Many moons ago, I worked in a small drum shop in Nanaimo British Columbia Canada called Island Drum.  In my tow years there, I got to know more about drum and percussion equipment than most peeps should ever know.  Having worked with Michael Wright (owner/proprietor) I learned how to know good gear and clever ideas with barely a glance.  I listened to customers talk about what works and what doesn't with their own setups and came to realise that some gear is absolutely brilliant, some is just gimmicky crap (remember the Janus Transmission Pedal rig?  Great idea that just didn't work), and how to tell the difference between them.  If I had endless mountains of money  I'd probably get a kit made by Mr Ray Ayotte, legendary drumsmith and current owner of Raya Drums but alas, the shipping alone would probably bankrupt me.  Seriously, check this out.

My current setup is kind of strange in that one day I setup everything I have all at the same time in one fairly epic kit in the dining room and then started removing things I didn't hit at all during a full run through of three sets of Bon Scotts music.  This is a great exersice by the way, be conscious of what you actually use/need and stop lugging around six toms.  Nobody hires you based on how impressive your kit is, they want to know how impressive your playing is.  For the most part, only drummers care about drum gear.

 

I've stripped down to a four piece Mapex Saturn kit in Mango Burst with a 10x7 rack tom, a 14x11 hanging floor tom, a 20x16 kick and my Schinbein Drum Co "Moriarty" snare  It's a 14 x 6.5 black brass and it is sick.  About a year ago now, I took my stripped down concept from my Bon Scotts rig and took it a step further.  I cut my bass drum and the 14" tom in half and added tailgate latches so that now the ten goes in the 14, the 14 goes in the kick and the whole pile fits in one kick case.  (Check this out)

 

For cymbals I'm using all Sabians; a 21" Hand Hammered Vintage Ride, a 17" Vault Crash Crash, an 18" Signature Jia China and a pair of custom ordered 13" Hand Hammered Sizzle Hats.  Yes Sabian do that, and do it well.  Anything you can think of they'll make for you, what a great bunch of hosers oot dere in Meductic eh!?

 

With my hardware, I've gone a bit extreme in the name of easy setups.  The heart and soul of my setup is a Gibraltar Stealth Rack.  Very cool piece of equipment.  Other than that, I've got a Gibraltar flat base hihat stand (no need for double bracing if nothing's hanging off your hat stand), and a boom stand for my ride that I think is actually a Dixon stand (note to the wise, Dixon's high end stuff is pretty much the same thing as Gibraltar's mid-range gear same company, same factory, just a bit cheaper).  A couple of clamps and add-ons round things out.  My kick pedal is Sonor's Perfect Balance Pedal developed with Jojo Mayer.  It's an incredible piece of gear, and my old DW 5000 is sitting in the garage collecting dust.  The 7000 I had before that I gave away to my brother in Detroit.  I think his kids use it now.  

 

Percussion wise, I've got one of LP's new Jam Tambs on my hats and love the heck out of it!  I should also mention that if you come see the Bon Scotts, the Tambourine Tina is using actually belongs to my girlfriend, Stephanie.  :)

 

As far as consumables go, my stick bag is a bit schizo at the moment, with Vic Firth SD4 sticks, Vater Bamboo Splashsticks and timpani mallets and Regal Tip Clayton Cameron signature brushes.  My heads are mostly Evans with a couple Remo's thrown in out of neccesity.   Both brands are fantastic, I just use what I can get my hands on at the time.

 

Now for the most important parts, cases.  I can't stress this enough, even if your kit only cost you a couple hundred bucks, your cases are THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU OWN.  My entire rig fits into an SKB TPX-2  an SKB Kick Case and a Hardcase Snare Case. For backline gigs where I don't need to bring my own kit, I pack my cymbals, snare, kick pedal and tambourines into various bags by Monocase.

 

For practicing, I use a Yamaha DTXplorer that's a half a billiondy years old.  I bought it cheap off Ebay...

 

I should probably mention that I'm not an endorsor of any of the aforementioned companies, I just appreciate solid well-made gear and feel it's important to share this kind of information.  That being said, of course I'd be open to discuss deals with any of these companies simply because I believe in what they have all accomplished.