Does anyone clean the Snare head?

My snare is getting dirty... It's disturbing.

Do you know how to clean off the markings? Or is it impossible? Thanks much.

I do it sometimes if it gets too dirty, I'm a clean freak at times. I usually just use a damp washcloth and rub it a bit. Cleans it up fairly nice.

Dustin

Acetone works nicely.

Of course you won't have much of a head left afterwards

I've tried it a couple times...mostly if I've been away from my kit for an extended period of time and there's dust on it.

Generally, however, once I get tired of looking at a beat up head, I figure it's time to replace it. It's only about a $15 investment, and no amount of cleaning approaches the look of a brand new head waiting to be played.

I did when I started. Now it's NEVER.

A cloth and some warm soapy water should be enough

Long long ago, I cleaned coated heads a couple of times with Ajax cleanser after they got very grimey looking. The main idea was to try to prevent the black crud build up on the cymbals from the coating sticking to the tips of the sticks. I think I have also used Windex window cleaner. Coatings are much improved now, so I don't get black crud on my cymbals anymore and my heads don't get dirty before its time for me to change them.

Once a month or so, I take off all my heads and just run em through the dishwasher. Cascade leaves a nice streak-free shine and the drying process actually tightens em up a bit so they seat real nicely when I put them back on. One time I tried washing some dishes and drum heads at the same. Bad idea. A whole bunch of food and gunk got caught in the muffling ring on the snare head. I just left the food in there and put the head back on, but after about a week, my snare smelled like cheese, so I had to throw it out. That's when I got another brilliant idea and instead of letting them dry in the dishwasher, I'd pull em out after they were clean and would hang em up on a clothesline outside, so all my heads had that spring fresh smell to them. Ever since then, people have told me my playing smells wonderful, much better than that sweaty Tommy Lee guy.

Originally posted by ulank Once a month or so, I take off all my heads and just run em through the dishwasher. Cascade leaves a nice streak-free shine and the drying process actually tightens em up a bit so they seat real nicely when I put them back on. One time I tried washing some dishes and drum heads at the same. Bad idea. A whole bunch of food and gunk got caught in the muffling ring on the snare head. I just left the food in there and put the head back on, but after about a week, my snare smelled like cheese, so I had to throw it out. That's when I got another brilliant idea and instead of letting them dry in the dishwasher, I'd pull em out after they were clean and would hang em up on a clothesline outside, so all my heads had that spring fresh smell to them. Ever since then, people have told me my playing smells wonderful, much better than that sweaty Tommy Lee guy.

Thanks for the info ulank. Note to self: for cheese-smelling drums, put nacho plate in dishwasher with drumheads.

Damn, I love cheese.

Exactly. Cleaning drumheads? I don't even clean my cymbals, much less my drumheads. Come to think of it, I don't like clean, new looking drumheads - they don't look right without stick marks.

No problem. Glad I could be of help. Of course, the dishwasher works great for cymbals too. But I couldn't fit my giant gong in there, so I just had to take it through the car wash. With that nice Triple Wax finish, not only does it have a nice luster, but the water beads up nicely on it during those pesky outdoor gigs in the rain. Really saves me from having to use my drummer's towel between songs to wipe it down.

I've also armor-alled my throne, stick bag and bass pedals and I rotate my toms every 6 months or 20 gigs, whichever comes first.

You gotta take care of your {censored} fellas.

Say, do you have any reccomendations for towels? I've used the Sabian one a lot, but it wore out eventually and I replaced it with a DW. But I'm not totally satisfied with either...

Do you know if the Axis one is really worth 50$ more?

I tried all of them out in the store once. You know as they say, always dry before you buy.

The Axis towel was EXCELLENT for applying the armor-all, but didn't do well on the gong and was OK on the heads.

The Sabian one did a great job on cymbals (go figure) but did not clean the heads very well and left little "fuzzies" all over them. I think this explains why yours wore out. I could see that happening with the Sabian towel

IMO the DW one was the best all-around and the nice thing is it comes in two different sizes and 12 different colors. This way, you can keep a small one around for, say, splash cymbals, rototoms, bells and blocks, etc. and a big one for everything else. Of course, you might as well get two of each right away, cuz you don't want to go to a gig without a spare. That happened to me once and I had to play the whole gig without the purple light reflecting properly off my ride. Really made for a boring show IMO and the bassist was giving me the evil eye half the night for {censored}ing it up. I tried using my t-shirt between two songs real quick, but I think it just made it worse.

Also, the Pacific ones are a good bang for the buck, but don't expect anything near like the DW's. But they dry and clean pretty well and they come with a 1,000 wipe warranty, which is nice.

Of course, if you wear drummer gloves, you better make sure you get towels that match. I saw one guy wearing green drummer gloves, which matched his kit, but then he had an orange drummer's towel. Maybe I'm vain, but I thought it looked really tacky and unprofessional on stage. I mean, would you see Mike Portnoy do something like that? Hell no. Of course, he gets his towels for free, so I guess that's part of it.

All in all, I think drummer towels are essential if you're serious about your music. Leave the roll of paper towels at home kids and start using what the pros use. Your drumset and your fans will thank you for it.