OK, I used the search function but didn't find any perfect matches. If I blew it, lmk and I'll delete the thread and move this post.

Share your tips for dumb little things you do to save a coupla bucks like using the rubber grommets on flip-top bottles (grolsch is the classic but tea-totalers like myself can get that fancy French lemonade in import stores) to keep your guitar straps secure. Here's my drummer submission:

Back story first: so I might have landed a gig drumming for a group where loud drums aren't really going to be most appropriate so have been trying out options like brushes, brush-rods, etc. Brush rods seem to be the best fit for me for this project I guess, but they're $25 a crack and do NOT last long in my hands, even when working VERY hard to re-wire my drumming and rein it in. So...I saw at [box-store guitar place] they had some knock-offs for about $15 which is better but we're still looking at the same problem of durability and my experience so far w/ the durability is that I got what I paid for as the rods are clearly lower quality wood & are shedding faster than the Pro-Marks.

So I started poking around the garage. As is normal buying any home in the US, the previous owner left some some stuff behind & one of those things was a pile of PVC pipe and seeing that got me thinking. Originally the plan was to see if there was a section of dowels I could epoxy into some PVC (and that's still on the table, more to come) but I wondered what tubes would sound like as far as volume and tone on a drum. So I cut a section to the length of 2b sticks, beveled the ends so there's no sharp impact on the heads.

Sound: I kinda expected a hollow-tube sound when striking things. Nope. Doesn't sound very different from hitting w/ butt-end of sticks, just a small maybe 20-25% volume reduction?

Feel: so this is the only downside I've found so far. Because they are somewhat flexible, this gives them a bit of a snap so my first go after an entire band rehearsal I did end up w/ some blood blisters in the middle section of my index fingers. That being said, if I had practiced w/ them more the week leading up to longer rehearsal to get used to them/build up callus instead of bounding right in to play for 3 hrs straight, I'd probably have been fine.

Results: No discernible damage to drum heads or the sticks themselves, they seem to hold up better than wood honestly. I have some concerns about catastrophic breakage and splintering maybe? but eh, risk little, win little.

IDK y'all. I might be done buying drumsticks. A 10-foot section of pipe is like $5 and could get 3.5 pair from each section. The sticks I like have now jumped to literally $20 a pair. This is a little more than dumb money savings.

Is there any reason not to do this that I haven't considered? I have done a bit of googling and surely can't be the first tightwad goober to come up w/ this idea. These are basically free. I could saw a couple more up and send them to you if you want to give it a try and don't have access to a saw and sandpaper.

Rad thread.

For drums it is fun to use large serving chopsticks from any Asian Food Market as really light "quiet time" sticks. Like these.

https://www.amazon.com/Donxote-Noodles- ... CQEALw_wcB

Also for drums I found using a cheap Neewer arm style camera clamp and a 1/4" / 20 to 5/8" adapter is great for clamping to a cymbal stand for a tom mic mount or other mounting solutions in a tight area. The cost less than a lot of actual drum mounting clips and work a hell of a lot better. This thing:

https://www.amazon.com/Adjustable-Micro ... _5EALw_wcB

Getting giant gamer style foam mouse pads and cutting little crescent shapes out of them for tom and snare mutes works better than any moon gel or other such nonsense. They are cheap and one will have enough material to do all your drums.

https://www.amazon.com/Gaming-Mouse-Pro ... 9hdGY&th=1

For people who lost their RE20 clip years ago there is this great $8 oversized butterfly clip that can hold up most condensers, RE20, Beyer X70... etc easily. Works great.

https://www.amazon.com/BILIONE-Upgraded ... 9hdGY&th=1

Bulk melamine pads (what magic erasers are made out of but with no cleaning chemicals in them) are like $8 for a 20 pack on Amazon and make fantastic speaker isolation pads. you can use the rest to clean up you messes.

I jam econo in my Honda too so I do my own brakes. When I change my rotors or drums, I keep the old ones and they are great to slide over round based stands to add weight to the bottom. With a couple on there you can use a boom extended out without fear of falling over, great when floor space is limited around a drum kit and tripod are a pain in the ass to place.

I'm sure if I just look around my room I can come up with a bunch more.

Cleaned up brake drums also make for dandy alt percussion too if you're just trying to expand the sound palette of a recording. For that matter, some interesting sounds can be had from cashed dull circular saw blades too & old cast iron but they've come back in fashion for cooking again thankfully so skip the antique store; you can find less collectible ones at goodwill like Lodge or whatever that some boomer got too frustrated with their risotto sticking or whatever.

Speaking of moongels, I used to get mine from a gumball machine in the lobby of a Mexican restaurant as wacky wall crawlers. 3 quarters worth and I'd have my whole kit with happy little octopi on each drum.

Garth wrote: Mon Apr 29, 2024 4:08 pm Cleaned up brake drums also make for dandy alt percussion too if you're just trying to expand the sound palette of a recording. For that matter, some interesting sounds can be had from cashed dull circular saw blades too & old cast iron but they've come back in fashion for cooking again thankfully so skip the antique store; you can find less collectible ones at goodwill like Lodge or whatever that some boomer got too frustrated with their risotto sticking or whatever.

Speaking of moongels, I used to get mine from a gumball machine in the lobby of a Mexican restaurant as wacky wall crawlers. 3 quarters worth and I'd have my whole kit with happy little octopi on each drum.

For an alternative drum/cymbal tone try a turkey baster. They can be had cheap and that big rubber bulb is perfect for hitting things.

NB: the plastic bit you would be using as a handle sometimes has bits that stick out so for more than a few hits a glove(s) might be a good idea.

This thread is perfect for the prepared guitar nerds. I’m kind of inspired!

This might be a dumb one but those "Big Fat Snare" things seem to be anywhere & while they're not particularly expensive, it seems like you could save old drum heads the next time you change and then use an exacto knife and cut those out from the old heads. Maybe rubber cement with that gamer mouse pad that FMKR linked to above.

Someone left one at a show and didn't want me to bother sending it to them. It's a fun toy, definitely changes a snare tone a lot and as mentioned in the above, might be an easy way to reduce volume a little bit. Gonna try DIY one for toms as above at some point. I heard another drummer refer to these BFS skins as "I don't have time to tune my drums."

I have been trying to create my own woodblock/temple blocks. Results so far have been uninspiring.

Yeah I think recycling the outer ring part of old drum heads for mutes is a thing and reminds me I should make a few.

I really like dead sounding drums as of late, and feel like I spent many years chasing "big/live/open" drum sounds because of personal bias rather than what was right for the music. Make hydraulic heads great again, etc....

twelvepoint wrote: Wed May 01, 2024 8:28 am I really like dead sounding drums as of late, and feel like I spent many years chasing "big/live/open" drum sounds because of personal bias rather than what was right for the music. Make hydraulic heads great again, etc....

For me, it was a case of competing with volume. Now that I don't do that, I do find that I prefer a smidge of tape here or there to control ring and sustain (cymbals too sometimes..).

(back to topic) I haven't tested it out yet, but I want to make an electronic-ofied kick out of a kick practice pad, a contact mic, into a Bit Commander and maybe other things. These are things I already have so why not.

If your (or a friend's) employer has any business with audio, learn about their e-waste/decommissioning process and if there's any room for you to "help". Keep an eye out for cool stuff. It's obscene what businesses throw away. I've worked in the higher ed IT audio visual world for 18 years and have revived and given good homes to all kinds of good stuff. Some repair required at times, but worth it. If something doesn't work out, it can always go back into an e-waste pile.