# Scott Travis's Drum Setup on Judas Priest's Jugulator (1997)

> What happened to Judas Priest in the 90s? Inside Scott Travis's drum setup on Jugulator, the 1997 album that introduced Tim 'Ripper' Owens after Rob Halford's departure and shifted Travis's playing from Painkiller's speed-metal blitz to a downtuned, thrash-groove attack.

**Type:** Album Drum Setup
**Drummer(s):** [Scott Travis](/llms/drummers/scott-travis.md)
**Band / Album:** Judas Priest — *Jugulator* (1997)
**Genre:** Heavy Metal / Thrash Metal

## Overview

It's one of the most-asked questions by metal fans discovering Judas Priest's catalogue out of order: what happened between 1990's Painkiller and the band's mid-2000s resurgence? The answer starts with Rob Halford's 1992 departure and ends, seven years later, with Jugulator, an album that most casual fans have never heard, but which answers the question completely.

With Halford gone, Judas Priest auditioned dozens of singers before guitarist Glenn Tipton discovered Tim Owens fronting a Judas Priest tribute band called British Steel in Akron, Ohio. Owens, quickly nicknamed Ripper after the Priest deep cut The Ripper, became the band's new vocalist in 1996, and Jugulator, released worldwide on October 28, 1997 through CMC International in the US and SPV in Europe, was his studio debut. It was Judas Priest's thirteenth studio album and their first in seven years.

Sonically, Jugulator is a hard left turn. Guitars are downtuned to C# and C, trading Painkiller's high-speed gallop for a heavier, more thrash-and-groove-metal-oriented sound closer to contemporaries like Pantera and Machine Head than to classic Priest. The album charted at #82 on the Billboard 200, a steep drop from the band's commercial peak, and reached #9 in both Germany and Japan, evidence that the reinvention found an audience even as it alienated traditionalists.

For Scott Travis, Jugulator required a genuine stylistic pivot. The sustained, blast-furnace double bass that defined Painkiller gives way here to a more controlled, groove-locked attack built to serve downtuned riffs rather than outrun them. Travis's gear evolved to match: he moved from the Tama Artstar II birch kit of the Painkiller sessions into a Pearl Masters Custom setup, paired with a leaner all-Paiste 2002 cymbal voice. It's the missing middle chapter of Travis's Priest career, the one that explains how the Painkiller phenom became the drummer who could anchor whatever direction the band needed next.

## Gear Breakdown

- **Drums:** Pearl Pearl Masters Custom (Piano Black finish)
- **Snare:** Pearl Pearl Masters Custom, 14" x 6.5"
- **Cymbals:** Paiste — Paiste 2002
- **Hardware / Pedals:** Pearl Eliminator (x2 independent pedals); Pearl Eliminator Hi-Hat Stand; Pearl Throne, round seat; Vic Firth 5B
- **Heads:** Remo Pinstripe (batter), Remo Ambassador Snare Side
- **Snare tuning:** Medium-high tension, moderate snare wire tension for body and cut

### The Pearl Masters Custom Era Begins

Jugulator marks the first documented switch in Scott Travis's Priest gear story: out of the Tama Artstar II birch kit that powered Painkiller, and into a Pearl Masters Custom setup. The Masters Custom's maple/gum hybrid shell construction trades some of the Artstar II's aggressive high-mid bite for a rounder, punchier low end, a better match for Jugulator's downtuned, C#/C guitar tuning, where a thinner-sounding kit would have gotten buried.

The bass drums also deepened for the first time in Travis's Priest career: 22" x 18", two inches deeper than the 22" x 16" kicks he used on Painkiller. That extra depth is exactly what a groove-metal album built around sustained, downtuned riffs needs — more low-end weight, less machine-gun clatter. It's a configuration Travis would keep for the rest of his Priest career, through Angel of Retribution, Nostradamus, Redeemer of Souls, and Firepower.

The tom array also streamlined here: two rack toms (10", 12") instead of Painkiller's three (10", 12", 13"), plus the same 14"/16" floor tom pairing. Fewer toms meant fewer options for the rapid melodic runs of 1990, but a tighter, more decisive fill vocabulary, appropriate for songs that groove rather than sprint.

### Built for the Downtune

Travis paired his new Masters Custom kit with a matching 14" x 6.5" Masters Custom snare, a maple/gum hybrid shell that sits between the bright steel crack of his Painkiller-era Artstar II snare and the warmer brass tone he'd adopt in the 2000s. For Jugulator's thrash-groove material, that middle-ground tone was the right call: bright enough to cut through Tipton and Downing's downtuned riffing, full-bodied enough not to sound thin against the album's heavier low end.

The die-cast hoops preserved the rim-shot clarity Travis relied on for accents, and he kept his tuning philosophy largely intact from Painkiller — medium-high tension for attack — while dialing back slightly on the extreme tightness that speed-metal tempos demanded. Songs like "Blood Stained" and "Death Row" put the snare front and center on the backbeat, anchoring riffs that move at roughly half the tempo of Painkiller's fastest material.

### All Paiste 2002: A Leaner, Heavier Voice

Where Painkiller mixed Paiste's brilliant-finish Signature series with the 2002 line, Jugulator drops the Signature cymbals entirely and runs on 2002s alone, a leaner, darker, heavier cymbal voice that matches the album's downtuned direction. The 2002 series is Paiste's classic hard-rock/metal workhorse line: less brilliant shimmer than the Signature series, more midrange weight and aggression.

The 14" Sound Edge Hi-Hats, with their serrated bottom edge, give Travis a tighter, more controlled chick than the brilliant-finish Signature hats he used on Painkiller, useful for the more deliberate, groove-based hi-hat patterns that replace Painkiller's constant eighth-note drive. The crash array (16" through 20") stays in the 2002 family throughout, giving a consistent, unified tonal character rather than the brighter/darker contrast Travis built into his Painkiller rig.

The 22" 2002 Ride anchors the verses on mid-tempo cuts like "Brain Dead" and "Bullet Train," while the 18" 2002 China punctuates the heaviest sections of the nine-minute closer "Cathedral Spires." It's a simpler, more focused cymbal setup than Painkiller's, appropriate for an album that trades sprawling technicality for a leaner, meaner attack.

## Key Facts

- Tim "Ripper" Owens's studio debut, discovered by Glenn Tipton fronting a Priest tribute band
- First Priest studio album since Painkiller (1990) — a seven-year gap, the longest in the band's history to that point
- Guitars downtuned to C# and C for a heavier, thrash-and-groove-oriented sound
- Charted at #82 on the Billboard 200 (US), #9 in Germany, #9 in Japan
- Scott Travis shifted from Painkiller's speed-metal blitz to a downtuned, groove-locked attack
- First switch away from the Painkiller-era Tama Artstar II — into Pearl Masters Custom
- 22"x18" bass drums (two inches deeper than Painkiller's 22"x16") — a depth Travis kept for the rest of his Priest career
- Maple/gum hybrid shells add low-end weight to match the downtuned C#/C guitars
- Streamlined two-rack-tom layout replaces Painkiller's three-rack-tom array
- Piano Black finish carries over from the Painkiller-era aesthetic
- Estimated kit value: $3,800-5,200 (1997)
- Estimated snare value: $450-600 (1997)

**Source:** https://metalforge.io/articles/jugulator-drum-setup

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*Last updated: 2026-07-01 · Source: [MetalForge.io](https://metalforge.io)*