Tag Archive - custom drum company

8 Custom Drum Companies That You Should Know About

June 6, 2011 in Drums, General Updates with 4 Comments

1. C&C Custom Drums – Bill Cardwell is a custom drum building legend. He and his son Jake create some of the most classy looking custom drums on the market. Bill started making drums in a 6×12″ room in the back of his drum and guitar retail store about 20 years ago. Their journey has been long and difficult, but they are now one of the most trusted and revered names in the drum industry.

2. Koenig Custom Drum Company – These guys developed the Corian-Granite snare drum. I have never heard a granite snare, but I have to give them props for doing something completely different than most “custom” drum companies.

3. SJC Custom Drums – One of the most innovative custom drum companies out there. Known for their “Butcher Hoops”. Owned by two brothers that are 25 and 23 years old.

Continue Reading....

Drum Building Tools for the Beginning Drum Builder

March 3, 2011 in Drum Building 101, Drums with 3 Comments

It seems like I’ve gotten more emails than usual from people interested in building custom drums that just want to know what tools they will need to start building drums. To answer this question I will be writing a 2 part blog post. The first post will list and discuss the bare essentials for building custom drums, and the second post will list and discuss in more depth some of the drum building tools that you’ll need to have if you plan on building drums long term.

Here is the bare minimum that you will need to build your first drum:

…That’s it. The only tool you need to build your first drum is a screwdriver. You may think I have fallen off of my rocker, but the very first drum set that I ever built was acomplished using only a screwdriver! Continue Reading....

Bart’s First Custom Drum Set Build

September 7, 2010 in Drum Building 101, Drum Building Resources, Drum Building Tutorials, Drums, General Updates, Reader's Drum Pictures with 0 Comments

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....

Black Sparkle Custom Drum Set

June 18, 2010 in Drums, General Updates, Reader's Drum Pictures with 0 Comments

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.

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!