Stupidest/Most Embarrassing thing you've ever done to your drums

I cut 2 inches off the reso side of a 13 tom with a handsaw to make it a 9" deep. Got it 'flat' by using a table top with a sheet of sandpaper covering it and formed a new, ahem 'bearing edge' using a file. Then spent 2 days trying to tune it.

Sold a 76 - 3 ply bowling ball kit, 12/13/16/18/24 with a speed king for 100 bucks in 1981.

This is an easy one.....Giving away my 70's 6-piece Ludwig Vistalites to my nephew. Although it must have been almost 20 years ago, so the pain has subsided. They were absolute mint when I offered the set to him. He always admired those drums and would often visit to play them so I just couldn't sell it. Oh well............

Vintage Old School said:

+1 Same here. To add insult to injury, I put them on eight concert tom heads. What was I thinking?

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8 toms ? d-d-damn. i just remember eventually being soured w/ this cardboard box sound & trying to take them off the underside of my formerly cool / pristine Ludwig Rockers heads...and then being traumatized w/ all this goo / foam. i think after that it was new Remo black dots and later, the most open, ringy sound i could manage, so maybe a push in the right direction. ahem {{ current thuddy trend w/ big fat snare, moongels, old leather wallets, tape on drumsbeing recorded like crazy }}.

larryace said:

Not nearly as stupid as having vertical ride cymbal

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... or selling a SONOR snare to pay a GF's electric bill.

Buying $110 worth of old orphaned luan Pearl-style drums and dumping close to $500 fixing them up and re-wrapping them. I think they're still worth about $100 on Craigslist. Regardless, I still have the kit.

Midnite Zephyr said:

Buying $110 worth of old orphaned luan Pearl-style drums and dumping close to $500 fixing them up and re-wrapping them. I think they're still worth about $100 on Craigslist. Regardless, I still have the kit.

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Ding Ding Ding!!!! WINNER so far!

I used to play Pinstripe heads...

Selling my '66 mint Supraphonic along with my '67 Zildjian Turkish ride because...well never mind why...dumb, just dumb.

PorkPieGuy said:

....4. I've used all kinds of dampening methods over time, including weather stripping, tape, napkins, etc. I think the dumbest was the weather stripping.....

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Weather stripping works good, it's easy to move it around on the head, and it doesn't leave much residue.
Either you shouldn't feel dumb for using it, or I should feel dumb for trying it - but I don't. LOL

Midnite Zephyr said:

Buying $110 worth of old orphaned luan Pearl-style drums and dumping close to $500 fixing them up and re-wrapping them. I think they're still worth about $100 on Craigslist. Regardless, I still have the kit.

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Sounds like a labor of love. I'm in the middle of that process myself.
The drums are a little higher quality though.

OK - my turn. I've posted this several times before.
I cut down a set of drums to do an A to E kit conversion.
Some of it turned out OK, and some of it ended up like this:

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wildbill said:

Sounds like a labor of love. I'm in the middle of that process myself.
The drums are a little higher quality though.

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Good luck on your build man.
That's the way I have to look at it, a labor of love and a learning experience. I have enough other drums and the wrap to do another kit, but I never get around to doing it.

Anyway, knowing the drums aren't worth much and them being all scratched up again, I don't mind leaving them set-up in my friends garage where we have band practice.

I once, when I was still a teenager, got this idea to have pinstripes on top and black dots on the bottom of my toms.

Needless to say, they sounded terrible.

Evans Hydraulics. I thought they were the bee's knees.

I also, for some reason, would use a 6" splash and ride the hell out of it from time to time haha. I went through 2 where, due to the stress, they would crack terribly around the hole.

Ahead drum sticks.

Donating a 12 piece Vistalite to the local High School. Probably in a landfill now😩

mikel said:

Back in the late 70s I took all the grey pearl wrap off a classic Rodgers kit. Took off the bottom lugs to make them power toms and covered the kit in black wrap. To add insult to injury I used oil filled heads on all the drums. I am stll ashamed of what I did to the formerly beautiful kit. In my defense it was the way to go back in the day.

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Boy, can I relate to this one! My very first kit, when I was 14 back in 1974, was a beautiful used Rogers Holiday 4-piece in champagne sparkle. You know, one with a mount for the ride cymbal on the bass drum. But, I had a hankering for a 5-piece, so, with my dad's help, bought a fibreglass 13" tom shell to add to the kit (in my own defense, I did buy all rogers hardware for the drum). This meant drilling the bass drum for the double tom mount. When one looks at the present-day value of an all-original Rogers kit today, I just go "Arghhhh!" But, like mikel said, it's what you did back in the day. Sort of like everyone pulling their PAF pickups out of Les Pauls to put in Super Distortions...

I sold the kit to an acquaintance almost 20 years ago. I think he still has them, but we've lost touch the past few years.

MoreBeer said:

This is an easy one.....Giving away my 70's 6-piece Ludwig Vistalites to my nephew. Although it must have been almost 20 years ago, so the pain has subsided. They were absolute mint when I offered the set to him. He always admired those drums and would often visit to play them so I just couldn't sell it. Oh well............

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The BIG question: does he still have them? Are they still "in the family?"

Edit: oh, yeah...I had Evans hydraulics on those beautiful Rogers drums, 'cause they were "cool" (and I didn't know how to tune).

I part exed a mint condition Slingerland Festival Snare with the case for a Big Dog snare when they first came out. I've had many a word with myself since. They sound lovely too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJrNuMx2MPY

Also part exchanged my early 80s Tobacco Sunburst Tama Superstar. The kit I part exchanged it for was a belter but I regret it because I've not seen another one like it since.

I have a Pearl Sensitone brass shell snare drum. I fixed it all up a few years ago. But years ago I was so superstitious about my sound I wouldn't dare do anything to it. I didn't know much about tuning so if I got the sound I liked I would leave it and never touch it again. Some of the snare wires on the bottom had bent so I simply snipped them off with wire cutters. But I left the cut offs sticking out and they wore a hole in the snare side head. I wouldn't dare take it off because that would mean re-tuning it. The snare strainer arm had bent and wouldn't stay but I thought removing it and replacing it would be a nightmare. I literally thought if I unscrewed a single screw the drum would be permanently wrecked forever. I wouldn't even think of replacing the batter head even though every inch of coating was worn off the WHOLE top of the head. I really felt that I would never be able to tune it again.
Why?!?
Later as I learned the art of tuning and what tension got that "magic" sound I liked so much. I replaced the head, snare wires and strainer. I finally got a new batter head The drum sounded amazing! Plus i realized I was tuning it too tight and choking the sound. I found a fatter crack with a loser tuning. Ahhh to be young and stupid..lol..

I tried to clean K Zildjian ride using a dishwasher.
The heat cycle turned the copper a weird shade.

Les Ismore said:

... or selling a SONOR snare to pay a GF's electric bill.

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What are those crazier than North and Staccato looking things?