equipment

Now, one thing I am quickly realizing about being a musician is, getting decent equipment is tough. I recently broke through my Pearl drum head, and was in need of a replacement, so I went to Musicians Friend. It is an excellent site, has great deals, and usually high quality equipment. Well, not this time. I ordered a set of heads, picked for one of their specials. It had three tom heads, the Remo Ebony Weatherkings, and a snare head. The toms are amazing, have never had drum heads of that quality on one of my kits. The snare is a different story. It claims to be a weather king as well, but the strength of the head is roughly like two pieces of Saran Wrap. Not quality at all, and is going to break fairly soon.

From my experiences I have learned a lesson that should have been obvious. Read the reviews on the equipment. Some people will go on there, throw down some profanity, and be utterly useless to you, but the majority of people will give honest, meaningful reviews on the equipment. If I had read that review, I would have know to purchase an alternate snare head, or find a different pack of drum heads.

Another lesson I have learned, which should also be obvious, is know what you are buying. If you know that the tom heads are good, but the snare model doesn't sound familiar, look into it. If you have never played on a Hazy Snare, snare head, read into it, and again, check the reviews. Ultimately these two lessons will save you money. Even if the packaged deal 'saves money', buying a craptastic snare head means you will have to buy a New snare head to replace the Packaged head.

Now, if you do those and still end up with poor quality equipment, learn how to improvise. If it is just a practice kit, you don't need studio quality equipment. If your snare head turns out to be bad, use man's greatest invention. That's right, Duct Tape. Figure out where your main strike zone is, and throw some Duct Tape down. Will it sound amazing? No. Will it work? Yes. You can find ways to get around the tuning issue, and if nothing else, remove the internal or external muffler you have, and just let the duct tape be that muffle. It will work similarly to a poor man's Sound Dot snare head. Another fine thing you can do to enhance the sound of your drum, is to take a fairly wide strip of velvet and run it in between your drum head, and your drum rim.

Shoot, while I'm on the subject of fixing stuff, drummers usually burn threw sticks fairly quickly. Now while this is no good on the concert/studio level playing, Duct Tape can save the day again. While electrical tape is a decent option, it stretches. If your stick is cracking, apply pressure on the stick to hold it together, and throw on the duct tape. It isn't a cure, but will hold the stick together for quite a while longer.