Joseph "Stix" Davis

I had a show on Sunday. It took place in the middle of the street, and the event was aptly named the Labor Day Street Dance. Rain was in the forecast. Fortunately, the rain held off. Unfortunately, that didn't prevent every piece of equipment from getting soaking wet.

How? Humidity.

Everything was fine when we started. However, just minutes after the start of the show, moisture starting forming on all of our equipment. My drums, cymbals, sticks, lights, speakers, my bandmates' guitars, amps, microphones, everything. Sticks and picks became difficult to hold onto, and strings started going out of tune. Water started dripping off of everything. Towels were soaked after the first few uses, so we just dealt with it for the rest of the show. We still had a good time. We had a lot of fun performing in the middle of the street, even with a train passing by right behind us every half hour.

 

After the show, however, was a different story. My equipment may be resistant to the elements, but by no means immune. I certainly wasn't going to take any chances, so I wanted to be very thorough in getting the equipment dry.

After the show, we wiped everything down the best we could before putting it all into cases. As soon as we got back to my studio, Katee started wiping down the stands, lights, and sound equipment, and I started on my drums, cymbals, pedals, and miscellaneous accessories. I took the heads off of my drums. The insides of the drums were completely dry. I expected some water to be around the air vent grommets, but there wasn't.

 

Once everything was taken apart and wiped down, it was all spread out around my studio, and I hooked a fan up to get air circulating. I didn't have the fan blowing on anything directly, just around to get the air moving. We let everything sit the first night.

 

The next day, we came back and hooked up a dehumidifier, and let it sit overnight. I didn't use the dehumidifier the first night because I didn't want the change in temperature/humidity to be too drastic, as that could have potentially damaged the equipment. I introduced the change slowly.

 

Tuesday night, I had trivia to host, so I let everything sit overnight again, with the dehumidifier still running.

 

Last night, I had time to start putting my equipment back together, and get it all ready for my next show. Everything was completely dry, and there was no sign of water damage anywhere.

 

Crisis averted.

 

Summary

- Wiped everything down before putting it into cases (before leaving the venue)

- Disassembled and thoroughly dried with towels/cloths/etc.

- Set down in a room, used a fan for air circulation, left overnight

- Next day, set up a dehumidifier, left overnight

- Thoroughly inspected for any damage or warping before reassembling

 

Cheers!

- Stix