How hard do you try to keep your kit in pristine condition?

Bad Tempered Clavier

Silver Member
A little while ago I was reading this article about the new kind of gadgets like smartphones and tablets; the author argues that such things have become these very delicate objects that some owners can be paranoid about scratching or damaging - and so worry more about their aesthetic value than any functionality - yet some people can find themselves relieved when such things that they own do get damaged. It's as though they can effectively stop worrying about that first scratch on the screen of their iPhone or whatever, because once the thing is no longer mint condition then one can stop having a heart attack any time anyone breathes on it the wrong way.

He summarises the point thusly:

The easiest way to eliminate the stress of maintaining a perfect record in anything is to fail: thereafter, perfection's no longer an option. "I was at someone's house when they accepted delivery of their brand new motorcycle," recalls one contributor to the community site Ask MetaFilter. "First thing he did was reach down and grab a handful of gravel [and] throw it at the gas tank: 'There, now I don't have to worry about that.' "

This got me thinking about my drums: For years I had a fairly run-of-the-mill late '80s Pearl Export that never had any bags or cases and between moving house a few times and several hundred rehearsals and gigs it picked up its share of dings and scratches. This never seemed to bother me as any slight cosmetic damage never affected the sound or functionality of the kit in any way and besides it was never the prettiest of kits anyway.

However, when I bought my first high-end kit (brand new Yamaha RC) I was determined to look after it as best I could. I bought brand new hard cases for the drums and would never let anyone else play them.

Then one day my (then) band was packing up after a gig and as the guitarist moved his amp, his guitar, which had been leaning against it, slid off and the headstock crashed into my floor tom. It left a fairly long scratch in the lacquer - something that would probably cost as much as the drum itself to properly repair - but all I could really do is roll my eyes and figure: well, if I wanted to keep this kit mint-in-the-box I guess I should have left it at home.

So, is your kit hermetically sealed against any and all outside danger? Or are you happy to boot it down the stairs when you can't be bothered to carry it? How important to you is it that your kit is totally blemish free?
 
I try to keep everything reasonably nice, but blemishes happen. I do not stress over little dings, etc., but I have never had to experience a big scratch or anything similar. The older I get, the more I understand that drums, cymbals, and hardware are just things that can be replaced. Peace and goodwill.
 
My kits have a few scratches and dings on them, as do my guitars. It's just something that happens.

I try to keep things in 'new' condition, I look after my gear properly and use bags when I'm transporting. My hardware takes a beating but I'm far less concerned about the hardware because it's much easier to replace. If something happens though it's never bothered me and I know every ding on my instruments and how they came into being. My Yamaha bass - for instance - has a ding on the headstock from the second day I owned it and walking under a low ceiling backstage at a theatre.

If I had high-end gear like a set of Andy's Guru drums, I would take very good care of them. They are more delicate instruments. I own a Guru snare and I try as much as possible to take good care of it and take responsibility for it. So far there are no dents that I can remember finding but I am much more careful about that snare than the rest of my kit - which isn't high-end by any means. If it does pick up small dents that don't affect the sound or function though, I won't be too upset because it's an inevitable part of road wear.

As far as I'm concerned, instruments are there to be played. Sometimes when you're playing, little things happen. Guitars are much more susceptible in my experience (I can get over enthusiastic near walls and I'm that terrible combination of enthusiastic and physically large) but I do take care of my equipment. Every few months I take it apart and maintain it.

I'm not too worried about other players, although they can't play my cymbals and snare. That's standard practice and I monitor very carefully the condition of the heads after playing out - just in case. I've had one or two incidents of damage that wasn't my fault - a snare stand bolt stripping out (since repaired) and hoop rash on a 10" tom (that I don't even play at the moment) but it's never been a major concern as long as anybody borrowing the kit is upfront and honest about it. The snare stand incident was a bad one because another drummer (who hadn't asked to borrow my kit and made assumptions) was the one that damaged it and then had the audacity to tell me that the stand 'was a piece of &$*@' (it's an old Pearl model). I gave him a few choice words.

As for my gadgets, you just have to look at the state of my laptop to know that they get very hard use. They are there to be used though and there's no point in getting upset if there is cosmetic damage that doesn't affect the functionality.
 
I take pleasure in the act of keeping my kit maintained. I get the same feeling with my car. Be it the kit or the car, if it gets dirty or messed up I crank up the music, take out the cleaning material and get down to TCB. When I'm done I either play the kit for a while or take the car for a cruise. Its all good when its all cared for....just my thoughts.
 
I keep all of my kits clean and in perfect order. I don't own any expensive kits but I treat all of my drums as if they were. I just give them reasonable care. I mostly gig with wrapped kits but I also have two finished wood kits. I have a bag for every drum and I keep them in bags when they transported and they aren't set up. I clean them regularly to preserve the shine.
There are a few minor nicks here and there. It can't be helped I guess no matter how hard you try not to have that happen.
 
Pristine? Not even close. I mean they're not ratty at all, but I couldn't care less if my drums get scratched. They're tough, they get hit for a living. The kit serves me, I serve the music. No bags, no cases, no worries. I should start putting notches in them for every gig I've done with them.
 
I'd prefer that my gear stays in the condition I received it, but I accept normal wear & tear as an occupational hazard. My touring Black Beauty was new in 2007, but soon had severe coating wear and now sports a mottled complexion. I consider that a battle scar, proof that the drum has seen some action.

Now, outright damage is another story. I definitely don't dig that, and take the customary measures to help ensure the drums' safety through the use of bags, cases, and careful storage and handling.

Bermuda
 
I try not to add marks etc but if they get banged up, I don't even think about it as long as
everything functions correctly.
 
I transport them in those fleece lined Protection Racket bags and am reasonably careful. I don't throw them around or abuse them in any way. But I'm not OCD about them either.

I know one working drummer who wiped down hit drums and stands after every gig. He's been playing the same Yamaha kit 5-6 nights a week for the last 15 years and it still looks good. There are some people who have the knack for just being careful without appearing overly fastidious and OCD about things. And their stuff seems to last and rarely gets nicked up. I'm not one of those people. Every so often, something happens and something gets banged up. Didn't want it to happen, but I deal with it.
 
My equipment is in excellent condition, except for a little dust or dirt here and there. I should wipe them down more than I do, but I can never find the time. When out of my house, everything is transported in bags or cases. I do wipe down my cymbals every chance I get. On the other hand, my dad tore his Ludwig kit apart about every month to clean both the inside and outside of his kit. If I remember correctly he used Spic and Span, lol. Since he had only one set of drums and used either three or four pieces, I guess it wasn't a hugh undertaking. He loved his white marine pearl Ludwigs.

Dennis
 
I was not very careful with my old kits. I tried to be good with the RTs but in the first week I tripped and dropped the bass drum on my front stairs, which marked the wrap. The the wrap bubbled one afternoon in the car before practice. I'll have to lift my game with the Gurus.

This is wise ...

The easiest way to eliminate the stress of maintaining a perfect record in anything is to fail: thereafter, perfection's no longer an option. "I was at someone's house when they accepted delivery of their brand new motorcycle," recalls one contributor to the community site Ask MetaFilter. "First thing he did was reach down and grab a handful of gravel [and] throw it at the gas tank: 'There, now I don't have to worry about that.' "

It also applies to gigs, at least with the band I'm in - it's almost a relief when the first blunder happens.
 
Agree with Polly that the "get the mistake out of the way" approach applies to playing a gig or session, too.

I take reasonable care of my drums and I prefer that they stay looking new. But drums are meant to be played.

I guess my solution is I bought a wrapped kit. To me, purchasing a stunning lacquered or stained kit and hauling it around everywhere is insane. It's a worry I don't need. Because for drums as beautiful as Gurus or something, you just can't be tossing those things around and stacking shells inside one another and such.
 
Because for drums as beautiful as Gurus or something, you just can't be tossing those things around and stacking shells inside one another and such.
Actually, although I would never advocate placing our drums in a situation where they're likely to get damaged, with regards to scratches & scuffs, they're surprisingly resilient. Being solid, & finished with an oil or wax, if aesthetic damage does occur, it's fairly easy to sand out the offending ding/scratch/scuff, & simply apply oil or wax then buff to a shine. Certainly much easier to keep looking good than a lacquer, & easier to repair than damage to a wrap.

As for my own drums, the same as many here, they're there to be used. I take due care of them to avoid damage, & I certainly maintain them well (lubrication, etc), but precious, I am not.
 
My touring Black Beauty was new in 2007, but soon had severe coating wear and now sports a mottled complexion. I consider that a battle scar, proof that the drum has seen some action.

I guess this is the point: a few weeks ago before an evening rehearsal I dropped my Bass Drum onto paving slabs. It only fell a couple of feet as somehow one of the case's straps had come undone and the drum slid out of it and landed face down. Luckily the only parts of the drum that made contact with the pavement were the tension bolts and there was no damage to the shell or the hoop but there was that awful moment when the whole thing went CRAAAANNNNGGGGG and I just froze. Wear and tear is one thing, but sometimes you don't know until you can get something under a bright light whether it's just a ding or serious damage.

I told that story to a friend of mine and he told me how 2 of his kits had suffered quite noticeable damage to the bass drums: the first was one of the few Pearl GLXs that made it over here and apparently it was only a couple of days old when a roadie had moved his rack and scored a big old scratch down the length of the bass drum with the bottom hoop of one of the rack toms. The second was a Sonorlite that he was unloading from a van which was parked higher up than where he was standing in a split-level car park, so he was pulling stuff from the bed of the van at head height. Apparently the same thing happened to him where the case just popped open unexpectedly and his bass drum fell about 6 feet onto concrete. There was a very nasty looking crack in the hoop but fortunately the hoop held and with a bit of glue continues to.

I suppose it's just as well drums are (on the whole) built to take a bit of punishment.

An easy solution to this problem is to custom order your drums with factory made scratches

Funnily enough this conversation came up in a rehearsal recently where the guitarist had one of those "Relic" strats that is essentially a brand new guitar that has been left out in the rain for a couple of nights or whatever so it looks beat-up and vintage. The singer said she didn't trust anyone with immaculate gear as it was evidence of lack of experience. Oh, the irony . . .
 
Like many replies here, I believe a kit is there to be used, in the practice room, the studio, on stage and requires to be taken down and moved around, so scratches, knocks and minor blemishes are bound to happen, even when you're careful.

I'm not mad at keeping the kit in pristine condition, but I look after it and I do a thorough clean and polish every so often, I just did so this afternoon after spotting this thread, lol, this forum is really a source of inspiration, and it's cold and snowy outside anyway :)

My kit and most of the hardware is 24 years old at last January, and from about 2 yards away from the kit, you'll be hard pressed to notice any scratches, on closer inspection there's some proof that the kit had some life within the finish (it's a black lacquer, piano black as Tama call it).

I have a set of hardcases for the kit and the cymbals when it gets moved around, it does protect against potential damages.
 
I've had my Classic Maples for a couple years now and I have been fortunate that the only real wear (other than heads) is a little scratching where the pedal grips that bass drum hoop. A lot of that is good fortune, but I have tried to be careful. I was setting up last night and noticed that my floor tom was banging on one of the rack toms. Nothing serious happened, but I forced myself to slow down the set up. I think most bad things happen when you rush them. I get to gigs early, I tear down slowly and with purpose. I don't necessarily do things in exactly the same order every time, because every stage is different.

Cords are your enemy. I would bet that setting up, testing and tearing down the PA causes more damage to musical instruments than anything in this business. Get any and all cords out of the way when setting up, playing, and tearing down. Leave no cords where they are tripping hazards. Use plenty of duct tape. Never use it on drums; use it on problematic cords whenever and wherever you can to get them in their place. Don't let the stupid PA be the cause of damage to your nice drums.
 
If it happened, it happened, so I get over it pretty quickly, but I probably should take more care of my Superstars- alas, they came with plenty of scratches and dings so it's hard for me to really care much about the finish. There was one time, though...

I separate the tripods and the boom arms of my stands while transporting to put it in easier, and I was coming home and re-setting my drums, when one of the stand arms (propped up against a wall) slid and scored a naaasty scrape on my floor tom with the exposed pipe-end. Then I said "eh" since it was only a surface-level cut. This thing's resale value is down the drain already.
 
I used to work very hard at it.

My Signia kit purchased in 1994 only has one scratch on it, despite being on 100's of gigs, having gone to some pretty unsavory venues and me generally beating the *bleep* out of it. I really don't know how I've keep it so intact. But people mistake for brand new all the time, or think it's never left the house.

That said, it's also one reason why I lost enthusiasm for playing live. All the work to take care of said kit was driving my nuts.

My next live kit is going to be a wrap so I don't have to think about it.
 
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