Evans Compact LED Drum Key Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I thought this was a great idea, and it was something I had thought of many times over the course of my 20+ years as a drummer; I sometimes found myself looking for a flashlight at gigs when I dropped a felt, an earplug, a washer, or whatever, and I eventually put an LED flashlight in my stick bag. It's always nice to have less things to carry around and lose, so multiple tools in one housing is an excellent idea, provided that all the tools function well. This is unfortunately not the case with the Evans Compact LED Drum Key.
Testing the LED function out at the store was not encouraging; 3 out of 4 keys I tried were completely dead, and the fourth revealed the LED light to be orange. Orange wouldn't be my first choice for finding things in the dark, as white would certainly be more illuminating; white light contains multiple wavelengths of light, thus reflecting off a wider variety of surfaces. I bit the bullet anyway and purchased this item, as I thought that maybe the battery on this one needed to be changed like the rest of them. After a small discount for a suspect power supply, I took the key home, changed the battery, and was completely underwhelmed by the lack of illumination provided by the orange LED; how would I ever find those dropped earplugs with this? It's dim illumination was just as it was off the store shelf.
The actual drum-key is slightly more functional; it folds conveniently, so if chose to put it on my keychain -- replacing the leather frog which currently holds my regular drum key -- it wouldn't take up any additional space. It also has a quick-release button, which is great for when you don't want your whole keychain banging around while you make those last-minute minor adjustments. When unfolded, the drum-key itself does not sit ninety-degrees to the enclosure, which makes tuning a little different, but isn't really a big deal. The integrity of the key is a little suspect, if not by virtue of the design alone, but due to the big, red lettering on the back of the package which boldly reads: "Not recommended for use with drum hardware." Excuse me? Did I not just purchase a drum key, which is an implement specifically for use with ... drum hardware?
The final flaw with this keychain is the price; my local music shop advertised it as $24.99, marked-down from the insane MSRP of $39.99. For less than $10 any drummer in can purchase a super bright, compact, single LED flashlight from a variety of shops for placement inside their stick bag, road case, or whatever, and it will perform leaps and bounds better than the LED light installed inside this piece of junk. (There even exist tiny Mag Lights with key rings on them.) What's more: a regular drum key -- which some drum shops have buckets of for less than $1 each -- will serve you better than this, and they are even "recommended," even DESIGNED, specifically for use with drum hardware.
My advice: skip this lemon, wait a few years for them to get it right, and until then just do like I did and buy a small LED flashlight for your stick bag.
Since the electronics on this unit are so simple I am hoping to replace the LED with something which will actually serve my purposes, but even if I can get it to work there's no way I would have paid any more than $10 for this had I known its true level of functionality. This item received 2 stars because it's a good idea, and if I can replace the LED to make this thing work better -- which will cost pennies -- then I'll almost feel like I received my money's worth, provided the actual wrench part doesn't snap off because I'm not using it as recommended. I have plenty of functional (and less expensive) drum keys anyway.
To summarize: the Evans Compact LED Drum Key is a great concept, but is not only poorly executed, but is -- by admission of the very packaging from whence it came -- "not recommended for use with drum hardware." It seems to me that if a company makes a product and prints on the package that it is specifically not for the first task for which one would use it, then it's probably not worth buying.

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