I recently noticed that the yellow pad on my new-ish Rock Band 2 drumset developed a strange depression in the drum head. I pushed on the dip with my finger to confirm my suspicion — definitely a cracked drum head underneath there!

To diagnose this, we’ll need to remove the drum head from the kit. Do this by using two hands to reach under the head and pull very firmly. There are four small rubber gaskets that snap into place, and you have to pull hard enough to pop them out of their mounting holes. Don’t pull too hard, though, because the head is connected to the body via a small cable. Some of the rubber stoppers may not pull out and remain attached to the drum body; don’t worry, this is normal. We can worm those out later and reattach them via the tiny screw mounts. Anyway, once you have the head snapped off, detach the cable from the tiny keyed connector to fully separate it from the kit.

(Note that there is some kind of factory lubricant on the drum head rubber stoppers, probably to make them easier to remove and insert into the drum body. It’s kind of nasty to work with so have a paper towel on hand!)

Yep — cracked, big time! And a giant crack, too! It’s hard to see in this picture, but there’s a second crack faultine just above the sensor in the middle. What a bummer!

Rather than wait for a RMA return, I decided to fix this myself. I read online about people repairing cracked drum heads with all surface Gorilla Glue. I’ve used Gorilla Glue to repair a few things around the house before; it has an unusual “foam then harden” property that seems appropriate for the back of a drum head. What we really want to do is reinforce the crack, and a layer of hardened glue foam might be the ticket.

So I applied the Gorilla Glue liberally to the crack, and surrounding areas.

I probably used more than I needed to, but I wanted to be sure there was lots of reinforcement for the crack. I let it dry overnight.

As expected, the Gorilla Glue foamed up quite a bit and formed a hard layer. I pressed on the head with my finger and I couldn’t detect any movement in the crack.

The internals of my Rock Band 2 drumset looked like a mixture of the QM and EL models. Reinstalling the drum head is much easier than removing it, just place the cable back in the header, place the drum in the right position to line up the rubber stoppers, and push down firmly until it snaps.

A little drum testing confirmed that this drum head is nice and solid now! Given the strength of Gorilla Glue as a reinforcement, I’ve read about some people covering the entire bottom of their drum heads in it. A thin layer brushed on would certainly add more crack resistance.

Another option for fixing a broken drum head is to add a thin layer of reinforcing metal underneath, though I’d only go this route if you already own a set of tin snips and you’re willing to make a run to your local hardware store to get a small sheet of thin steel. It’s also a bit more involved of a fix, as you have to remove the top rubber cover of the drum, too.

As a final option, you can purchase replacement Rock Band drum heads on eBay, as well.