Zack Grooves | CHOPS, Gear and Career | Meinl Cymbal Setup
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- By Joel
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What does Zack Grooves play? Have a look at Zack's Official Meinl Cymbal Setup. All available to try and buy at the UK's largest drum shop Graham Russell Drums.
Artist Rig Rundown
Dry, dark and double strokes: inside the Zack Grooves setup
Zack Graybeal, better known online as Zack Grooves, is a North Carolina drummer who went from playing jazz clubs and bars into running one of the most watched drum channels on the internet. His playing is all feel: deep pocket, dry cymbals, and a sense of humour that has coaxed a lot of lapsed players back into making music again.
What makes his rig worth digging into is how specific it is. There is nothing showy on the list. Every piece is picked for the same quality: a dark, dry, controlled voice that sits inside the music rather than on top of it. If you have ever wondered why his kit sounds so immediately recognisable through a phone speaker, it is almost entirely down to the cymbals.
The Quick Version
Meinl Byzance cymbals, mostly Extra Dry and including three different pairs of hi-hats, played with his own Meinl signature hickory sticks. The unlathed, raw Byzance sound is the thread running through the whole setup.
The Sticks
The brief Zack took into Meinl was a simple one: a stick light enough for small, intimate rooms, but with enough weight behind it to project when a gig asks for more. What came back is a medium-thin hickory stick with a long taper and a surprising amount of heft, milled from heavy dowels and then weight and pitch matched in pairs.
Meinl Zack Grooves Signature American Hickory Drumsticks
£11.95
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American hickory, oval tip, long taper
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16.5″ length, 0.55″ (13.9mm) diameter
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Weight and pitch matched, made in Germany
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Product code SB606
The Cymbals
Here is the part that raises eyebrows when players walk into the drum shop and ask about it: Zack carries three separate pairs of Byzance Extra Dry hi-hats, at 13″, 15″ and 16″. Not as a collection to rotate through, but as three genuinely different voices, each one suited to a different kind of music. The 13″ pair is tight and quick, the 15″ opens things out, and the 16″ pair trades definition for that warm, slightly trashy, old-record character that Extra Dry is known for.
Byzance 13″ Extra Dry Medium Hi-Hats
£419.00
Byzance 15″ Extra Dry Medium Thin Hi-Hats
£485.00
Byzance 16″ Extra Dry Medium Thin Hi-Hats
£595.00
The accents
Around the hats, the rest of the setup carries on the same theme. There is a Byzance Dark 8″ Splash for the short, punchy stabs, a Byzance Dual 10″ Splash, and two trash crashes (a Dual 16″ and an Extra Dry 18″) that do most of the colour work. Overhead sits a Byzance Foundry Reserve 20″ Light Ride, the hand-hammered B20 model that turns a simple pulse into something far more complex than a plain ping.
Looking for the rest of the setup?
Stock on individual Byzance models moves quickly, and the trash crashes and Foundry Reserve rides in particular come and go. The full range lives in our Meinl collection, one of the largest selections of Meinl cymbals in the UK, and it is worth checking the Cymbal Loft for what has just landed.
And Behind It All
Drums-wise, Zack plays a Dixon Cornerstone series kit with a rotating cast of Dixon snares. It is a deliberately unfussy foundation, which is rather the point, because on this setup the cymbals are doing the talking.
Come And Try It
Hear the Extra Dry Sound For Yourself
Extra Dry is one of those ranges that never quite translates through a video. It has to be played. Our Cymbal Loft is set up so you can take a pair of hats down, put them on a stand next to another pair, and hear the difference properly, which is the main reason people make the trip into the drum shop rather than ordering blind. Bring your own sticks, or try a pair of Zack’s.
About The Author
Written by Joel Smith
Graham Russell Drums
I have been part of Graham Russell Drums since I was 15 in 2019 and now work here full-time. Starting on the shop floor, I have built and tuned hundreds and hundreds of drum kits across every price point and playing style, advised everyone from families buying a first kit to international touring drummers, and had my knowledge sharpened further by years of in-store clinics and masterclasses with some of the world’s finest players. The advice here comes from that experience, not a spec sheet.
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