What to do for concert tomorrow?

Ok, first of all, a petite rant. I sent my money order to Musician's Friend last Tuesday so that I would have my gear in time for a concert tomorrow (Wednesday). Well, even though I sent the MO via Priority Mail, it didn't get there till today. That's one entire week. I hate the Postal Service.

So anyway, I ordered six drumheads (replacements for my two rack toms, and my snare), a pair of covers for my Ahead sticks, and some new snare wires. All of these items (except for the snare heads) are things that I desparately need, since all of the things that they're replacing are in rough shape. I need all of this stuff, cause I was planning on using my kit at the school's Christmas concert tomorrow.

So I have several options:

A) Have the other drummer bring his kit. This option may not be available, since the kid might not have a way to bring his kit over, and I don't know his phone number.

B) Turn my kit into a 4-piece. The high tom is the only one which has actual holes in the head, so I could just leave that tom off, leaving the middle tom and floor tom. But still, this means that my middle tom, which is still in rough shape, would have to be used.

C) Take off the high tom, and bring the school's floor tom. It's the same size as mine, and with the same finish (black), and they're both Tama Rockstars. The only problems: it's a ~15 year old Rockstar, so it might look/sound different, and it has different heads, so I'm worried about the sound difference there.

I don't have the option of going to the music store and buying new heads, since after paying for these, I'm flat broke. However, if I have an upcoming concert (even if it's over a week away) in the future that I need to buy stuff for, I'll just go down there rather than relying on the USPS again.

Anyone else have any other ideas, or think that one of the above ideas is the best?

hmm, i don't know if i'll be able to help, but maybe ask the other kid with the kit if he has those extra parts? i dunno if he'll have some new extra heads just lying around, but if he does then ur in luck! also, y don't u ask if u could bring the schools floor tom home so u could see if it would match ur kit. if not, then u could probly tune it to how u like it. take my advice with a grain of salt, since i don't know very much about drums in general, but i'd wait for the experienced guys to give u replies.

I say get on the wire and get dues number, you have to jam man, you have to jam at the school concert for the ladies!

What about using the heads off of the schools kit? Are they the same sizes?

What were you thinking? 1 week is cutting it real close even in a perfect world. Im not sticking up for the USPS but it is the Holiday season and the busiest time for mail also Priority Mail is not guaranteed you should of used Express Mail that is guaranteed by noon the next day or your money back.

How about cancelling the money order and the order you placed and get the gear that you seek in a local music store?

Use the 4pc set up or

Take the schools floor tom, it might be good that there are different heads on it (im guessing/assuming they are both 16"s)

Take the school's FT and tune the head real loose (or close to it)

so you will have a good musical tonal step from one to the other

and just fool around with the tuning. I know it will not be perfect but to a untrained ear I doubt many people will notice.

Good luck, every thing will work out fine and never depend on other people for there gear

Between the school's kit, your own kit, and the other kid's kit, you should be able to cobble together enough to play on. While it may not be ideal, it'll get you through.

As for the other kid's transportation...why don't you drive him? If you could move your own kit, it obviously wouldn't be any more difficult to just move his instead.

Don't worry about the drums working well together. As long as you can get a decent kick and snare sound, and can tune however many toms you've got so that the higher ones are higher than the low ones, you'll be fine.

Again, this might not be ideal, but nobody but you will notice.

As for the USPS, consider it a lesson learned. If I needed something and absolutely HAD to go to MF, AND use a money order, I'd probably figure on at least a month total turnaround time. A week for the USPS, a week for the return ship, and two weeks for MF to decide whether the items were in stock or not.

Even on phone/internet orders, I figure for 24 hours to process the order, and then another 5 business days for shipping...counting weekends you're already at 8 days or so.

I'm with the other guys, it's not USPS or MF's fault. Live and learn. If you need it fast, print the prices off of MF's site, and go to a local store that will price match.

Ok, well it worked out in the end, although only myself and another drummer (in the audience, one of my friends) noticed that the set wasn't that great.

I ended up not only grabbing the floor tom from the school's kit, but also the high tom, making it a 6-piece. However the conductor yelled at me cause he thought that this was the reason that it took me a long time (IE 10-15 minutes) to set up. It was more the fact that all of my stands were folded up, and I had to place everything "just right." You guys know how it is.

I couldnt have given the kid and his set a ride due to time constraints. I put my kit in the car as soon as I got home, while I got changed into my dress clothes, and I ate dinner in the car. And I was still a few minutes late to the school. Besides, if I gave his kit a ride, there wouldn't have been any room in the car for him.

I would've loved to have bought the stuff earlier, except for the aforementioned money problem. I sent out the money order as soon as I could after I got my paycheck. Even then, I couldn't afford to buy new floor tom heads, only heads for my snare and rack toms.

I know this sounds like just a list of excuses, but really, I do put partial blame on myself. I should have known better trusting stuff to go through the mail fast near Christmas. I could've saved $20 in shipping by buying the stuff from the store, although I didn't know that I'd get the chance to go over there.