside, the idea of the whole foundation of the kit being wooden made me nervous. Putting that aside, as making the Quickstand out of metal would add considerable weight, here is where I have a quibble with the design that I will call to JT's attention. As shown, the kick drum is supported by two wing nuts in two grooved channels. There is a gap between the front of the kick drum and the Quickstand base, highlighted here:



This gap allows the kick to resonate freely, and sound larger than its size would suggest. However, the way it is secured to me stressed one side of the shell, and I intend to close the highlighted gap in the near future by adding a block of wood topped with weather stripping to more evenly support the drum.

With the kick in place, it's time to deal with some rack piping.

[MrB]

Whitney Nesting Penguin Review, Part VI: The First Rack Pipe

The Quickstand Base features two clamps to either side of the kick drum, to which one vertically attaches two supplied rack pipes. From these pipes, various multiclamps support (for my kit) two cymbals, two toms, and the snare. Here is the pipe that supports the high tom, high cymbal, and snare.



Here is it installed.



Now, an aside. I've seen various pictures of these kits over the years and have studied them at length. I've noticed something that appears to be an oversight of many who've put them together. For whatever reason, when this piping is attached to the Quickstand, various owners, I've noticed, have left a gap of a few inches between the pipe and the floor. I am uncertain of the reasoning behind this, but in my mind, doing so puts needless stress on the wooden frame. The previous owner of this kit also did this, and one of the first modifications I made was to drop the piping so that the weight load would rest on the ground, and the wooden Quickstand would merely be asked to keep the pipe standing upright.

Here is what I'm talking about.



For whatever reason, I seem to be the only one doing this.

Here's a shot of the post with all the clamps in position.

[MrB]

Whitney Nesting Penguin Review, Part VII: On the Supplied Clamps

JT supplies PDP multiclamps with his kits, at least for the cymbals. You may have noticed I've ditched those in favor of Yamaha cymbal booms that I already owned. I did this because I found that the Yamaha ones were marginally lighter, and the spirit of this kit is to cut weight wherever possible.

Included with the kit was this style of tom arm, which holds the snare.



The kit came with four of these (there are three toms, one of which I do not use, and a snare), and for the high tom I have chosen to again cut weight and go with my old Taye tom clamp, which is lighter. To my chagrin, the rack pipe diameter is too wide for the Taye clamp to attach directly, so I am unable to swap out the lighter Taye clamp for the low tom and snare. Anyway, here's the Taye clamp and a place where I shaved off a little more weight.



With the pipe installed, you work from the ground up, and hang the snare next, like so.



Now for the high tom.

[MrB]

Whitney Nesting Penguin Review, Part VIII: Attaching the High Tom and About Serial Numbers

The high tom is the only drum in the kit which does not open, which makes sense as nothing has to nest inside it.



Apropos of nothing, but since the kit has no badges, the only way to tell if they are authentic (aside from the unusual design) is to look for JT's initials and a serial number that he has engraved inside each shell. They can take a little while to find, but they are there and nearly impossible to photograph.



Here's the tom, snare, and kick set up.

[MrB]

Whitney Nesting Penguin Review Part XI: To the Second Rack Pipe

As with the first pipe, I make sure my pipe rests on the ground and I am only asking the Quickstand to keep it from tipping.



Ready for the low tom.

[MrB]

Now let's add the cymbals. Since I have a larger crash (18") to my right, I have chosen to use a separate stand for easier setup and to avoid overstressing the Quickstand.







The last construction detail I'd like to call attention to is the additional reinforcement inside the shell where the mounting bracket is attached.

[MrB]

Kit Statistics

Whitney Nesting Penguin 18" Drumkit (all sizes diameter by depth): 18"x14", 8"x4", 15"x6.5", with a 14"x3.5" snare. Or are they? Traditional measuring does not apply to this kit. These figures exclude the wooden hoops and measure the expanded portion of the drum to the separation point.

Country of Origin: USA

Shell Material: 3 Ply Birch

Hoops: Wood (traditional steel hoops also available)

Purchase Price: $2,000 on the used market, which included: 3 toms, 1 snare, 1 kick, Quickstand base and all requisite mounting hardware, SKB travel case, Whitney-branded hardware bag, 1 Axis A Longboard kick pedal, and 1 Axis Vortex Hihat stand.

What Whitney Does Well: The selling point of this kit is a small footprint and unsurpassed portability. This is the easiest kit to tune that I have ever encountered. The tones are rich and the sustain is surprisingly long.

What Whitney Can Improve: As each kit is a custom endeavor, the design has been tinkered with over the years. With this specific kit, my only modifications were to further trim hardware weight, and I would like to more evenly support the kick drum.

Things to Bear In Mind: For recording and most live performances, I have no hesitation recommending JT's Whitney Nesting Penguin kits. They provide plenty of volume, rich tone, and once you become familiar with the setup and teardown procedure it takes no longer than that of a traditional kit. That said, the 3 ply birch shell simply will not project enough to be heard in the loudest of rock and metal music. It is important to be realistic about the amount of weight you ask the Quickstand to support. I also advise when storing the kit between uses to keep the opening of the SKB case perpendicular to the floor, so that that weight of the drums is not concentrated on the internal collar nor the heads. At 55 pounds, the drums, when nested together and encased, is manageable, but I do advise a lightweight cart or dolly- makes things much easier.

All told, I am very satisfied with my new Whitney Kit and will be enjoying it for many years. Thank you, JT!

[SpazApproved]

Thank you so much for the inside scoop! I've wondered about these for awhile now!

Now to work on your focusing skills

[MrB]

Now to work on your focusing skills

I am left to assume that refers to the delay I experienced composing the review. My focusing skills are fine, if not exemplary. Working 80 hour weeks, attending my best friend's wedding, comforting another friend who is watching their grandfather die in hospice, and my unwillingness to dash of something that I felt would be inferior quality resulted in a delay of a week or so. Since I am not being compensated for writing reviews and did so purely for informative purposes, it was deemed a low priority.

If you enjoyed the review, thank you.

[longgun]

I am left to assume that refers to the delay I experienced composing the review. My focusing skills are fine, if not exemplary. Working 80 hour weeks, attending my best friend's wedding, comforting another friend who is watching their grandfather die in hospice, and my unwillingness to dash of something that I felt would be inferior quality resulted in a delay of a week or so. Since I am not being compensated for writing reviews and did so purely for informative purposes, it was deemed a low priority.

If you enjoyed the review, thank you.

I believe Spaz was talking about the pics!

Great Review MrB..................I am seriously wanting one of these kits............I'll keep watching for a smokin' used deal.

Congrats on the new kit.

[MrB]

I believe Spaz was talking about the pics!

Great Review MrB..................I am seriously wanting one of these kits............I'll keep watching for a smokin' used deal.

Congrats on the new kit.

D'oh! I can see that now! Thank you everyone for reading.

[carbohydrate kid]

Fantastic review. I have been wondering about these kits for a while and you've answered a lot of questions I had about them.

[late8]

Great write up MrB. I learned something new today. Thanks for taking the time to post the pics and your sharing your thoughts.

[MrB]

Thank you, sirs! Rich I especially like reading your reviews and aspire to be as thorough and informative as you.

Some better shots from my friend's house last night- camera can now focus better outside of my teacup-sized apartment.

[inthpktplayer]

Very nice. Fills a niche I suppose. Enjoy.

[late8]

Thank you, sirs! Rich I especially like reading your reviews and aspire to be as thorough and informative as you.

Some better shots from my friend's house last night- camera can now focus better outside of my teacup-sized apartment.

Thanks MrB. Wow....great looking kit. Now you got me thinking about this wonderful method of nestling drums!

[kay-gee]

Late8... you're a hard guy to figure out. I thought you just dumped a load of $$ into new SKB cases.

LOL

all the best...