Archive - January, 2010

What Will My Custom Drums Sound Like?

January 20, 2010 in Drum Building 101, Drum Building Resources, Drums, General Updates with 10 Comments

I have received a couple of emails from people that are skeptical about the sound quality of a drum set that they build. I know that this is only my opinion, but I believe that if you follow my steps laid out in the book, (especially when it comes to outsourcing woodwork) you can build the best sounding kit you have ever played on! The moment I played on Kevin’s custom drum set (see orange drum set pictured below) I knew I had to have that sound. Having your drums sound good also has much to do with the drum head selection and how you tune your drums. What I almost always have on my drums are these heads:

Kick Drum – Evans Emad on batter side, with an Evans Emad for the Resonant side
Toms – Clear Remo Emperor on batters, clear Remo Ambassador on resonant
Snare – Remo Coated Ambassador on batter, Remo Hazy Ambassador on the snare side.

As for tuning your drums I’ll be posting more about that later, but make sure you check out this blog post.

Now for the part you really care about. Below are some recordings of the 2nd drum set I ever built. When I built this set, I still knew very little about drum building, but I still had some amazing results:

Custom drums built for StevenI recorded this drum set on the Home Hiccolm & the Rocketboy’s (now they are just called the Rocketboys) “Sing, Bird, Sing” EP. For the record we cut a port hole in the front bass drum head. This kit is (length X diameter) 8×10, 14×14, and 18×20 and sounds incredible. Don’t just take my word, listen to it yourself. Here are some selections from the album recorded at The Glass Jar Studio:

Do I wake or Sleep? By the Rocketboys

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Facebook Page Wall Discussions

January 20, 2010 in General Updates with 1 Comment

We want you to stay connected and get any answers to your questions so we’ve created a Facebook Fan Page. There are some great discussions going on  right now. Check it out and become a fan!

Drum Building 101 – How much time and money will I need to invest?

January 12, 2010 in Drum Building 101, Drum Building Resources, Drum Building Tutorials, Drums, General Updates with 1 Comment

How Much Money Will I Spend Building My Custom Drum Set?

I recently received an email asking how long it would take and how much it would cost to build a 5 piece drum set. Thanks for the question George, hopefully this answers it! The very first drum set I ever built was this: the first custom drum set that I built. A 3 piece drum set (10” tom, 14” tom, and a 20” kick drum) that was stained blue and had gold “bling bling” hardware. I later built a snare drum to match the set but it came out a slightly lighter shade of blue than the other drums (more about that learning experience later). This drum set was my first ever experience with drum building. Before building this I had never worked with wood, I did not consider myself a crafty handyman, and I had never stained anything, unless you count grass and coffee stains! building my first custom drum set A couple of years before building my first drum set I became friends with a guy named Kevin. Kevin owned (and still owns) a recording studio in town. Kevin was the first person to introduce me to the idea of building my own drum set.  He had a custom drum set in his recording studio that sounded amazing. When he told me that he made it with his bare hands I flipped out. When he told me how little he spent to make it I flipped out yet again. He had ordered all the materials for the set, stained it, put a clear coat on it, and assembled it…and HE RECORDS THAT DRUM SET ON 90% OF HIS STUDIO PROJECTS! My first build took about 2 weeks to get supplies shipped to me, 2 weeks to complete it and cost me approximately 0. Continue Reading....

How to Wrap a Drum Shell Part 1

January 5, 2010 in Drum Building 101, Drum Building Tutorials, Drums, General Updates with 4 Comments

Using a wrap to finish your drum is a great way to get an outstanding finish in very little time. If you are wrapping multiple drums you should find out if your wrap supplier has specific configurations already cut to size for your drums, if not you’ll need to calculate how much wrap you will actually need to buy to be able to cover all your drums. If you are unsure of how to do this, just ask your supplier to help you figure it out. First you will need to cut your wrap to size. An easy way to do this is to wrap it around your drum shell and mark the edge of the shell all the way around. This shows how to wrap a bass drum. If your wrapping a smaller shell follow the directions below as follows, but you’ll just end up with one seam

How to wrap a drum shell

(Some wrap manufacturers don’t make wrap to go all the way around large drums, so you’ll end up having to use 2 pieces for larger drums – mark your cut line around the top of the shell)

2nd peice of wrap for the bass drum

(What your 2nd piece of wrap for larger drums will look like, this will go on the bottom of a 22” kick)

Cutting the wrap down to size

You may use a sharp pair of scissors to cut the wrap. Sparkles are a little easier to cut than glass glitter wraps. Plan on sharpening your scissors frequently if you need to cut a lot of wrap. After you cut your wrap to the length of your shell, you’ll need to cut it down to the diameter of your shell. An easy way to do this is to use a flexible measuring tape (for sewing) to measure all the way around the shell and add an extra inch for overlap. Now lay the wrap down flat and measure out that distance and use a straight edge to mark your next cut. Continue Reading....