maitaning a drumkit / cymbals

[danial]

hey ,

can anyone share ideas about maintaining a new kit , i just got an tama imperial star drum kit from swee lee at 800 bucks , anyone got any ideas about sound proofing / maintaning the kit and the cymbals , pls share

edit : is that kit very loud , shall i buy some muffling pad or just stick some paper to it or what cause i havent opened the kit yet ah

thanks !

 

[joshie]

dude look up the forum man. this has been brought up before. i prefer putting hoops or moongel for looks sake. and you dont have to clean it for a year? till then get a good cymbal cleaner and metal polisher-for the hoops.

 

[weckl-x]

Maintenance
- Don't really need to do anything if it's brand new. If it's 2nd hand or display set might wanna oil/lube the lugs and moving parts.

Sound-proofing/muffling/volume concern
- Rooms can be made sound-proof, drums can be muffled. Sound-proof drums would be e-kits I guess!
- Dampener rings or moongel help to reduce ringing and overtones (which usually can be minimized with proper tuning anyway), but generally doesn't affect volume
- Mesh heads can be almost silence, do note the 'feel' is kinda different from normal heads.
-Placing a pillow in the bass drum that touches both heads can reduce the resonance a lot, which IMO, is very good for practising at home as the 'BOOM' becomes more of a 'THUD' which doesn't travel much.

Loud or not
- This really depends on how hard you whack. I believe since my neighbours (HDB) haven't complained yet, my volume is pretty acceptable. Remo ambs my Pearl RT. Sometimes play with sticks, most of the time with Vater Whips.

Further reading on setting up:
http://www.pearldrum.com/education/howto/index.html
http://www.playrecord.net/resource/articles/drum-kit-setup-tutorial.php

 

[TequilaSunrise]

Important: If you want to prevent stick marks from getting on your cymbal, polish your new cymbals with a coat of protective fluid (Vater might work here), so it is more resistant to stick attacks. This should apply if you already have old sticks that have some snare paint on them and you don't want to dirty your new cymbal.


Alternatively, you can use a pad or something to put on your snare drum so that after playing, your sticks will have left snare paint on them. Snare paint is like the paint they put on the snare head to make it look... whatever colour the look unless your snare head is already transparent.


Also, you can get the Yamaha metal polish to SHINE the metal parts on your drum set, like the rims and hoops of the toms or the nuts/stands etc. Just don't use it on your silvered ones and it should be fine. (silver + yamaha = corrosion :O)

 

[joshie]

i like the stick marks on my cymbals. gives it that toned vintage style.

 

[danial]

how much does a bottle of polisher cost eh ?
and the metal polisher thing

thanks for reply !

 

[TequilaSunrise]

The Vater cymbal polisher costs $10 and the Yamaha metal polisher costs $6.20, both bought at the Yamaha outlet in Plaza Sing.

Alternatively, you can go to Swee Lee and look for the brand specific cymbal polishers if you aren't comfortable with the colour change that the Vater causes (in the process of shining, your cymbal may look darker).