Happy New Year to one and all….

There’s a rather cool Irish bar in the heart of The Diff (Cardiff). Live music, great Guinness and yours truly with the gang ready for a birthday sesh (whoops, another drinking related email).

Guinness and maybe a little Whiskey on its way, the band has set up, ready to sound check.

The Pearl Masters kit on stage was a real beauty. We looked forward to hearing it sing. 

Here we go… give it to me…!

WHACK!!!

I shuddered…

WHACK WHACK!!!

I recoiled…

WHACK!!!

Ohh no no no! That drum did NOT sound good at all!!!

My stomach turned and it wasn’t the 1 pint of Guinness (Yes only 1… so far)

I battled with myself. ‘Do I say something? Should I say something? Will the drummer take offence?’

My fear of letting this guy go on stage with THE WORST sounding drum EVER got the better of me and I approached cautiously.

“Hey man, how’s things? I’m not gonna be one of those guys that asks for a go on your kit! But, I play drums a little and was wondering more about the sound of your snare drum”.

Luckily for me the drummer was cool and didn’t get all funky with attitude. Snare in hand it took me less than 5 seconds to uncover the issue.

“Interesting choice of heads” I said. “How come you went with this as the reso (bottom) of the snare?”

 “The guy in the local music store told me this is what I needed. I’m not great with tuning and drum heads, so I took their advice”.

“Ok, cool” I replied. “They’ve actually sold you a batter (top) head as a reso (bottom) head. That’s the reason your snare sounds like a breeze block”.

Yes, a bit harsh but he took it well.

“The reso head is too thick to umm…. resonate!!!!” I continued.

“I messed with it for ages earlier and it just didn’t sound right! I ran out of time and had to rush here”. He replied nervously.

Want to know how we fixed it?

Drum tuning is a minefield at the best of times let alone when you don’t have the right tools for the job.

We’re here to help though and we’ve got an event booked in that’ll solve all of these drumhead / tuning issues plus much much more.

Keep Saturday 27th January ’24 free innit! You know you don’t want to miss the chance to make YOUR drums sound better than ever before.

We’ll be in touch later this week, oh, and I’ll let you know how we fixed the above problem in my next email so keep your eyes peeled.

Speak soon and hope your drums don’t sound like breeze blocks.

Brett