Archive - May, 2010

My favorite Custom Drum Builders

May 28, 2010 in Drum Building Resources, Drummer resources, Drums, General Updates with 3 Comments

I recently received and email from someone that was about to start building their very 1st custom drum set. He asked me how I decide on the finish and hardware of a particular drum or drum set that I’m building. This question has always been tough for me because I don’t always feel creative. I do however have a couple of places I like to go for inspiration.

I think that by seeing some amazing drums that have already been created, it can spark the creativity in my brain to think outside the box of just doing a normal looking wrap or a normal looking stain. When I go to a drum store I always look at all of the little details of the drums even down to the bearing edge or where they put the seam of the wrap.

…but let’s face it… most music stores that have drums don’t usually have the most amazing drums on display. This is where the internet comes in.

Some of my favorite custom drum builders are as follows: Continue Reading....

What does “100% Maple” Drum Shell really mean?

May 21, 2010 in Drum Building Resources, Drums, General Updates with 1 Comment

The other day I was carousing the Wal-Mart of music stores (Guitar Center) for some inspiration and ideas for a new kit I’m about to start building and happened upon a drum set that advertised 100% maple shells. The thing that struck me funny is that the drum set was only $599 for a complete drum set with mounting hardware (kick drum, 3 toms, and a snare drum). I just couldn’t believe my eyes, this set looked great, and for that price I was beginning to wonder how in the world I would be able to compete with a great looking drum with “100% maple drum shells” that could be purchased for less than half of what it takes me to actually build a similar drum set…

After I sat down and played on them I examined the shell, the hardware and the actual construction of the drum itself.  There were a couple of very noticeable differences in the drums that I make and in the drums that were in front of me.

I might talk about some of the other differences in other posts, the first thing I noticed after turning over the snare drum and looking at the bearing edge was that there was no interior finishing done to the drum or bearing edge, and honestly the inside of the shell looked like any other cheap beginner drum set shell. It definitely didn’t look like the Keller maple shells that I use and recommend for building custom drums. I know that there must have been some corners cut to make this drum set so cheap so I asked one of the sales associates how these 100% maple shell kits could sell for $599. He explained that most of the cheaper “all maple kits” only have 2-3 actual full sheet plies of maple, and they usually have a couple layers of ground up maple plies that are just kind of filler in the middle of the drum. That way they can still get away with calling it “all” or “100%” maple shells, but in reality the shell will not play, feel or resonate like a true “all maple ply shell”.  Interesting. Continue Reading....

4 Tools That Make Building Custom Drums Easy

May 10, 2010 in Drum Building 101, Drum Building Resources, Drums, General Updates with 2 Comments

Drum key drill bit1. Drum Key Drill Bit – Buy Now! – This tool is a must for any custom drum builder who is used to using only a drum key to assemble or disassemble their drum sets. This makes putting heads on and taking off heads about 10 times faster. I have built many drums before I finally found one of these and I can honestly say this may be my favorite drum building tool discovery in the past 5 years. (I know they have been available for longer than that, but I never knew I needed one so badly!)

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right angle drill for drum building2.Right Angle Drill – Buy Now! – This also makes assembling drums extremely fast. However when your screwing in any of your hardware screws (lugs, bass drum spurs, tom mounting hardware) you'll need to use a low force setting on the drill so it doesn't strip your screws. The reason I recommend a right angle drill is to be able to get inside those smaller diameter shells like 12" and smaller. With a traditional drill you won't be able to fit it inside the shell to screw the lugs screws in!

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j-roller for wrapping drums3. J-Roller – Buy Now! – If you are going to apply a wrap to a drum, this tool will help you get any unwanted air bubbles out from in between the shell and the wrap. This really is a must for applying wrap correctly.

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Combo Square for marking lug and hardware layout4. Combo Square – Buy Now! – Ah the combo square, probably my most used drum making tool. I use this to mark the layout for all of the hardware that goes on to each drum. I also use it to mark stripe layout for paint, and for wrap. I don't know that I could build a drum without one of these.

These are some of the tools that you'll need to build a custom drum, to learn how to use some of them you can sign up for the free drum building tutorials sent to your email! If you want to learn how to use all of these drum building tools and learn the art of drum building consider buying "How to Make Custom Drums 2.0"

I'm always look for new blog topics, if you have any questions or ideas for blog topics I encourage you to leave a comment below!