Music Resources

How to Reskin Your Drum Kit

Did you know that drumskins are perishable, and should be replaced when they start to sound dull? When you need to reskin your drum kit, you have two options. First, take it into a music store and pay one of the technicians to reskin your drum kit. Alternatively, if you want to save some money, you can learn to reskin your drum kit by yourself.

Reskinning your kit is like changing the oil in your car; either get a mechanic to do it or do it yourself. And while there is nothing wrong with getting someone else to do it for you, there’s something empowering about being able to change your own skins.

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How to tell if your kit needs new skins

Just like guitar strings, drum skins lose tone and become dull and lifeless the more you play them. While proper maintenance and care can expand the life of your skin, changing it is an inevitability.

If you are a live drummer, dull and lifeless drums can ruin your tone, and make it tough for the audience to decern what you are doing. For studio drummers, the need for clarity is amplified, since recordings last forever. Do you want to listen to something you recorded and know that your drums could have sounded better?

If you want to keep your drum set sounding great, you must learn how to tell when it’s time to replace your drum heads. As time goes on, all drum heads will weaken where you’re hitting them the most. As they get weaker, they can dent or even break if you play hard enough.

There is however no hard and fast rule about when you should change your drum heads. It’s the kind of thing most players develop a feel for. IF you are not sure whether or not you should change your skins, visit one of our stores, and let one of our drum experts look at your kit. Once you know what to look for, it’ll be easy to spot going forward.