Good point and well said, however, it would be naive of us to think that playing ability alone is the criteria for hiring a musician, especially, in a touring situation where you arguably spend more time with your fellow band mates and tour staff than you do your own spouse. This includes spending 24/7 together for days and even weeks on end. At that point, musical ability is only one of many criteria in hiring people. Just like a job interview, you need to put your best foot forward. More to the point I would like for guys to think about a bigger picture than they may never have considered before.

Clean, well maintained gear is important, showroom polished is not what I am talking about as that may not be reasonable and not a prerequisite. If you walk in on time (meaning early) well prepared with pristine gear, those are points in your favor and it is unapologetically prejudiced. Any HR person or small business owner will tell you the same. That communicates something about a person and to assume that it does not is to miss an opportunity in your career.

I would absolutelty agree that there are problems with our nation right now and perhaps a great start would be for all of us (I mean everyone, not just VDF members) to take pride in our what we do. That is about as political as we need to get on this site. Fishaa, I absolutely appreciate your point of view and I am glad you posted! (by the way, I do not mean to say that you specifically are naive)

I know where you're coming from, tnsquint, and really appreciate your insight. Ultimately there needs to be balance between having a business/HR mentality as a Musical Director, and maintaining an objective, unadulterated perspective on where someone is coming from musically. As you said, it's much easier when people just have their personal sh** together... but more often than not, one way or another, they don't.

Now.... whose drums are those you posted? Jay Bellerose? Yours?

Fishaa, agreed. As to the drum kit, that was photographed at a club at the Hyatt Regency in San Antonio while I was staying there on tour. Pretty cool stuff eh?

Agreeing with teverson-sr. Brush your teeth, clean your drums.

However, learning to clean them correctly is a study and I'm a novice compared to what I see other guys doing. Some guys are extremely careful and get unusually great results. Thanks to whoever it was that discovered white vinegar to remove rust from screws and so forth and all the others with helpful technology to preserve and improve the appearance of these treasured things that get hit all the time.

I also am of the mindset that your gear is often the first solid impression you can give of yourself, the band, and the music you play. I like the look of a well polished and cleaned kit, it shows I care about my instrument...it would stand to reason that I would then care about the music I play on that instrument.

I suppose in the end, if you want your kit to look like it was pulled from a barn after 45 years of sitting, tuned up and played...go for it. There are talks about this same idea in the hot rod forums I frequent. Heck, it's so bad with cars that people will put on a faux patina paint job after a full on frame off restoration so it just looks that way.

The same goes for guitars with the Fender Relic and what have you. The stuff is even more expensive.

Was the gun metal hardware on the 90's Gretsch Broadcaster shells going for something like this?

Once you have really cleaned a set, then all I am talking about is going over your kit with a soft cloth on a regular basis. If there is some real gunk you might need a moist cloth and MAYBE some Windex to clean up the chrome, but really, drum maintenance is not that big a deal if one will just take a few minutes every once in a while and do it. If you want clean cymbals, my best advice is to do it often. It's really not all that time consuming to get finger prints and stick marks off. If you let them go for a while, that job just became a much more laborious process.