Kenny Sharretts is a working drum tech — the kind of professional who packs a workbox before every show and gets handed instruments that need to be perfect by the downbeat. He works with Mickey Hart, the legendary Grateful Dead percussionist, on the famous Wall of Drums. In 2023 he was prepping the Dead & Company tour and posted a quick YouTube video walking through the twelve items he wouldn't leave home without.
Our 22-in-1 Multi-Tool is item number four on his list. Out of every multi-tool he could put in a touring workbox — and a drum tech sees a lot of them — he picked ours. We asked him if we could share the story. His video is above; here's what he actually said and why the universal socket made the cut.
What Kenny actually said
From the description of his video, item four on the list, verbatim:
"My Dr.Friedels multi tool with the universal nut driver. This is hands DOWN one of the most well-built / useful multi-tools I've ever owned."
After we left a thank-you on the video, Kenny replied:
"Your multi tool has become essential to my work. Gotta let people know."
Why the universal socket made the cut
Drums are held together by wing nuts. So is most of the stage hardware around them — cymbal stands, snare stands, tom mounts, hi-hat clutches, pedal posts. Tightening and loosening them by hand is fast, but painful: the sharp edges chew up your fingertips over hours of setup, teardown and on-the-fly adjustments between songs.
A dedicated wing-nut tool solves the finger problem, but adds another single-purpose tool to your bag. Our universal socket solves both at once: 54 spring-loaded steel pins adapt to wing nuts, screw eyes, hooks and odd bolt heads — meaning the socket on a multi-tool that's already in your pocket replaces the dedicated wing-nut tool entirely.
That's the feature Kenny calls out by name in his video — "the universal nut driver" — and it's the reason a tool occupying premium real estate in a touring workbox earns its keep.
What this means to us
We see a lot of reviews. Some of them come from people who used a tool for a weekend. Kenny's came from someone who packs ours for a sold-out arena tour with one of the most iconic names in rock music — and who sits next to half a dozen other multi-tools every day and still reaches for this one.
That's the kind of vote of confidence you can't manufacture. It's the reason we build the way we do, and the reason our lifetime craftsmanship warranty applies to every website order — because the people who actually use these tools deserve to know we'll stand behind them.
You can follow Kenny on his YouTube channel for more drum-tech content, or watch the full Essential Drum Tech Tools Shoutout on YouTube.
Featured with Kenny's explicit permission. Quotes are taken verbatim from his publicly posted YouTube video description and his comment reply on the same video.
