Our Workshop- Custom Drums and Shells - Jon Cross Custom Drums

Workshop

Here we have a Purpleheart board and a length of Bird’s Eye Maple...

Here we have a Purpleheart board and a length of Bird’s Eye Maple...with which are going to make up a stave shell with a segmented center band.

Both pieces are marked up before being cut into blocks...

Both pieces are marked up before being cut into blocks...so that they can be assembled in order of the grain pattern.

Individual blocks cut from the board

The blocks are now glued into rings and then sanded flat.

The blocks are now glued into rings and then sanded flat. Note the thin strips of wood that are to be the stripe in the shell.

Sanding the rings flat

The rings are then stacked and glued together, essentially forming a solid shell.

The rough drumshell

The shell is then put to a lathe and milled down to perfectly round.

Lathing the inner part of the shell...

Lathing the inner part of the shell...Almost done!

After the clearcoat is applied, the final result is a gorgeous segmented shell drum...

Like a great musical recording, the construction of a Jon Cross drum is not defined by the equipment utilized to make the drum but rather the experience and creativity of the craftsman.

Jon Cross runs a small yet productive workshop stocked with the right tools and jigs for any job. Coupled with his "drummer's ear" he is able to create a drum that is both strikingly beautiful and sounds amazing.

A typical process in the construction of a segment shell can be seen in the pictures:

Marking out the board so that the individual blocks can be assembled back in place to ensure the original flow of the woodgrain
Sanding the individual rings before the glue-up
The raw shell before and after machining
Final clear coats of either a satin of high gloss finish which is then buffed and polished