Trusting others with your kit?

Emmaticus00

Emmaticus00

Senior Member
So guys, I have the opportunity to put my kit out at a high/middle school gig. But lol the gig is a once a year thing. Everyone knows that kids don't treat stuff good and my cymbals are good.

My worst fear is that my AA Medium Thin 16" crash is going to crack because some kid doesn't have good technique and hits it straight on.

Anybody else have this?
 
Drums can be fixed, cymbals can't. If others are going to play your set, why not nicely request that they use their own cymbals? That's not too unreasonable.
 
I'm pretty hesitant to let others play my kit, I'm pretty OCD about it.

I'd be wary of cymbals cracking like you said.
 
Usually I'm not as I've offered to share my kit at a few gigs over the last few years. That said, you are talking about kids, personally I wouldn't unless I knew about them and was familiar with their playing. Now my backup set and backup cymbals, sure, my main kit, depends.
 
Only if I know the player/players extremely well, and/or I have a strong level of control/veto.

I'm playing a pretty big gig in October, & so I can use my own gear, plus a request from the organisers, I'm letting all 5 bands use my kit. I know 3 of the other drummers, & all's good, but one I don't. I've taken the step to contractually oblige the organisers to compensate for any damage caused, & I've invoiced them for a new set of batter heads as a matter of course.
 
I think it is very admirable that you would even consider putting your kit out at a high/middle school gig for young people to play. I don't think I'd worry as much about cracking a cymbal as much as someone accidentally running into it - especially at middle school age. That is something you can judge by the type of event. If there is a lot of horseplay at the middle school or If it is a battle of the bands, prob not a good idea. If it is a high school jazz band, id be less worried.

BTW, if you are not using the equipment to make money it should be covered under your home owners policy.
 
If you're concerend, buy them a $500 kit and sleep well at night. I would.
 
Cymbals are always a no-no for me except maybe a ride. I recently let a guy use my hats but he was a light player playing jazz mostly on his ride. A bunch of kids? Never. Or never again. I played at a party last year where there were kids present and they were attracted to the drums like flies to...well you know. Luckily my cymbals were not damaged but kids can be merciless when they get sticks in their hands. Never again.
 
I let many drummers play my drums every week. I am in the house band for jam night.

I purchased a $340 Yamaha Stage Custom set and some cheap cymbals. And a $50 student steel snare drum. (By the way the $50 snare drum sounds pretty good.)

I purchased the set just for that purpose, a set for others to play. I felt it was my responsibility to provide a decent set for them to play.

Someday I want to buy a good set of drums just for me to play.

.
 
+1. Once a week, every week. Doing it all over tonight. ;-)

Now, I'm talking a groovy open mic jam at a bar, not a bunch of hormone-soaked teenagers. But the principle holds.

I don't put anything out there but the best I've got. For one thing, I don't want a jammer to walk away thinking, "Jeezus, that guy's kit is junk." For another, and more importantly, for me people enjoying the instrument and the music they can make on it is more important than obsessing over whether or not they'll hit a cymbal wrong and crack it.

Full disclosure: I don't put out a top-of-the-line kit. I can't afford a top-of-the-line or even midrange kit. But if what I had to share was a DW, guess what? I'd share it. Because music is about sharing.

Plus I'd have the only DW on the island, and I'd really enjoy other local drummers pop-eyed wonder at the magnificence of it. :p
 
I've got a couple beater kits and some extra cymbals for just such occasions... and outdoor gigs when the weather is questionable and any other situation where I don't want to risk anything 'decent' getting damaged...

surprisingly, these kits have taken tons of abuse over the past few years - rained on, beat to hell on multi-band gigs, rentals where who knows what torture they've gone through, stored in a hot garage when they're not in service --- yet they've suffered very little damage... no cracked cymbals, a couple minor hardware issues but nothing major.
 
I've never let anyone use my kit,except for one time,and the guy was a real basher.He was the former drummer of the band I was in at the time,and I was the guy that replaced him.He showed up at a gig,and asked to sit in....for old times sake,so,I relented.One tune later,I said,you're done.Most of the heads were dented and he readjusted all my stuff,while I took a break.

Another time,I loaned my 20's,Ludwig nickel over brass snare to a guy ,a friend I thought,that I'd known for years.He tells me a week later,that the drum was stolen,out of his car.I know he's lying to me,so I turn up by surprise ,at a gig they were playing and,low and behold,there's me snare,behind the kit.

I'm so angry,inbetween songs,I walk up on the stage,and litterally rip the drum out of the snare stand,anongst pleas of,"please ,just let me finish the night".My response was ,you should have thought of that before you tried to steal it,as well as some other thoughts on the matter..He could have just asked to use it a little while longer,but went the other way with it.

So,for me,no,no,no,nobody uses my stuff,ever again.If you think it harsh.......oh well.

Steve B
 
On the few occasions I let others used my kit some kind of damage (usually unintentional) has occurred - scratched/dented wood hoops, scratched tom shell, scratched chrome, etc. I no longer let others use my gear and especially not cymbals.
 
I have a hard rule on this.. mainly due to some bar owners that try to spring an opening act into the mix, usually at the last minute. So basically as the 'headliner' it means the sound guy is going to put pressure on the drummer to reuse the same kit for both bands.. so he doesn't have to remic and sound check etc. That also means my band has to load-in an hour earlier to accommodate 2 sound checks.. and for the opening band it's a drummer's dream; all he has to do is show up, play and leave. See anything wrong with this situation?

So basically my rule is;
- if it's a double bill, the other band brings their own gear... or the bar owner provides a kit for both bands. End of story.

- if I know the other drummer fine... but he has to help load-in, and bring his own snare and cymbals. Otherwise it's a drum rental situation and I charge $50/hour!

Fortunately this is a rare situation.. but I won't allow a bar owner to get away with anything..
 
tamadrm said:
I've never let anyone use my kit,except for one time,and the guy was a real basher.He was the former drummer of the band I was in at the time,and I was the guy that replaced him.He showed up at a gig,and asked to sit in....for old times sake,so,I relented.One tune later,I said,you're done.Most of the heads were dented and he readjusted all my stuff,while I took a break.

Another time,I loaned my 20's,Ludwig nickel over brass snare to a guy ,a friend I thought,that I'd known for years.He tells me a week later,that the drum was stolen,out of his car.I know he's lying to me,so I turn up by surprise ,at a gig they were playing and,low and behold,there's me snare,behind the kit.

I'm so angry,inbetween songs,I walk up on the stage,and litterally rip the drum out of the snare stand,anongst pleas of,"please ,just let me finish the night".My response was ,you should have thought of that before you tried to steal it,as well as some other thoughts on the matter..He could have just asked to use it a little while longer,but went the other way with it.

So,for me,no,no,no,nobody uses my stuff,ever again.If you think it harsh.......oh well.

Steve B
Click to expand...

At first I was going to say you're harsh. But then I thought about it. I completely feel for you Steve
 
I dont let anyone use my kit period!

People always say they will pay for stuff when it breaks....but when stuff actually breaks, some how everyone is always broke. New cymbals arent cheap!
 
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