My long winded rant about having to play some other dude's kit

We could accomplish that by having a band that requires the guitar, bass and vocalists to perform on stage behind the drummer at all times.
I like the cut of your jib! From hence forth when we set up for a gig we will place our kits right out in front. Most of us are bigger than the other musicians in the band so this shouldn't be a problem. Let the singer and the lead player sit in back by a monitor with a blown speaker! Lets see how well that they do then! lets give them a Sears guitar, a fifty dollar tag sale amp and a mic that has been dropped five hundred times from a tall building!
 
I like the cut of your jib! From hence forth when we set up for a gig we will place our kits right out in front. Most of us are bigger than the other musicians in the band so this shouldn't be a problem. Let the singer and the lead player sit in back by a monitor with a blown speaker! Lets see how well that they do then! lets give them a Sears guitar, a fifty dollar tag sale amp and a mic that has been dropped five hundred times from a tall building!

Oh yeah, and the guitars have to be between 6-10db lower than the drums at all times. Instead of you killing yourself to keep up with them, they can work at it.
 
Oh yeah, and the guitars have to be between 6-10db lower than the drums at all times. Instead of you killing yourself to keep up with them, they can work at it.
After the gig we will sit there while we swill down beer after beer and we will point out all their mistakes! We will make them feel the pain of atrocity first hand!
 
Oh yeah, and the guitars have to be between 6-10db lower than the drums at all times. Instead of you killing yourself to keep up with them, they can work at it.

I totally agree here.

Makes me want to post a picture of our jam room. Picture this:

Room size: 15'x12' (roughly)

Staring me in the face is offender #1: 200w Mesa TUBED amp with 2 4x10 stacks pummeling me to death.

To my left: 300w Ampeg SVT2 PRO TUBED amp with 8x10 cab. Raining down thunder beyond belief.

In front to my right facing me: Two 15" Yamaha PA speakers with vocals finishing the job.

There I am in the corner with a dunce hat on and NO amplification whatsoever!
It really is futile. The funny thing is, I could make timing mistakes on the kick all night long and no one would ever be the wiser... hehehe
 
This thread is starting to take on the life that its title implies! Bob Da Druma Like It! Keep it up. I hope that diosdude doesn't mind.
 
We could even spice things up a bit and award prizes for the most beat up kit.

Like a broken bass drum head with a beater wear mark to the R/L of the hole. We could all autograph it.

The coveted top cymbal piece that only has the threaded stud left on it with no washers,felts or nut that only adjust in one position because the teeth in the knuckle are broken or the nut is welded shut.
 
Some good stories here great thread! One of my first gigs was in a band that got a late invite to play a multiple band night in a real dive. We were first on, junkyard house kit and we didn't get a sound check so I had to just get up and play. First beat of first song and bass pedal stopped working. I look down and oh joy, a split batter head patched up with gaffer so the beater went right through to the glue and stuck in the hole. Did I mention the tune....Immigrant Song. Ho hum.
 
Got stuck on one last night. Heads so loose it was like hitting marshmallows. Throne so low your knees were up to your nipples. Snare stand welded in place with the snare up around your collarbone. Floor toms hovering somewhere around the middle of your shins. B8pro cymbals with the logos and lacquer steel-wooled off. Made sounds like BOOMPH-doonk-PANK! A set fit for your average clown.
 
i agree, this is definately a good thread here. i'm sure mostly all of us have been down this road...but harryconway put it best about this. "welcome to the wonderful world of the house kit". part of the "drum" life!

glad your gig went well dios, your band soildered on and rocked!!! best of luck to ya bro.
 
So that's what I have to look forward to! Joy!

well, i hate to sound so negative...but we've all had some nightmares about this kind of thing. you might get lucky. i've actually did some gigs with multiple drummers and played on some decent kits. you might get lucky. ?
 
well, i hate to sound so negative...but we've all had some nightmares about this kind of thing. you might get lucky. i've actually did some gigs with multiple drummers and played on some decent kits. you might get lucky. ?

I do have to submit that when I was actively booking my band, I got to approve every "house kit" and also run it past our drummer for approval. I didn't worry so much about brand, but it did need to be of at least "intermediate" quality and he needed it to be a 5 piece with a minimum number of cymbal stands. Our rider technically spelled out needing felts and sleeves, although that was never really an issue. He always brought cymbals, throne, and snare (and snare stand) to every gig, even when those things were provided.

I also got to approve every house bass amp and house PA. Strange how nobody ever considers providing a house guitar amp. I guess they figure bass and drums take more effort and longer to set up... well, the joke's on them. When my band would come play a multi-band gig, our drummer was usually set up and miked before I finished setting up my pedal board, 2 guitars, amp, mic, and mic preamp... and I STILL was able to get set up before most wankers who just plug straight into their amp.

We fought long and hard for the ability to use our own drums, and usually won the fight, especially at local gigs. Our drummer got his rack set up offstage, and from there it was simply a matter of lifting things into place. 5 minutes, tops, usually less than that. Heck, it takes longer to get cymbals set up and adjust a house kit to a player's liking...

On the other side of the situation, I've only put together one gig where a house kit was required, and that was a Battle of the Bands. In that case, we let everyone know that it was a brand new Yamaha Stage Custom with fusion sizes (yay for music store sponsorships), and set up in a specific configuration. We let every drummer take a few minutes to play on the kit before people started showing up. As a result, we ended up with a very smooth transition, and only one drummer complained (he wanted bigger toms tuned lower).

The fact is that most "house kits" are put together, or at least financed, by people who are not drummers- people who look at any drums and say, "Well, THESE are drums, aren't they? What's the difference?" They don't appreciate the constant upkeep necessary to make and keep a drumset sounding great.
 
Great story!

It's amazing how many people don't ever consult the actual drummer who will be playing the drums at the gig. They just think "hey, these are drums, what's the big deal...drums are drums".
 
Tonight I got the call from one of my colleagues who does the high school pep band. Turns out his high school drummer wasn't going to be able to be there at his game. I was planning to audition a guy for my band tonight, but my colleague bribed me with good pay, so I accepted.

I've done this gig before, and I usually bring my own kit. It's comfortable, and it's an excuse to get it out of the house and hear it in a more open environment. Unfortunately, my kit was over at my church, set up for a recording project we're doing. So I get to pull out the school's brand new (well, brand new in August) Pearl Vision kit. I've played on it briefly, and thought it would be great.

Man, I have never felt so uncomfortable. The bass drum reso didn't have a hole in it, so it was like kicking a ball. Because of this, the kick pedal just felt awkward and clunky. The throne wouldn't adjust to what I wanted- it was always either too high or too low. The snare that I hand-picked from the band room (we've got a few dozen in there) ended up having a wonky snare strainer/throw off apparatus that would periodically disengage the strainer.

Toms (10 and 14 floor) were tuned way too low for the size, and never really sang. Bass drum was tuned badly, too, so I took a few minutes to try and fix it... well, I got nowhere with it. I'm chalking it up to being nearly air-tight.

Cymbals were nice, though. 19" K Custom Hybrid crash, 22" K Orchestral as a ride, and some lousy Sabian AA hats and crash...

I felt awkward the entire night. Since I left my stickbag up at church, I just grabbed a pair that the students had left behind. Yuck. Sticks were the "bucket-o-" variety.

Not fun. Next time, I'll go to the church and get my own gear.
 
Hey Dios I live in Florida as well and know about Tobacco Road :)

I had an all too familiar experience playing last Saturday day at the "Next Big Thing" competition at the Revolution. Old yamadog kit(luckily heads were replaced) with big toms mounted in the bass drum. Had a hard time pulling off some parts but in the end I had a pretty decent show individually.



ps. Who is your band?
 
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