House kits

bermuda

bermuda

Drummerworld Pro Drummer - Administrator
Staff member
I never had an opinion about house kits, they weren't that prevalent here in L.A. back in the day ('80/90s.) The few that I've encountered in the last 20 years or so were never problematic, certainly none of the horror stories that we've all heard. So I never really cared much when I was told there'd be a house kit, nor was I miffed when I discovered after loading up that there was a kit waiting for me. It was just an unexpected and pleasant surprise.

Flash forward a few (dozen) years, and when I hear there's a house kit, I'm actually excited! Of course I bring my snare & cymbals, and there's always a spare pedal in my car in case I need it, but I really value not having to haul my gear when possible. Again, I haven't encountered any problem kits so my old-drummer laziness hasn't bit me yet, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn last week that there's now a house kit a casino I play regularly, and also a kit at tonight's gig at a club in Santa Monica. I had already loaded the car, but cheerfully unloaded it and look forward to basically walking in, putting up my snare & cymbals, and sitting down to play. Load will take about 60 seconds. :)
 
What have you encountered for kits at these venues? Anything noteworthy or pleasantly surprising?
 
Tonight’s kit is a Pearl Vision, haven’t played it before but as long as the kick is decent, that’s half the battle. My favorite snare and cymbals complete the picture.

The casino kit is a Yamaha something, I think a budget kit, but if sounded great. Floor Tom had a nice boom to it. 🙂
 
ive encountered a few house kits beofre now, and some were ok, some made me wish i'd taken my own rig instead!

like one in particular, was told everything was there, jsut bring breakables. got to the venue, a bass drum stuffed full with toilet paper and a resoless tom in a snare stand, that was it. no stands, no pedals, nothing, jsut them two drums and that was it.

thankfully a friend with a van drove us to the gig and said if i want to take my own kit i can, so i did, luckily.
 
Sometimes, the house kit is just THE kit for that room. A place I occasionally play has a set of 70s 3-ply Slingerlands that sound good, especially the kick--it's dialed in perfectly. So once, I brought in my Pearl MLX kit. That sounded OK in that room, but honestly, the house kit won! Even the cymbals, old A Zildjians, are quite good. I actually prefer and play the Slingerlands when I'm there.

As Bermuda said, you can't beat the load in!


Dan
 
I did 15 or so years gigging in Rock / Indie venues in London and out of well over a hundred venues I used one of my own kits maybe a handful of times, at most, in that period.

I’ve played everything, from great kits to beat up kits with drums propped up with any object I can find. Pristine or professional grade kits, beat up/dusty kits with long since dead heads, kits looking like they need an exorcism…etc

Its all part of the experience and cutting your teeth on the circuit. Always was a fun part arriving to see what type of kit (good or bad) I'd have to deal with. But, never had a kit I couldn’t deal with, with some improvisation needed sometimes.

Always carried Gaffa Tape on the off chance, which stood me in good stead sometimes.

But yes, the load in and out is indeed more fun. Still, much prefer using all my own gear these days.
 
bermuda said:
Tonight’s kit is a Pearl Vision, haven’t played it before but as long as the kick is decent, that’s half the battle. My favorite snare and cymbals complete the picture.

The casino kit is a Yamaha something, I think a budget kit, but if sounded great. Floor Tom had a nice boom to it. 🙂
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I'd like to know your impressions of the Vision kit. What would you change? How was the bass?
Our casino has an electronic kit.
 
There's a low end Ludwig set at one of the local venues I play. At first, I was hesitant, until I sat behind them and actually played the drums and was pretty impressed overall. I tweaked the tuning a bit and then it was off to the races. I used my own snare and cymbals. The owner even upgraded the bass drum pedal and hardware from the first time I used them.
 
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Is there a basic reason places have a house kit? I mean, what's the financial advantage to a place that justifies them spending the money to buy a house kit? Does the easier logistics make that big a difference to them? Does the convenience help them score a higher caliber of acts?
 
I have a buddy with a Vision. It’s not bad at all. A place I play sometimes just got a DW Design which is also good. The cymbals blow, though.
 
I came through various house kits. The best : a renown, I even kept the snare drum ! A Sonor AQ not bad, except snare, other were sometimes true piece of crap with drumheads in poor condition or with more muffling a drum can bear.
A nice surprise I got once was a Catalina 6 piece, nicely tuned with coated emperor, and miked, it sounded better than I thought.
The most important, ask how many cymbal stands, for I have twice been surprised to find only one or two, and bring my pedal just in case, I’ve been once trapped with a Sonor pedal that no one could make it clutch the hoop.
 
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GretschedHive said:
Is there a basic reason places have a house kit? I mean, what's the financial advantage to a place that justifies them spending the money to buy a house kit? Does the easier logistics make that big a difference to them? Does the convenience help them score a higher caliber of acts?
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Not sure about places like LA.. I guess people can drive and park more easily? In London its because driving in with a kit can be expensive - there’s a £15 daytime congestion zone fee to drive into central London, then the ULEZ for cars that don’t meet emission requirements is £12.50 (thankfully my car doesn’t currently have that charge as it’s not that old). Then if you finish after midnight you pay that again as it’s a different day. Loading/unloading can be really difficult and often needs arranged in advance with security.. then the car might need moved to private parking which can be over £50 for daytime arrivals. That’s often the case for function gigs but music venues and restaurants / cocktail bars tend to have full backline and sound engineer now. The kit is already mic‘ed up so you don’t need to arrive early to set up, sound check etc. There are quite a few private members clubs popping up that have got good budgets and really nice, well looked after house kits, like DW, with back to back bands each night. It is fun getting to try out all the different kits.
 
Caz said:
Not sure about places like LA.. I guess people can drive and park more easily? In London its because driving in with a kit can be expensive - there’s a £15 daytime congestion zone fee to drive into central London, then the ULEZ for cars that don’t meet emission requirements is £12.50 (thankfully my car doesn’t currently have that charge as it’s not that old). Then if you finish after midnight you pay that again as it’s a different day. Loading/unloading can be really difficult and often needs arranged in advance with security.. then the car might need moved to private parking which can be over £50 for daytime arrivals. That’s often the case for function gigs but music venues and restaurants / cocktail bars tend to have full backline and sound engineer now. The kit is already mic‘ed up so you don’t need to arrive early to set up, sound check etc. There are quite a few private members clubs popping up that have got good budgets and really nice, well looked after house kits, like DW, with back to back bands each night. It is fun getting to try out all the different kits.
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Completely agree with this. If I had a gig in a congestion charge zone I'd pack pedal kick and snare and catch a train in. Crazy thing is in places like London it's cheaper to get a hotel and go back the next day.

The lentil munchers charge has come in in Birmingham too which is just on my doorstep and a mate of mine gets his with a double charge DJing in clubs technically working over 2 days.

It's extremely rare I do gigs that provide a house kit. (One in 20 years lol)
 
The last house kit I played was this Summer at an outdoor festival. We only played 30 minutes. It was actually set up nice and a good kit. I only had to make minor adjustments. All I had to bring was sticks and cowbell on a stand. No complaints. This is the exception to the rule. Most I've found are pretty beat up.
 
mikyok said:
Completely agree with this. If I had a gig in a congestion charge zone I'd pack pedal kick and snare and catch a train in. Crazy thing is in places like London it's cheaper to get a hotel and go back the next day.

The lentil munchers charge has come in in Birmingham too which is just on my doorstep and a mate of mine gets his with a double charge DJing in clubs technically working over 2 days.

It's extremely rare I do gigs that provide a house kit. (One in 20 years lol)
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One in 20 years is quite a surprise, it doesn’t sound like you are that far away. Three out of four of mines in the last 2 weeks had everything provided. Here was a really nice one last week - Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute with cymbals and everything, just brought my stick bag. I don’t use my own gear as much as I used to, things changed a lot over covid, which is a shame as I just upgraded kits!

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