Cold weather playing

[Crusher]

Hey,

 

Great sub board! I had a question regarding cold weather playing. We may play a short gig in early December outdoors. I'd say the daytime temps will more than likely be in the upper 30's/low 40's F.

 

I'm more worried about the drums & drum heads than the guitars, but what do you guys think? Any special precautions? Do's & dont's? Any of you ever played in the cold? How was it?

 

Thanks!

[JacieFB]

A couple of tours ago, we played an outside skate park show in TX in January. It wasn't like playing in Montana, obviously, but the temps were similar to what you were describing. Our drummer was a very hard hitter...he never broke heads or anything like that. And his drum heads were quite broken in, as that was the last show of tour. I never had trouble staying in tune on bass, either. I think the guitarist might have tuned a couple of times. The temps didn't get to us personally, either. The heat from the crowd and from playing and moving kept me warm. Our drummer even had his shirt off.

 

Rock out and you won't notice the temps.

 

I will say this, though...our show was on a pretty basic PA...mic-ing only vocals. So we cranked our instruments and the drummer smacked them even harder. I don't know how drum heads would respond in that kind of temperature to dynamics.

 

The only other advice I can give is to make sure the instruments have enough time to adjust to the temp. Don't just bring them out of a warm room and sit them in the cold and start playing them right away. That's asking for broken strings and heads. At the very least, the tuning will go crazy while the instruments adjust.

[Crusher]

Thanks for the info!!