It Just Needed an Adjustment

I was surprised and intrigued one night to see one of our regular Monday night jammers pull out a tool kit and go to work on the house bass. In just a few minutes, the fellow had the bass playing and sounding much better, to everyone's delight. 

 

Adjusting the action of a guitar is not hard to do, as our jam-band friend demonstrated. And the return on investment can be huge. I put myself through university doing, among other things, guitars repairs. I've always been a tinkerer and I'm fascinated by guitars. Plus I love tearing things apart to see how they work.

If you were to go to a drum forum and ask about snare drum tweaking, you'll get lots of useful tips to try. But I can't think of a better way to get to know your gear than to tear it down and put it back together yourself. Take it apart piece by piece. Ask yourself what each component is all about. Think about what you want/need from it and how each component can help you achieve that. 

There are some things you may not want to know so intimately. Hi-hat stand innards, for example, can be quite tricky. You almost need a degree from MIT to figure out some cymbal tilters. But snares, toms, bass drums, BD pedals ... all will benefit from your efforts to understand them. 

Knowing how a thing works goes a long way toward getting it to do your bidding. You'll avoid a lot of blind alleys and will be better able to replicate a result. Then you can spend your time playing rather than trying to get @#$% thing to behave. Once a drum has been set up well, getting and keeping the right sound is relatively simple. And the best way to learn how to get that set-up is to know your instrument -- inside as well as out.

Knowing your equipment can also help avoid repairs. If something's amiss, you can look into it yourself and take remedial steps. Plus avoiding an equipment failure on the road is a great stress reducer and money saver. In the end, your setup will be more satisfying to use. It will sound good, it will play well, and it will be less likely let you down, all of which make for a better, more efficient and satisfying relationship with your instruments and hardware.