You missed the biggest pro tip.. The length of the spurs should be set so that when the beater is just touching the batter head, the shaft of the beater ends up being perpendicular to the floor. This removes wasted energy in your kick stroke. When the beater overextends the 90-degree point, it turns into wasted energy and becomes less efficient. This is a game changer approach.

The older I get, more I play, more I obsess over the fundamentals like this. You’d be amazed how long people can play without really learning this stuff.

You are spot-on, particularly about centering the logo. My reso head is printed with a badge with two vertical stripes, so it HAS to be straight! And you know what I use for a drum mat? A plain $9 6'x6' furniture moving blanket from Harbor Freight. I got sick and tire of having to roll up my previous drum rug at the end of a gig. The moving blanket does the same job, and at the end of the gig, I just fold it up in 15 seconds. And it takes up less space in the back of my SUV! It's lighter, too!

As always, I can't agree hard enough. Same thing with the tom positioning: I bet I can tell by the way toms are mounted on the bassdrum whether the guy can play or not. At school almost no music teacher knows how to set up a kit correctly, but how could they know, they don't watch your channel! Excellent work, Sir!

Good advice, for beginners !

There is such a great tool on the market and thats a kind of bassdrumm stabilisator. Very easy to attach on the front side of the basedrumm with two screws. I am not a drummer but a guitar player but I have seen it in a few recording studios.

If you have a good rug and your pedal has velcro underneath you actually don’t need to tighten the pedal to the hoop at all. The bond between the velcro and the carpet is sursprisingly strong.

Another great and informative video, thank you!!

A Dixson bass drum lift keeps both rims off the floor and protects the rim. It also puts the beater in a better position for small drums.

As a self-taught drummer, I find myself a tad bit annoyed that mistakes like these get made to begin with. I guess I'm just glad I've never had these issues.

I play Ludwig and they have by far the best bass drum spur's. They have four per drum and their just one piece, on front they curve forward and on rear curve back. They also have nice large rubber feet on the ends. My drum goes nowhere at all, just love these spur's. Take Care

Very good advices! Thanks for that

Some of this is why i cant let anyone " help" me load in or out. They dont care about the little details that make a big difference.

If you play a pedal with an eccentric cam or, even "worse", a direct drive, the angle of the head will affect your pedalfeeling massively. Therefore you should try to always have the heads exactly perpendicular to the surface the kit stands on, so the height of your hoopclamps lower part is exactly the height you want to lift your bassdrum with the spurs. I have a small "spirit level" - device (right word?) for that adjustment. EDIT: Okay, in a later part of the video there's the level, but I would also use it in the other dimension, holding the level at the head.

1) raising the front of the kick drum off the ground a little bit also places the batter head more at a 90° angle to the pedal beater so you don’t have to go past 90° with the beater. 2) the Kickstrap product does a great job from keeping your bass drum from sliding while taking pressure off the hoop and allowing you to not have to crank down the tension on the pedal clamping to the hoop. Also, since the strap attaches to your throne, you can quickly figure out the distance you will need from the bass drum pedal to your throne when quickly gauging set up space.

5:15: can’t help but notice the dichotomy. You speak about getting the drum off the floor so it can vibrate/resonate - yet there’s that big pillow in the drum, to deaden those vibrations.

I also do the trick of putting something under the reso hoop for setting up the spurs! Makes things so much easier

Great tips! Thanks for sharing!🤘🏼🤘🏼🤘🏼 Subscribed

You can use your iPhone as a level. Standard tool on every one called “Measure” - you can set your tom angles too. And it works for distance. Yer snare is always in the same spot. You only need to establish measurements once.

To get the best feel, the bass drum should be raised so that the beater never has to go past vertical in order to hit the drum head. Spurs don't always work that well, and the spikes can go through the rug and damage the floor underneath. Replacing the spurs' feet with KBrakes has been life-changing for me. They also make attachments that will keep your bass drum and hi-hat in place on a hard floor without a rug, although I cannot comment on how well they work.

As always what an interesting and informative video. I agree on every point, spur adjustment with the front of the bass drum raised by one inch at the most is one I’ve used for all my drumming life. That’s a great tip on getting the logo head straight by attaching string to the two tension rods. Another great point is protecting the bass drum hoop from damage by the pedal, I’ve used hoop protectors for as long as I can remember, even 40 years back I used a beer mat torn in half which was better than nothing. I recently spent £400 on a pair of Yamaha RC hoops and there’s no way they wouldn’t be protected but a simple £5 hoop protector is a fraction of the cost compared to a damaged hoop! Another little thing I do is every time I change a head, when replacing the hoop I always line the claws up in exactly the same position on the hoop where they came off. Great video (can’t believe people carry the bass drum with the pedal still attached!) and by the way at 2:50 what brand and model is the little walnut finish bd & mounted tom (Yamaha tom holder) kit, it’s beautiful!

Good morning, Mr. Common Sense Musician, thank you for yet another entertaining and informative show. All the little things can add up to a very important big thing, and you did a good job addressing that theme.❤️🙏👏❤️🙏👏❤️

I would even take the bass drum high nerdy ness one step further and also adjust it so where when your bass drum beater hits the batter side it is exactly parallel at the impact point. This was taken from Dave Weckl and I have done this for years. Especially for pedals that do not have an adjustable cam.

Very nice and detailed explanation. I'll give a 👍🎼🥁💯💯💯💯💯💯💯

Ty, new drummer, needed this info

My spurs are so good that I can usually get away with playing on bare floors. In a pinch though I once used the floor mats out of my car lol Dude my logo was crooked as hell last night at the gig and the crowds face was eye level with it. I rocked with it though lol Man this channel has a good way about deeply explaining things other channels might overlook. Like the video about cymbal stands. I learned so much, even a old head like me. One topic I’d like to see somebody cover is how to select cymbals that work well together for a kit.

The correct high of the spurs it depends on the beater, I use DW, Classic felt Danmar and Square Zoro model, all require different highs in order to hit correctly the drumhead.

Crazy. I just set my spurs on a brand new kit. I’m a self taught drummer and I’ve been drumming for 15 years so I had no idea what to do. In all my reasoning I did it all right. Thanks for this validating video. Wait… I think I still need to tighten up the set screws on the spurs. Anyway, thanks.

I actually used a small level across the upper most lugs and adjusted the legs that way. Perfect every time.

I agree with everything you say EXCEPT the spikes on the spurs. Even with carpets, I have damaged floors with these. The solution is simple, just recess them fully into the rubber feet and use a thin, plastic coated wire cable which slips around the foot pedal heel pad of the hi hat stand and the bass drum heel pad (I know that pedals are different, but my basic matching Yamaha pedals are perfect for this.) and also around the front two feet of the throne. I made my two cables (one loop on each end, they stay attached to the throne when packed). I spent less than $10 at the hardware store for a short cable of about 1/8" diameter and 4 u-clamps.) I can set up on bare floors or carpeted floors with no damage to them, plus the hi hat stand and bass drum stay permanently adjusted with no creeping. Set up is quick and easy. Since I like my 18" bass drum beater to hit dead center on the head, I use a 2" Gibraltar riser. For my permanent adjustment, I elevated the front of the drum to be perfectly level (yes, use a level) from front to rear. Then I leveled the spurs from side to side. This little bit of elevation makes the little bass drum sound much bigger. The bass drum and riser stay attached in the soft case with plenty of room and the grip on the hoop is spread out in an arc with no damage to the hoop (the pedal grips onto the steel riser instead of the wood hoop). This initial set up is time consuming but it only has to be done once. Afterwards, the amount of time saved is amazing!

I keep a level in my stick bag for this exact reason. I also like to get real nerdy and make sure my kit is centered on stage

You slayed that

That's a good idea to use the rubber band to help get the logo level!

The hole positon I found is best at about 4:30 as it gives the right amount of low end and not too much.Pretty common I would think.

ive left a double kick pedal on while gigging. never damaged a hoop ever. i crank mine super tight as well.🍻

Agreed, just the tip is more than enough for me.

I've been a drummer for 20 years and i didnt know people lift their bassdrums using their spurs. I mean, i do it with small kicks like the 16" i use now, but i always placed bigger drums on the ground and THEN adjust the spurs so the hit the ground.

Do you also recommend having the beater slightly off-center? Thanks.

I like the topic you're on, but my bass drum is from the 1960's and the spurs are telescope type and are angled at a low angle, thus it's almost useless... but it's original.

I disagree whit having the logo straight, sometimes heads had a premade hole to put the mic on, and maybe the sound operator wants it to be right or left depending where you put the snare drum to help prevent bleed. Sorry my English, hope you can understand it😅

In theory you could attach the bass drum pedal to the wrong side of the drum to set the height.... never thought of this before!

Maybe also do a detailed video of how to lift a BD from the floor like a pro

Balance. Good thing I’m a Libra! ⚖️

agree on every point

It just kills me, how one can not mention that you can’t have four points touching a level plane, only three. This applies especially for hi-hat stands with three legs. I know some come with the little spur anchors on the back of the foot pedal itself, and that suggests you should lower that part until it meets the ground; but that causes the weight of the whole thing divide through the four parts. One would believe, well that gives more stability; well it doesn’t. By making contact with the center part (the pedal itself) you’re reducing, ever so slightly, the weight on the surrounding legs, and subsequently also reducing their capacity of “gripping” to the ground.

Always take gaffer/duct tape with you to a gig. If you have to play a crappy kit on a shiny wooden floor, tape your pedal down...not ideal, but should hold the bass drum steady enough to get you through

I got one of those cheap puzzle foam mats. I think it was $20 bux.

Where did you go for state music festival?

Too much lift kills the low end and may damage the hoops. Set your kick level with the floor - mount the pedal and use a level to set up the legs.

I saw a photograph of Elvin Jones nailing his front bass drum hoop to the stage. Yikes!

Very well done, smart, commonsense and important. I have studied, physics and engineering design. So, you know what An anal nightmare I am around drums. You nailed this. Another thing, keep your gear wiped down and clean . Stay awesome everyone.

😬 *"...UUTTT-OHH..."* 🤔 SOMEONE..., *_DIDN'T_* FOLLOW, 😧 his own advice w/regards to having a straight 📐 *_"LOGO"_* ON HIS "Reso" side kick drum head!!! YUPPER.., A CROOKED *_"REMO"_* logo for our CHANNEL HOST!! 😨 MY-OH-MY!! 😂 *ANYWAY KEEP ON KEEPING ON BROTHER DRUMMER!!!!!* 😎🤘🏼

Using a level on a round object 😂

You ool and your straight logos or logo lined with badge. Sure my bass drum head is straight cuz im not dumb, but i don't line it up with the badge cuz im not a psychopath

Dude ....if these people couldn't figure out how to use the standard hardware on a bass drum, they should maybe switch to the harmonica or something 🥱

This video compete with "How to Tune a Drum " and (2) Where to Hit the Drum" . Should made into a comic book ....oops sorry; a "graphic novel".

You know neighbors I get a kick out of these drummers also that used pillows blankets sleeping bags tape mufflers it's hilarious I used none of above straight up skin on drums is the tuning process of the resignation of the g note

If you do not know this information already, you are officially still a rookie. Cheers! P.S. Everyone is a rookie at some point in time. Just don't stay there without learning and growing. That's all I'm saying. This video would have been great if you had pictures or video clips of all the problems, mistakes and issues that you witnessed.

Please don’t muffle anything on a drum set. The bass drum pedal will tell you if it’s placed correctly.

Muffling is stupid. Put a 421 in front of it. The front of the drum should be 2 inches up. Do what Peart, Copeland, and Cobham do.