Make Drums | How to Make Custom Drums

Tag Archive - make drums

11 Ways to Achieve Your Personal Drumming Goals in 2012

December 30, 2011 in Drum Tips, Drummer resources, Drums, General Updates with 31 Comments

I recently had a chance to talk with Ed Francis aka “The Drummer on the Round Rock” to ask him to share some of his drumming wisdom with the community here at Makedrums. Ed shared some really incredible insights on attaining your goals as a drummer, but don’t be fooled! These tips can help you achieve goals in all areas of your life – not just drumming!

MD: Could you share specific examples – some “drum nuggets” of wisdom – that you have held on to, and have seen as instrumental in helping you achieve your personal drumming goals?

Francis: Humility is always a good place to start. When I first began playing [the drums] I knew that I didn’t know it all and I wanted to learn as much as I could about drumming. And I continue to remind myself of that way of thinking – that I still don’t know it all. Continue Reading....

33 Drummer and Drum Related Gift Ideas For the Drummer In Your Life

November 30, 2011 in Drummer resources, Drums with 6 Comments

Drum Key – All Drummers should have at least 5…because you never know when we are going to lose them!

Drum Builder Interview: Jeremy Wolfe’s 2nd Custom Drum Set

July 28, 2011 in Drum Building Resources, Drums, Reader's Drum Pictures with 0 Comments

I recently had time to interview Jeremy Wolfe about his recent experience with building drums. This is the 2nd custom drum set he has built with the help of this site. Check out our conversation and pictures below!

Makedrums: Can you tell us about the drums you’ve built?
Jeremy: This is the second kit I have built. It’s the first using the E-Book. It was actually a rebuild from an older kit. The drums were originally wrapped in a dark red wrap. After using some wood filler and the “wet sanding” tip from the book the shells were then consistently smooth. I also plugged the original lugholes with filler because I was going for an alternate lug layout. Also the toms were cut to custom size. The 9×12 rack tom was cut to 7×12″ and the 16×16″ floor was cut to 12×16″. There was also a 10×13″ rack tom that was cut to 5×13″ which is now the snare drum. Finish is a simple white gloss spray with off centered double pinstripes that gradually get bigger according to shell size. Using the finishing steps in the book the build coat and pinstripe came easily. Top coat is the lacquer suggested in the book also and finally black hoops and hardware were put on to finish.
Continue Reading....

Audio Clips From Bart’s Custom Drum Set

September 21, 2010 in Drum Building Resources, Drums, General Updates, Reader's Drum Pictures with 4 Comments

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.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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

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 did an incredible job on building his very first custom drum set. Great job Bart!

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....

5 Thoughts on Drum Building Safety

April 19, 2010 in Drum Building Resources, Drums, General Updates with 0 Comments

I have never had any major incidents when building drums, however there are some important safety precautions to take into consideration. Working with sharp powerful tools should make this obvious, but the joy and excitement of working with those tools can make thoughts of safety drift far away. With that in mind here are 5 tips I feel are crucial in any shop.

Clean your shop – Removing unneeded materials and tools from your work space will help insure that you and your piece are easy to move around as needed.
Pay Attention – Glancing at a TV or door/window or anything other than your cut invites contact with the blade. ALWAYS finish the cut before looking away.
Take your time – If you are in a hurry to get done making your custom drum then you need to take a look at why you are doing the work in the first place. Enjoy the process; it’s not always the destination but the journey.
Invest in yourself – YOU are the most important “piece” while working with wood so protect yourself as you would your project “piece”. Wearing safety goggles, ear protection, dust masks, etc. should be the rule, not the exception.
Use your head – Take some time before you start to plan out your cuts and “see” how they will unfold.

Following these guidelines should give you a much more enjoyable and safe drum building experience.

Thanks to Don Sternadel, manger of the Austin Woodcraft Store, for these great safety tips!

What I Learned On My Recent Drum Build

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

Every time I build a new custom drum or custom drum kit I learn something that can usually help me improve upon a similar drum set the next time around. Each new drum I build gets better and better and I find more efficient ways to do some of the drum building tasks. Most recently I completed this drum set:

The drum building tip I picked up from building this drum set has to do with the order of the steps that I apply the inlay strip and finishing process. For this drum set I:

Cut the inlay groove
Applied about 4 coats of black stain
Installed the inlay strip
Sealed and gave a high gloss finish

Now, from looking at pictures of the drums and even looking at the drums up close you would never be able to tell what I did wrong. (not really wrong…but I will do this differently on the next drum kit that has an inlay that I build)

Here is what the aged pearl wrap looks like up close:

Look great right? Well I used some very nice tung oil for the high gloss finish for this kit and tung oil (along with other finishing products such as lacquer) tends to yellow or “amber out” over time. Since I installed the inlay strip before I finished the drum, the inlay with also be included in the “ambering out” that is already starting to happen to this kit. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact this amber color is often desired by many custom finishers. If you’ve ever seen a vintage guitar that has discolored over time you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about!

In conclusion the main lesson I learned from building this drum set was this: If you like the original color of whatever inlay strip you decide to use, you should mask the area where your inlay strip will go, finish the entire drum, and install the inlay once your finish is complete to prevent your strip from “ambering out”!

I hope this helps some of you builders venturing into the world of inlay! If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below. I would love to hear what you have to say!

How to Make an Inlay Jig for your Router Table and Cut/Install Perfect Inlay on your Custom Drum Set!

April 5, 2010 in Drum Building 101, Drum Building Tutorials, Drums, General Updates with 0 Comments

The follow section is taken right from the pages of “How to Make Custom Drums”. Like what you see? Buy the full version and learn everything you need to know to be able to build your very own custom drum or drum set!

Making an Inlay Jig for your Router Table

Inlay’s can make your drums look pro and classy. This design is extremely easy to make and to use. Just cut a piece of laminated MDF to the size (width or length) of your existing router table then cut a 2×4 to the same size and screw the 2 together. (see picture) Make sure to counter sink your screws so they don’t get in the way. All you need now are 2 clamps. Continue Reading....

How to Wrap a Drum Shell Part 2

March 24, 2010 in Drum Building 101, Drum Building Tutorials, Drums, General Updates with 1 Comment

This is the 2nd and last post on how to wrap your drum shells! Enjoy! Check out the first post here. Another important blog post to view along with this post is “How to Keep your Wrap Seams From Coming Up“.

After you have made sure there is not sanding dust on the wrap or on the shell you can apply your contact cement. If you have already drilled your holes for hardware you may want to tape the inside up so that no contact cement can run on the inside of the shell. Use a paint brush or roller brush to apply the contact cement to the shell, the back of the wrap, and the overlap! You’ll need to apply 2 coats to achieve maximum adhesion, and you can do them one right after the other. Leave no space uncovered or else you’ll have some bubbles in your wrap. Make sure you really get the overlap good! Consult the directions on your contact cement to get the best results.

Most contact cement needs about 15-30 minutes of drying time BEFORE you try to put the wrap on the shell. When the glue dries on all surfaces you may proceed. – Attention! – The glue must be dry for you to have a permanent bond, it sounds counter intuitive, but trust me, if you try to stick things together with contact cement when the cement is not completely dry, it will become un-bonded over time.

How to Take Good Drum Photos

March 16, 2010 in Drum Building Resources, Drums, General Updates, Reader's Drum Pictures with 0 Comments

When 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

Page 1 of 212 »