Playing Someone Elses Acoustic Drums

Don is going to laugh.

I was forced to play an acoustic
set at a rehearsal unexpectedly
and all this due to time restraints.

The rehearsal was supposed to
be done on a digital kit (Roland).
They were a whole hour behind.

In a few words and I will expand
on it more, here: I hated it/them.

They were Tamas and were tuned
so poor. The cymbals were mis-
matched and too big and the pic-
colo snare's (also Tama) mechan-
ism wasn't right.

The rug was not big enough and...



I can go on and I might but the
whole experience was awful. I
had to change my touch to the
whole kit doing what I could to
get it to sound like anything to
me. They were happy with the
result but I absolutely hated it.



Interesting to deal with this in
the wake of Boomer's post on
the setup etc. It just brought
to further light for me just how
critical the tuning process is and
what it means for the kit to sound
good and I don't mean just to
the sound engineers but to me.

So... I laid into that kick and
snare and up to the bell of the
ride and kept time for them,
with the simplest most author-
ative snare/tom to kick fills and
left it there.

I empathize with you on this Pete..

I can't tell you how many times I've had to play 'house' kits on the road, and especially in NY city clubs where the drums are SO bad, you just have to sit down, muster through the performance....and don't look back..

I actually get sore from playing other drums that are positioned and tuned differently.

Do you have an acoustic kit you play at home?.. Such a big difference altogether in a muscular sense, and drawing out the tones..

I ALWAYS bring my own cymbals and snare to shows, so at least I have some familiar surfaces to hit. Cymbals are so important to me and how I play.

That's horrible; and I've had to do the same when even bringing my snare and cymbals. That was only a few years ago when the house drummer flatly forbade any modification for his kit but opened it up for those in the house. What a contradiction that was at "CHURCHILL GROUNDS" immediately next door to the famed "FOX THEATER" here in Atlanta.

Tubs sounded flat, cymbals were so tinseled that I wonder where the ride was supposed to emanate from. And the bass drum? Oh forget - there was none since the guy didn't even have a foot strong enough to kick it.

Oh well... so much for teamwork. They just don't care. The truth is they want to keep there "gig" and leave everyone else in the wings. All this while appearing they're open to and inviting sit-ins. I was invited - I didn't graft for it and had my stuff in the car.

Geesch... two faced chameleons is what I say.