Hello there my dear friends and how are you all? I do hope that life has treated you well and bestowed upon you all the virtues it has to offer? Bugger that!

Anyway, today I’m going to tell you how I maintain my drum kit.
So guitar, bass and keyboard players can stop reading now. And singers too! Now any drummer worth his salt will know or should I say, should know how to do this, but if you don’t, you should be ashamed of yourselves! I have been doing this for a long time now and I can tell you that I do look after my gear. So much so that I still have cymbal stands that I bought when I first started playing! As you know, the more you use something the less efficient it becomes. Heads, cymbals, sticks, pedals, in fact anything that you hit or press is going to become unusable at some point in the future, and things can be very expensive to replace. Many times I have refurbished old stands by replacing a wing bolt or nut, a washer or spring on a pedal. All moving parts are always lubricated to maintain a smooth action, so many times I have heard pedals squeak away that you would swear there was a mouse infestation! I once had to change the chain on a hi-hat pedal, but seeing that I have inherited some of my father’s engineering brain it was rather an easy task to undertake.

I always wear gloves when setting up and tearing down as I have had iron splinters in my hands that have caused me untold suffering! How could something so small cause so much pain? It was like having an electric shock each time it was touched, ouch!
It’s common sense really that the more you look after something, the longer you will keep it. Ask my fourth wife, LOL! Someone once told me after seeing me take such care of my stands that he just threw his hardware in the cases and bought new ones each year. Well, he obviously had more money to waste than I did. I carry around a rather good sized tool box on tour, it contains just about everything I need to carry out most of the things that can and do go wrong, but the most important piece of equipment is my Worx drill. It has a drum key drill bit that enables me to change a head literally in seconds, and I can prove it! It makes life so much easier that I can highly recommend that all drummers should carry one in his array of tools.

I could go on and on but I have no desire to bore you with the minor details on how I maintain my kit, but if you wish to know more, come to the next Threshold or Kyrbgrinder show, and see for yourself.

I thank you all for listening.

Johanne James

#drummer #drumskit #drumming #headbangerslifestyle #hbls #awayoflife