Well...I know what you mean and can just second that!
Those "accessory charges" really cauterise a big hole into the wallet.
When I read the title of the thread I actually thought you were going for a new cymbal or snare drum like you said but after reading the whole post I just sit here, nodding your assent.
I have to admit that my extra costs stay very low though because in this case I`m kind of avaricious. I keep my sticks for more than a half of a year, my heads for a felt century and handle all my accessories with great care.
If money brings me to the scratch what to order I`ll rather go for a nice new cymbal (like I just did) than buying new sticks, brushes etc.
Uh...the wastage. =)
Karl
Well, Karl, hopefully I won't have to purchase any more of these things in the near future.
Man I hear you. Saving for some Protection Racket bags myself. $400 sounds about right.
That's exactly the kind I just ordered. They look awesome, don't they? I made the mistake of buying cheap gig bags a while back. They were almost worthless. They provided very little protection and holes started developing in them after a handful of gigs. So, now I'm springing for the quality stuff. I was also considering the Humes & Berg Tuxedo bags, but I like the carrying handles on the Protection Racket bags so much better. Hurts the wallet now, but I bet feel like its worth it once I start using them.
Big time!
About 2 months ago, I suffered the injury of spending 150 on heads for a 17 year old Pearl Export set. The heads are worth more than the drum set, and in retrospect, my drum tuning skills are so poor, I'm not sure that I was justified in spending about half that on resonant heads.
Well, the new heads are phase two in my strategy for protecting my drums, phase one being the new gig bags. But despite the quality bags, there are still going to be some dive bar gigs I'd rather not bring my nice drums to. That's where the second kit comes in. At band practice, I've been using an old Sonor Force 2001 kit that belongs to our keyboard player. I asked him if I could use that kit for gigging and he said, "Sure, you're the only one who ever plays them anyway." They still have stock heads on them which are absolutely horrendous. So, I just ordered a whole new set of heads for the kit, batter and reso. I think when I get these installed, this old kit might sound pretty darn good.