Being both a drummer and a woodworker I was intrigued when purely by accident I came across a forum called Drumshed in 2008, it was here where I first saw that guys were making their own drums from hardwoods and sharing their information, experiences and techniques.
As my garage was already a workshop it wasn't long before I was experimenting with blocks of wood in an effort to build a drum, after a lot of trial & error over the next year I was finally able to say I had created an instrument which was a 14 x 6 Purpleheart segment snare drum which I was very pleased with.
So after a few more snares were built from various exotic hardwoods in both segment and stave construction I felt it was time to move onwards and so a large Purpleheart kit was in the works, however I felt a more substantial rig was needed rather than the homemade MDF I had made for the snares, so a rig was made from 2" aluminium profile which could handle drums up to 26" which were machined with a router on a rail system, I still use this rig today.
Having machined the shells I was now turning my attention to finishing, again a lot of trial & error followed until I achieved an acceptable result with a polyurethane spray, since those early days my finishing has greatly improved after practice with wet sanding, cutting and buffing the final coat to a mirror finish, all thanks to Drumshed for passing on the info.
The Purpleheart kit was now finished and there was talk of a 2009 drum show in Hollywood,,,Hmmm.
16/09/2021
Comments