China-made "stencil brand" drum kits are common as nails, cheap as dirt, and usually sound about as good as either- but they are not going away, no matter how much we rail against their poor quality, horrible sound, or repercussions (pun intended) of buying cheap, low-quality "goods" from China. There are, no doubt, much that can be done to improve them, yet be cost-effective. I'd like this thread to be a clearing house of good, proven, cost-effective (even cheap) ideas, which I will condense the best ideas into a guide, and post up- hopefully it will be good enough to become a sticky.
So, knowledgable drum folk, please post your cheap tricks, keeping cost-effectiveness in mind. Here's an example/suggestion, please try to follow this format:
ORIGINAL: Metal washers between tension rod head and hoop.
UP-GRADE: Replace metal washer with nylon ones from a drum shop.
BETTER: Get nylon washers from a hardware store (cheaper, and for this application, nylon is nylon.)
DIRT CHEAP: Retain the original metal washers, and put a VERY small dab of white lithium grease on one side of the washer. Put a VERY small dab on the tensioner threads, while you are at it.
You can save time/typing by cutting and pasting this:
O:
UG:
B:
DC:
and adding your suggestion to it.
Thanks in advance to all who will contribute.
So, knowledgable drum folk, please post your cheap tricks, keeping cost-effectiveness in mind. Here's an example/suggestion, please try to follow this format:
ORIGINAL: Metal washers between tension rod head and hoop.
UP-GRADE: Replace metal washer with nylon ones from a drum shop.
BETTER: Get nylon washers from a hardware store (cheaper, and for this application, nylon is nylon.)
DIRT CHEAP: Retain the original metal washers, and put a VERY small dab of white lithium grease on one side of the washer. Put a VERY small dab on the tensioner threads, while you are at it.
You can save time/typing by cutting and pasting this:
O:
UG:
B:
DC:
and adding your suggestion to it.
Thanks in advance to all who will contribute.