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Drum Building Encouragement for 2011

You Really Can Build a Professional Custom Drum Set

Building a professional custom drum set is something that is achievable by everyone, from the experienced wood worker, to the low budget garage band musician. I remember before I started building my own drums I would always wonder what it would be like to have an endorsement deal with a major drum company, preferably Yamaha. I would day dream about the different configurations that I would be able to have and how I would entertain an entire music venue full of wild screaming fans all listening to pounding beats emanating from my drums… I think most drummers have this fantasy at least once in their career, only to eventually settle for a second best “out of the box” assembly line drum set.

Drum Building Encouragement for the Year 2011

I just wanted to remind and encourage all you drummers out there not to give up on this dream. You can and will achieve it if you don’t give up. I feel like this is a post that needs to be written about once a year, and since it’s the beginning of a new year it just felt right to talk about your dreams. 2010 may have been a year where you met lots of your personal and professional goals, or you may have failed miserably. Don’t let your failure bring you down. More specifically don’t let your inability to play the drums well enough to receive a full sponsorship keep you from having the drum set of your dreams. You don’t have to wait for someone to respond to one of your hundreds of emails that you’ve sent to custom drum companies asking and begging for a free drum set. Yes I’m talking about you, you, and you. I’ve gotten all of your emails asking for an artist endorsement deal, and I’m sorry I haven’t responded, but I (and most custom drum builders) just can’t give away free drums. I do, however, have another option for you.

This is your year to learn how to build that custom drum kit in your dreams. I may not be able to help you achieve your dream of playing sold out stadium shows, but there is no reason for you to go another day thinking that you don’t have what it takes to build a custom drum set. I’m not going to give you my sales pitch, but I did want you take a look at what I have been able to do since I started building drums in 2006.

A History Lesson: A Few of My Major Drum Building Milestones

In 2006 my friend Kevin showed me the very basics of building my first drum set. At that time I was able to order all of the shells, parts and finishing materials for under $1000. With no drum building experience at all I was able to crank this baby out.

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Interview with Pete Yaskovik on Building Drums

Pete emailed me the other day with these pictures. I loved what I saw and asked him to be interview for the podcast. Listen below!

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Mentioned in this podcast:

  • MinWax PolyShades
  • Carnuba Wax
  • NuFinish Scratch Doctor
  • Roland V-Drums
  • Spring Loaded floor tom legs

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Interview with Custom Drum Builder Troy Townsley

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Had a great interview with Troy Townsley. He had some great insight for drummers looking to get sponsored by a custom drum company since he has been sponsored by some great drum companies as well as some great insight into his building process.

Mentioned in this Podcast:

Ryan Voight Knows How to Build Drums

Just got some amazing pictures of a new custom snare drum that Ryan from Lubbock built! Aside from being a great drum builder, Ryan is also a great photographer! Check out his work at www.rvoightphotography.com

_MG_0053trick strainerbutt plateblack and pearl close upnatural maple snareludwig throw off

I look forward to seeing more drum from you Ryan! Great job!

Audio Clips From Bart’s Custom Drum Set

I just received another email from Bart with drum audio recordings of the custom drum sets that he recently finished building. Bart specifically designed these drums to sound great for Jazz. If you would like to hear how some custom drums that I have built to play for Rock N' Roll sound then check out this older blog post.

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Custom Drum Set made with help from makedrums.com

All recordings  flat EQ’s without  mix.

Track 3: Turquoise/Azure shellset (pictured to the right)
Specs: 4.5mm tom and floor tom (with coated ambassadors-top/clear ambassadors-bottom)
6mm bass drum (Remo power stroke 3 fiberskyn-batter/powerstroke 3 smooth white-resonant)
9mm snare drum (coated Remo ambassador X-batter/hazy ambassador-resonant)

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canto i
Track 8: Satin Walnut shellset
Specs: 9mm tom and floor tom (Remo fiberskyn amb.-top/clear ambassadors-bottom)
9mm bass drum (fiberskyn-batter/powerstroke 3 smooth white-resonant)
9mm snare drum (coated ambassador -batter/hazy ambassador-resonant)

Great work Bart. They look and sound incredible. The fact that they are the very first two kits that you have ever built speak volumes about your determination to build great drums. This is why I wrote "How to Make Custom Drums", to inspire drummers to build their own custom drums and then in turn so they can inspire other drummers who may have never even known that they could build something that would look and sound this good. Thanks Bart for inspiring us all!

Bart’s First Custom Drum Set Build

I just got this email from a friend in Hungary and wanted to share his experience with you! Bart’s first drum set is a beauty:
Bart's first custom drum set buildBart did an incredible job on building his very first custom drum set. Great job Bart!

The first custom drum set that bart made

Below is an email conversation/interview that I had with Bart. He has lots of great drum building tips so make sure to read all of it! Continue Reading....

That’s one very large floor tom…

I just completed work on a 20" floor tom and I couldn't be more happy with the results. It's huge, it's beautiful, and it sounds like a cannon going off (or at least what I think a cannon sounds like, because I have actually never heard a cannon going off.)

This was a fun build for me. This was the first time I had ever had wood burning done on a drum, and also the first time that I used Ego's rounded claw that actually attaches to the bass drum hoop. (I'll be adding a "How to Install Attachable Bass Drum Hoop Claws" section in the book soon!) You may wonder why I used bass drum hoops as opposed to flanged hoops…well if you can find me a pair of 20" 8 hole black chrome hoops I would love to know where they are. I searched everywhere for them, but no one carries or makes them.

Here are some pictures from the building process.

20 inch floor tom with black pearl inlay and wood burning

I wish I could say that I had burned that design onto the drum, but I'm pretty sure no one wants me to mess up their drum shell with my drawing/burning skills.

huge custom floor tom drum on the dirty shop floorI know, I need to sweep my shop floor. There is sawdust from cutting 3" inlay strips into 7 drums, and bearing edges on 3 drums.

Ego Rounded Claw for bass drum hoopsI really like the look of these attachable drum claws, however there are some installation tips that need to be addressed if you have never worked with them before. All of the tips I picked up on from using these hoop claws will be added in the the "How to Make Custom Drums" bonus section in the next week or so.

counter sunk screw keeps your bass drum hoop flush
These counter sunk screws are barely noticeable from far away, and they are flush with the inside of the bass drum hoops.

Completed 20 inch custom bass drum shell made into a floor tomNot a very good quality photo (camera phone), but this is the finished product with my badge attached.

I have been extremely busy the past month, and have slacked on keeping my readers up to date in the drum building community. For that I apologize and I will try to do a better job! I have lots going on in the shop these days so I should have plenty to talk about on here. I am in the process of building a studio kit that will be very much like this floor tom, except it instead of the black pearl inlay it will have aged white pearl inlay, and instead of black chrome all around it will be just chrome hardware. It will have tube lugs and hoop claws. 10", 12", 14", 16" and 20" kick. Here is a picture of my progress so far:

my custom drum set that I am building

Black Sparkle Custom Drum Set

I had a post in April talking a little about this kit, but I wanted to update you on the finished product. This is a very classic sized kit: 14×22, 8×13, and 16×16.

P.Ellis Custom Drum Set Black Sparkle Tube Lugs

P.Ellis Custom Drum Set made in Austin Tx

I learned a lot from building this kit. Just a few things I learned from this build:

  • "Nonflammable" contact cement is a product that I will avoid at all costs from now on.
  • I love the "Gel" form of contact cement because it is much easier to work with. No runs = no mess!
  • Video taping yourself building drums is harder than I thought.
  • I realized I like notching the overlap near the bearing edge for wrapped drums, but it also is harder than it seems.
  • I love chrome tube lugs. They bring class to any drum.
  • I made a new document to include in the Ebook – it is a checklist for ordering drum supplies, because even I forget to order supplies every now and then.

Lessons Learned from: Contact Cement

The past few weeks I've been waiting to get supplies in to build a new custom drum set for a P.Ellis Drums artist. I recently started the build process in my wood/drum shop. Like I have said before every time I build a new drum or drum set I learn something that changes the way I think about drum building. This time has been no different. I ordered all of the supplies that I didn't have on hand and when they got here I immediately began to unpack and count my supplies to make sure that they had sent me all of the right supplies, and to make sure they had sent the right amount. I can't tell you how many times I've started working on a drum set and have been pretty much done with the finishing process, cutting the bearing edges and drilling the holes for hardware only to find that I'm missing 1 key piece of hardware that makes it to where I can't ship the drums out to the owner. I have finished a drum set and had to wait for another 2 weeks to get 2 tube lugs that were supposed to be in my initial order but the supplier somehow miss counted….Lesson Learned: ALWAYS CHECK YOUR SHIPMENT OF SUPPLIES!

This is my first time working with this particular supplier on a full drum set order and I can honestly say this has been the best customer service experience I have ever had with a drum supply company.

I have been video taping all of my building sessions with the hope of being able to edit it down to something that will better show drum builders how to build a custom drum set. I do not know when this will be available, but I'll keep you posted on Twitter and Facebook!

Another drum build and another lesson learned: Don't use this product to wrap drums -

dap Weld wood non flamable contact cement

I figured in honor of  Earth Day I would try to use the Eco-Friendly contact cement… This was a bad idea. I "scarified" both surfaces and applied the contact cement to both surfaces (2 coats) and waited about 30 minutes as I would with any other contact cement and tried to stick the 2 pieces together….and there was a bond…but definitely not a strong bond. I left the drum over night to see if it would be any better when I came back. It was not. It's not a good thing when I can actually peel the wrap off the drum with very little effort…So I just peeled off the wrap, removed the dried contact cement from the shell and the wrap (which was actually pretty easy…this eco-friendly stuff is known for it's easy clean up). So after wrapping the drums and then deciding that I had to start over I wasted about 2 days. Not my idea of being productive. I did however go back to using the DAP weldwood contact cement that I have used in the past and had great results from…and this time I used the gel formula…which I found out that I love. I will use from now on. It doesn't run, which means it is less messy, which means it doesn't get it all over me or my workspace.

I leave you with a couple of shots from the past week:

video custom drums

black sparkle custom drum

How to Take Good Drum Photos

cameraWhen you build your very own custom drum or drum set you'll want to take some great product photos to show off your work to everyone you know. In the past I've been lucky to work with some amazing photographers who have shot some promo pictures of drums that I've built, one of them being Chad Zellner. I recently emailed Chad and asked him to answer a few questions about taking drum product photos. Here is what he had to say:

MD (Makedrums): Can you tell me about your process when you take product photos…specifically drums.

Chad: Product photography is all about lighting and drawing attention to the product or specific area of the product. I always do multiple off camera lights to give depth to the photo and give it much better color than direct lighting. Direct lighting (or built in flash) is a huge no no.

MD: I know you’re a professional photographer and have great gear, so can I ever expect to turn out pro looking pictures with my Cannon Power Shot camera? How?

Chad: Absolutely. Many pro photographers get great looks due to their gear and post processing in Photoshop or some other program. But if you just want a good clear picture then you don't have to have a $3000 camera. One piece of advise if you plan on doing your own product shots far into the future is to learn basic camera functions. Most cameras have a manual mode that let you control shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Read online or in your camera's user manual to see how to change these functions and what they do. It may take you a little while to understand it but it's camera 101 and will definitely help you out in the long run. Avoid auto settings if you can.

MD: What if I wanted to take a picture and have everything white except the drum set? Like this one:

How would an amateur photographer achieve this look without spending tons on lighting and backdrops?

Chad: If you want this ''infinity" look there are a few different ways to get it. If you have the lighting equipment you can get this look very easily with a few white sheets. But if you don't have lighting but do have photo editing software you could spend the time to cut out around each piece. Other than that you might be better off hiring this one out for a good quality shot.

MD: Do you know of any free photo editing software that you could recommend?

Chad: Although I've never used anything but Adobe Photoshop, I have heard good things about GIMP. Don't hold me to it but it's the only free software I have heard of that is decent.

You can check out Chad's Photography at www.twopairphotography.com/blog
Chad will be making lots of photography 'how-to' videos in the future on their tech blog www.blogmeright.com

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