I swapped out a head on a Pearl Snare of mine recently. I like Fiberskyn heads on that particular drum, and I've never had problems with those heads before. I took it to a Funk gig and thinking "oh its a new head so it should be fine" didn't take a spare snare. Oh dear!! When I fitted and tuned it everything seemed fine. On the gig it felt weird and sounded odd. Anyway It went during the second tune. Literally split from rim to rim right down the middle of the drum like I'd slashed it with a knife. Luckily the venue had a jam kit packed away in a corner so they dug the snare out. it was horrible, tuned like a teapot and Duct taped to death but it got me through.

I reckon that was a duff head. Spare snare next time!!

I've always brought a spare pedal having had a strap model fair years ago. But now you've got me wondering about the snare head too!

I know this is going to sound weird, but along with spare heads and BD pedal, I always have a roll of Duct tape in with the gear I take to gigs.

You never know!

John

+1 on the duct tape. A drummer's best friend. You can make all kinds of fast temporary repairs to keep the show going. Carried it for years.

Thanks for the tips. Especially for those still playing their Gretsch Floating Action pedals with original leather strap. I'm sure everyone has at least one used Ambassador they can thow in their snare case/bag too. Duct tape can get you to the break. If you have matched batter/reso heads on your toms, just flip them over, if you split a batter head. I love seeing pictures from the 60's where a kit's reso heads were obviously once a batter heads. More so on Woodstock pictures.

-Tim

You guys beat me to the duct tape suggestion,but i didn`t see any mention of carrying a spare bass drum batter head.I know the chances of breaking one are very minimal compared to a snare batter but they do break.And we all know it can happen at absolutley the worst time and on an important show.Good insurance investment i would think.I carry my old bass batter head with me just in case.

Wayne

True enough Wayne. When I send out kits there is always the following:

Spare snare (actually 2 most of the time)

Spare kick pedal

Spare (new) batter heads for all drums including the kick drum

Spare hi-hat stand

Spare throne

Spare snare drum stand

At least two more cymbal stands than I think I will need

Spare parts for just about everything; wing nuts, tension rods, cymbal felts/sleeves, grosgrain ribbon, snare wires, pedal springs, MoonGel, etc.

I keep the spare parts in fishing tackle boxes so everything stays organized.

That is probably overkill for most, but I always carried a spare snare, pedal and a tackle box full of parts even back when I was 15 or 16 on gigs.

tnsquint-love the tackle box idea for organization of parts and good you had that intuition even when you were 15 or 16-smarter than the average bear there for sure.Overkill-no way...you never know what`s about to go wrong and you`ve got all your bases covered-excellent!I`m going to dig out my old tackle box and thanks for the idea.

Wayne

Reminds me of two similar incidents that happened to me this past year:

#1 Playing the National Theater in Richmond, VA. I put some new puresound snare wires with the clips on my main snare the day before the gig. Anyway half way through our first song one of the clips breaks and off my snare wires go. Luckily I had a backup snare off to the side I ran and grabbed.

#2 Gigged a new pedal for a company that will remain nameless that was given to me to try. In practice everything is fine. I take it too a gig (and left my backup pedal at home) and it failed on me 3 times. Needless to say I don't own that pedal anymore. Shame really because its a great concept just perhaps not sturdy enough for a heavy footed person like me.

So there you have it try to bring all sorts of extra things you might need. Like others have mentioned most of what we do can be accomplished with a snare, bass drum and hi hats. It sounds like with most of us our learning moments were always when one of these main items failed somehow.

Manny

Wayne - I popped a bass drum head once in my life and it was on a gig. If it ever happens to you, turn the drum around and use the reso for a batter to finish out the job. Has to be between sets, it does take a little time to do. I told the band leader what happened and he smooth as silk went out and told everybody we were going to take a short break. It really helps when people have your back in a bad situation

Turn the drum around! Quick fix!!!

John