Snare drum exposed to high temperature - PLEASE HELP!

M

MrMrDavies

Junior Member
Hi all

I just recently got myself an upgrade at the end of last year. I got a Maple Sonor Select Force in a beautiful brown galaxy sparkle finish, and I really love the kit. It is my baby.

Now this morning I did something which made me hate myself. I by mistake left it in the boot of my car last night after band practice, and it was left there for the whole of this morning until about 1 pm, half of the snare being exposed to direct sunlight :'( :'(

When I realized I ran outside and took it out, and the metal hoops were hot to touch, like if I held it for long enough it would have burned my fingers. The shell was also significantly hot. So I took it inside and let it cool slowly and restore to room temperature. I then proceeded to take both heads off to let the air within the shell neutralize and I noticed a very slight build-up of condensation on the inside of the heads. It was nothing too serious though.

I also examined the bearing edges to see if there was any warping, and checked that the wrap is ok. All seems to be fine upon inspection. I am just worried that the sound might be a little affected. I will only get to see when I put new heads on. After this I've decided to completely replace the resonant and batter head and while I am at it I am going to get a new set of snare wires (looking to go for a wider snare).

I am now keeping the shell in a room with constant temperature and relatively contstant humidity without the heads or hoops attached. Will this be ok?

If anybody has any piece of advice or information for me to maybe make me feel better, or not, I would appreciate it a lot. I would just like to know exactly what kind of a position I now stand in this situation and whether I can take any further actions or not to help ensure minimal damage.

I feel horrible for doing this to my snare :(

EDIT: To add, its probably maximum 26 Degrees C outside today. But my car is black and accumulates a load of heat in the sun. It was maybe 30 - 40 degrees Celsius in there at a maximum.
 
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You're probably okay. Sitting in sunlight like that for an extended period of time, I'd be worried, particularly about the finish, but for a few hours, you're probably okay. If you inspected the shell and everything looks good, the shell probably didn't get damaged. My practice kit goes through temperature extremes as well. If I practice after work and have to transport my kit, it sits in my hot car all day while I'm at work, and in the winter sits in the unheated garage we practice in. We've had subzero temperatures all winter here, so it goes through extremes in both directions. I regularly inspect the shells to make sure that everything is okay, and so far, no issues.
 
Awesome, thanks very much for the reassuring words. I am feeling a lot more settled now lol.

At least I've learned a lesson and will never let that happen again. Also its time for some drum bags
 
With a standard ply shell, you're almost certainly fine. As they no longer behave like natural wood, they're very stable, even under extremes of temperature change. That said, it's always best to leave drums stored with heads on & under an even tension. This is especially important if they're exposed to extremes of temperature and/or humidity. Keeping any drum in such conditions without heads on provides no encouragement for the shell to stay in round other than it's inherent stability through glue bond area. Again. ply drums are most resistant of all. The more plies, the more stable it is.
 
You have to figure before that snare came to you, it sat in a box in a shipping container on a boat for months. Then a truck to the distributor. Then another truck to the retailer.

All without climate control.

Maybe if you have left in the car in sun for weeks it might be a problem. But that you rescued it after less than a day, I wouldn't worry.
 
I'd like to know where MrDavies lives, so I can move there. He has a problem with heat on Feb 8th and I'm in a the middle of a frozen tundra on the East Coast. Many folks in my area have been without power and heat for almost a week, due to a recent ice storm. Bring on the heat!!
 
BGH said:
I'd like to know where MrDavies lives, so I can move there. He has a problem with heat on Feb 8th and I'm in a the middle of a frozen tundra on the East Coast. Many folks in my area have been without power and heat for almost a week, due to a recent ice storm. Bring on the heat!!
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Come to Southern California.

It's been a very warm summer here, given it's supposed to be winter.
 
Last year there was a Rogers Dynasonic Maple in lacquer finish sold on ebay that looked like it had been refinished in crackle paint. It wasn't. It was the result of days and days being left in a closed car in the summer. It got hot enough to melt the lacquer.


If it is too hot for you, or even too cold, it is probably not going to be good for your drums. You got lucky.
 
uniongoon said:
Ply drums are very resilient. I would be more worried about the wrap bubbling.
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+1

wsabol said:
I'd be more worried about your cymbals.. if they were left out in the heat, it could be bad.
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I didn't know heat affected cymbals.......................at least "normal" heat....................At some extreme temperature, I'm sure they would melt.............

What happens?
 
There might wrap/finish issue with temperature extremes. Touring drums live in trailers for months at a time. Just avoid DIRECT sunlight.
 
uniongoon said:
I think the cymbal reference was more sarcasm than fact
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lol.. maybe I'm more anal about cymbal care than the average drummer, but I definitely care about getting my cymbals out of the heat.

Left out in heat, especially for extended periods, metal begins to soften (not a about-to-melt soften, but it becomes more ductile), and internal stresses are relieved, the molecular structure changes and becomes more organized and uniform. Tempering/Annealing is normally performing to deliberately to set certain properties in a piece of metal for it to be worked a certain way. Standard industry tempering temperatures can be as low as 300F and last only a few hours.

Even in Texas, 300F doesn't come by very often, haha, but cymbals are thin, and hammering is very specialized process to impose specific internal stress to the material. Several hours under an August sun in my car.. I'd say there is a definite possibility that that heat would relieve some of those internal stresses and change the tone of the cymbal. I'm not going to take that risk with my Agops :)

I'm not normally paranoid, but I left some vintage A hi hats in my car all day in summer heat one time and I swear it changed the tone. So I'm just extra careful now.
 
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