ALL DRESSED UP WITH NOWHERE TO GO.

[techristian]

You just bought that great set of Ludwigs or Mapex drums. Your 6 month gig is at some *DIVE. (*Really rough neigborhood bar.) You are afraid that the drums may be scratched or stolen. Do you.......?

 

1) Take them home every day?

 

2) INSURE THEM TO THE HILT ?

 

3) Bring your beaten up practice drums to the gig and keep the good drums at home for yourself?

 

Please reply and I'll tell you what I did in a few days.

 

Dan

 

http://teachmedrums.com

[offramp]

Beat up practice drums to gig. Good ones at home.

 

Insurance to the hilt is nice, I guess, but you can never duplicate the connection you had with the first kit.

 

Besides, playing/leaving a nice set of Ludwigs or Mapex in the corner of a really rough neighborhood dive is bringing pearls before swine. They don't give a rat's ass about how cool/good sounding your kit is, just as long as them damned drums can PLAY FREEBIRD, GAWDAMNSUMBITCHNOWHUTIMSAYIN?!?!?

[ss]

Well the smart thing to do is to leave your nice kit at the house and take your lesser kit out to gig with. Now, Just last week I recieved my new Ludwigs.....Do you really think that I'm going to do the smart thing?

 

offramp: where ya been hiden?

 

SS

[djarrett]

Well, TE:

If you take the beat up practice set, ... you are actually in the vogue fashion set in drumming today.

Seems that for some, there is a trend to use vintage drums, and the rougher the look, the better.

Some even like mixing finishes.

 

I usually like to have a more professional and polished look about me, but that is just me.

 

I go for taking the practice set. Then the smoke and beer stains don't matter.

 

DJ

[offramp]

Originally posted by ss:

offramp: where ya been hiden?

 

SS

Didn't know I was hiding. Y'mean...someone around here actually noticed a lack of posting on my part? sniff...sniff...I...I'm touched.

 

Ah, the reality is that I've not been kitwhacking for sometime now (I'm ashamed to say how long), so there aren't to many things posted in this forum that I feel I have something to contribute to or can safely comment on.

[Tedster]

Originally posted by djarrett:

Well, TE:

If you take the beat up practice set, ... you are actually in the vogue fashion set in drumming today.

Seems that for some, there is a trend to use vintage drums, and the rougher the look, the better.

Some even like mixing finishes.

 

DJ

Our drummer has a "mutt" set like that that he has set up where we record. It's a great little Ringo-esque Ludwig kit...the bass drum finish is like Ringo's...the rack tom is a different black and grey finish...and the floor tom is solid black. Great sounding little kit...

[techristian]

OK I was talking about any gig but in my case it was a weekend gig. Some weeks just Saturday and some weeks Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and everthing in between.

 

I was playing a COUNTRY MUSIC GIG so I never needed microphones. If I had though, I would have left the MIC STANDS set up but removed the microphones themselves. It is too easy to slip microphones into a pocket.

 

I often played WITH NO WRITTEN CONTRACT and no set length of engagement. If they liked us we stayed up to 9 months. If not, we were gone the next week. Because we worked with no contract, I never even thought of making the BAR owners responsible. Anything easy to steal or break was taken home.

 

I DID leave my Zildian cymbals and Zildian Hyhats with my set. I NEVER played on cheap cymbals after hearing Zildians.

 

I had all of my equipment including practice drums, Double Ludwig set, microphones and home recording equipment insured to the hilt.

 

I remember one time when a beer bottle hit my bass drum in a brawl and the front skin was all splashed up with beer. I myself was never hit with a beer bottle nor was I the intended target at the time.

 

I usually went along with the band. If the other members left all of their stuff set up, my drums were buried in the mess and a less attractive target. If everyone else brought all of the amps and PA home, then my drums would have been the only thing on the stage. In that case I would usually take them home.

 

I played most of my BAR GIGS between 1975 and 1980, so that should give you a bit different perspective. When the DISCO THING started up in 78-79 it killed off most of the local music scene for a few years. After that, I was Born Again in 1982. The BAR SCENE wasn't much fun any more and the last GIG I played publicly was a wedding gig , in 1983 ,WHERE I DID BRING MY LUDWIGS. I have concentrated on the craft of RECORDING and PRODUCING music and writing music software for the past 20+ years.

 

I barely maintained my drum chops up until February 2002 when my interest in the WFD has had me practicing more than ever; up to 2 hours per session but only EVERY OTHER DAY.

 

To answer the final question I played most of my gigs with my first set of drums, my SEARS SILVERTONE set that I bought selling ice cream. I used my LUDWIG DRUMS for practice and RECORDING. That is why, looking back today, I see it so insane trading in those LUDWIG drums for OCTAPADS back in 87. Even though the Ludwigs were 13 years old when I sold them, they had probably only been used in gigs and transported around less than 40 times.

 

Dan

http://teachmedrums.com

[alcohol]

My drummer brings his nice Sonar kit to the gigs, but we only do one night stands. We practice at the bass players house and he has this crappy mixed up set. The difference in tone between the sets is reamrkable. The sound of that Sonar set is inspiring. I think it inspires our drummer to play better and the better he plays the better we all play.

 

We're a bunch of old guys, and we don't get eonugh money to make it worth our while. We do it solely for the music. Take the good set to the gig.

[ss]

Hey alcohol:

You couldn't have said it better! I hate it when a band member (mostly the lead singer...go figure) makes sure the gig is paying a certin amount before he would consider it.

[coyote]

I've been there. Back in the 80s & early 90s I was gigging 4-5 times a weekend. I was hauling my drumset everywhere; it wasn't worth it for me to play unless it was over $100. (I generally made $200 - $400 per gig.) I had a Purecussion fold-up set that allowed me to carry everything in one trip....

 

Now things are different. I'm playing keys now, and we play strictly for our own enjoyment - therefore, all the good equipment (Hammond, Marshalls, double bass drumset, etc) comes with us. And we're willing to play for less $$$.

 

Originally posted by ss:

Hey alcohol:

You couldn't have said it better! I hate it when a band member (mostly the lead singer...go figure) makes sure the gig is paying a certin amount before he would consider it.