So last week I was jamming away on my drumset in my living room, having a great time, when *fincc* – I put a stick through the head of my 14 inch tom. Drat.

So let me just take a few minutes to explain this a bit…

I got the drumset in 2003, I believe it was march or april. So the set is nearly 3 years old. It’s in pristine shape as far as the shells go. The head and cymbals show normal wear n’ tear, and a slight bit of corrosion where I’ve grabed the cymbals to silence them. In the first year and a half the set was used regularly (by yours truely) at the church I was attending. Good times were had by all, and I made some really great friends while doing that (among other things).

The set is a PDP LX, the drum heads are the original factory heads. If I were playing in a rock setting, or in a band that hit the road, the first thing I’d have done upon getting the set would have been to yank all the heads off (ok, so I never would have put the factory heads on) and put on some double-ply Remo Ebony pinstripes. I like the thick, full sound. I figured I’d wait until a head poped (or a few) before I bothered to spend the money to replace the heads. The tone / sound wasn’t that important (it still isn’t, but I’m crazy like that and tend to go overboard) so I never did.

Rewind back to last Thursday when the tom head popped on me. I kept playing, I just avoided the low tom. No problem. I’ve intentionally played with far fewer drums before. Zoom back foward in time to Monday night. The snare head split clean from edge to edge. What a bummer. Now I -have- to get new heads.

Guitars break strings, yes. But guitar strings are like $30 for a 10-pack of replacement strings. Coated snare heads are like $30 for THREE, and a single 14 inch tom head (at least the type I wanted) is $15! Lesson? Guitars are cheap! Drumsticks, $7 a pair for good sticks. Drumset? Get ready to drop $2k for a good one, with cymbals. $2k will get you a really really sweet Gibson — easily a Les Paul.

I always get a kick out of people who complain that guitars are expensive. Compared to a good drumset, and the upkeep of a good kit that gets used, guitars are incredibly cheap.

I think I learned the wrong instrument.

Wait, No.. I’d have gone nuts without the drums around at certain points in my life.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 14th, 2006 at 12:31 am and is filed under Core Dump. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.