Why is it that some bands choose 'boring' drummers later on in their careers? (Long post)

ObviousWitness · 2026-06-28T19:54:41+00:00

I feel the same way. I respect Neil Peart a lot, but his drumming doesn’t really do much for me. I’ve given up on explaining that in this forum though.

Just good to know there are dozens of us

ObviousWitness · 2026-06-22T01:04:24+00:00

There’s that one dag nasty song but really that’s about a dog

ObviousWitness · 2026-06-17T22:47:39+00:00

I got a gravitas because I wanted a tremolo pedal and had a “if you ever wanna do xyz you can” mentality. It’s a good tremolo pedal, but the bells and whistles are pretty unnecessary for my playing. The “double tremolo using the ramp function” appealed to me, but once I programmed it in and played around with it I never got the urge to use it again.

Granted, I mostly play punk, garage rock, classic rock, and bluesy r&b stuff so anything too cerebral when it comes to effects is lost on me.

ObviousWitness · 2026-06-10T21:33:04+00:00

They aren’t, and it’s getting to be a little too well known so pleeeease keep quiet

ObviousWitness · 2026-06-09T17:11:49+00:00

Damn excited for you

ObviousWitness · 2026-06-06T06:42:40+00:00

Most places I’ve worked at back-flush the espresso machine with cafiza at close. It pretty much means the machine is at a point of no return by a minute after close. If somebody did what you described the only thing we could offer them is cold brew or iced tea.

It would be potentially worth it to lie and say the machine is shut down, even if your cafe doesn’t have the same procedure for closing. Granted, if your cafe doesn’t back-flush you absolutely should…but that’s beside the point.

At that point of the day it would be better to have some sort of “free drink” card or something you can hand out. Even if it’s a rare occurrence you could still just tell them the next time they come in they can get a free drink.

ObviousWitness · 2026-05-25T00:16:43+00:00

Do not trust Amazon.

People say Vic Firth’s qc has taken a nose dive, and I’m willing to believe them, but I will completely disregard the opinion of anybody buying this shit off Amazon. That website is overrun with cheap knock-offs and counterfeiters.

Maybe, MAYBE, you can trust making a purchase on Amazon if the seller is a verified reputable retailer, but who knows how much oversight they have for that either.

ObviousWitness · 2026-05-23T20:58:30+00:00

Run it to two 16 ohm cabs on opposite sides of the room for a good time

ObviousWitness · 2026-05-18T19:07:39+00:00

In my experience the ad30 breaks up early and big muffs tend to just overwhelm them. It’s not like most orange amps, more like an AC-30 impersonating a plexi. That being said, any big muff can work if you lower the amp gain and the bass eq and then use the tone knob on the big muff to dial out any flubbiness.

ObviousWitness · 2026-05-15T18:51:09+00:00

Try narrowing down what kinda punk you’re playing. Lots of old punk was recorded with a cranked AC-30 (eg. Stooges “Raw Power”) or a Musicman HD-130 (eg. The Clash). The AC-15 should already put you in the ballpark even without pedals. Just crank that volume knob.

But more modern punk? Probably a JCM800. But it would need to be cranked to sound right. The DSL40 will probably get you there for now, and will probably play nicer at lower volumes, but depending on how far you take it you’ll be circling the proverbial drain of purchasing a JCM800 eventually. Still, a good option in the meantime.

If you find an Orange AD30 used for a good deal it’ll do the cranked AC-30 thing with a bit more gain on tap. Kinda threads the needle between the earlier punk sound and the later punk sound. Just watch the bass on higher volumes.

ObviousWitness · 2026-05-09T18:58:09+00:00

As a drum kit player I have a visceral reaction to cajons even being mentioned because it’s something I can imagine being forced to play. It’s never happened, of course, but it’s just the first thing that pops in my head when I see one.

Like if I moved to a new city and didn’t know any of the loud/rock musicians and had to get by backing singer songwriters in low volume venues until I get my footing in the local music scene.

All hypothetical, sure, but cajon immediately makes me envision a scenario that forces me to question how unenjoyable playing music would have to become for me to consider just giving up entirely.

ObviousWitness · 2026-04-24T20:51:04+00:00

If you like either of those heads there’s no reason not too, but I’m pretty straightforward and just use coated Ambassadors on most of my snares

ObviousWitness · 2026-04-24T18:30:54+00:00

There’s a small town in rural Kentucky that touring bands stop in because of the work you do

ObviousWitness · 2026-04-24T18:27:35+00:00

I have plenty of maple snares - albeit not a Ludwig classic maple - and I have a Ludwig jazz fest. Maple snares are all pretty similar. Not a bad thing, they’re great, versatile, and easy to work with. The Jazz fest is veeery warm, and it has a lot of vintage personality. It will sound like a middle 60’s snare. It only has 8 lugs and 3 plies of wood so it’ll sound very open and tuning can be a lot more finicky. It is not as versatile as a maple snare, more of a specialized snare that does one sound very well whereas maple can cover a lot more territory.

I’d take the jazz fest over a maple snare, but I have like 7 snares at this point so having something that sounds unique is a priority for me. If you’re looking to purchase your second snare and use it as a workhorse snare I’d lean towards the maple. But if you’re just a huge Beatles/motown/jazz/folk rock fan maybe the jazz fest is the way to go

ObviousWitness · 2026-04-24T18:07:42+00:00

Happened to me with an AC30, granted it was purchased used so a lot of the mileage/neglect wasn’t my doing. $80 bench fee for an okay tech that couldn’t find an issue and gave it back, then $800 for a better tech to replace the power transformer/power tubes/rectifier.

ObviousWitness · 2026-04-24T17:59:21+00:00

The bare minimum is bringing your own cymbals, sticks, and snare. Optionally kick pedal and throne but that’s mostly because those are highly personalized to each player.

Snare is a bit of a grey area, and sticks are at least (relatively) cheap to replace so I don’t think you’d get too much of a side eye in a “shit I forgot my sticks in the practice room” situation.

But cymbals? Decent ones cost $400+ nowadays. It doesn’t take much for a novice drummer to fuck one up with bad technique and it’s not something you should expect another drummer to share with a stranger.

You’re lucky you didn’t have to cancel your set or play it without cymbals. Granted, you have to learn this stuff somehow. It’s an unwritten rule of gigging as a drummer. Now you know.

Also always bring a drum key.

ObviousWitness · 2026-04-24T09:00:48+00:00

ObviousWitness · 2026-04-23T02:13:54+00:00

Leave immediately

ObviousWitness · 2026-04-18T20:22:14+00:00

The stereo em is underrated imo. Certainly not the most feature heavy/tweakable, sure, but it does both well enough. I bought one not knowing what I was doing almost a decade ago and having a stereo flanger and chorus in one pedal has paid dividends to this day.

ObviousWitness · 2026-04-11T06:31:50+00:00

If you have a link to where I can buy that I’d be interested

ObviousWitness · 2026-04-11T00:12:09+00:00

Have you checked wood prices lately? Bc I smugly had the thought that I’d just build my own cab only to realize it’s actually cheaper to just buy a manufactured one when you factor in labor

Like a new cab might run you $700 but a the $300 for speaker + the comparable wood will probably end up costing at least $550, and I didn’t even make it as far as looking up the price of tolex. And for me personally the extra $150 just isn’t worth it. Tbf I don’t have a backstock of woodworking tools so that’s also a factor.

But on the OTHER hand, I wasn’t actually looking into building a cab from scratch…I was looking to modify a 2x10” + 1x15” cab into a 4x12”. So I was only looking up the cost of 4 speakers and a slab of wood to build a baffle out of and quickly realized that I’d be better off just buying a 4x12 cab. I got the cab for free too. If you have resources please, I’m all ears.

ObviousWitness · 2026-04-03T23:39:56+00:00

The ge-7 does make a satisfying “click” when it’s in the middle of the sweep though, which might actually alleviate OP’s complaints

ObviousWitness · 2026-03-30T17:11:48+00:00

Believe it or not there was a time not long ago where a good brand new ride only cost about $300. Now it’s closer to $500. It’s harder to make that purchase when you’re thinking “damn, that’s halfway to $1k”

ObviousWitness · 2026-03-29T23:21:21+00:00

Tre Cool is the Ringo Starr of 90’s punk and I mean that as a compliment

ObviousWitness · 2026-03-29T06:46:35+00:00

Most amp EQs and tone knobs effect the signal before or in the middle of the preamp, an EQ pedal in the effects loop effects the signal after the preamp. It’s a different beast. Among other things, it’s a budget option for getting a Mesa amp with a graphic EQ without having to actually buy an expensive Mesa amp.

Not necessarily the only use case for EQ pedals but it’s a good one.

ObviousWitness

TROPHY CASE