One of my many hobbies is building drums. I have been a craftsman for longer than I've been a drummer. Its only natural that I would want to build drums. I've spent the last few years developing a new concept for building extremely high quality snare drums. It happened quite by accident as a matter of fact. I got ahold of a scrap marching snare drum shell which was really beat up, but was a really nice aged maple shell. I was able to salvage about 3 inches of shell from each end (the middle had many too many holes in it for me). Since I didn't have any money for hardware, I decided to make a ring of wood to put in between the two shell segments which the rims would be tensioned to. Kind of a "free floating" hardware design. After getting the whole thing together and fashioning a simple cam-action snare throwoff, I played it. I was amazed at the sound! I headed into the studio with my group at the time and ended up using this snare exclusively on this date.This drum has really warped over time and now its pretty hard to keep in tune (though it still sounds decent), however it led me down the path towards a couple more interesting drums.

Once I was hooked on making drums, I decided that I had really better learn more about them. I spent a lot of time in drum shops studying bearing edges and listening to the drums to try to learn what shapes work best. I spent a lot of time testing multiple bearing edges on my next drum. This one has a hardware ring of aluminum - a much brighter and cutting sound. Not unpleasant, however its really a specialty drum, I think because of the sound of the aluminum.

My next drum was an experiment in woodworking. I decided that for my current musical endevour that I needed a solid, vintage-style snare drum for big band type swing. I still wanted some strength in the sound for more funky stuff too. I chose a thin shell with re-inforcing rings and worked on the bearing edges until I got a real woody sound with lots of body and not too much ring. Since I had access to lasercutter, I decided to really do up the finish on this one. I designed an intricate inlay pattern and but it into a really nice sheet of birdseye maple. The inlay is cut from purple heart. Applying the veneer was an excersize in patience, but it turned out pretty darn nice. I used all brass hardware and I get all kinds of comments on it.

About this time, I needed a few more credits to graduate, and I figured that I could make a pretty nice casting project of my "midplane tensioner" snare drum idea. This drum is definately the nicest of the three prototypes. The hardware ring is solid bronze - probably about 20 pounds worth... I've got a pretty thick wood shell on it with sharp bearing edges and a crisp snare bed. This drum will roar - what a rimshot... This one's been used on a few recording sessions, and most of my drummer friends know they can get away with borrowing it every once in a while. With a little more work on the design, I think this one's a winner!

I've just begun my latest experiment - a 20ply 13"x7". I'm going for a really "poppy" snare that still has some body to it. I made the 20ply shell by cutting a small segment out of one 10ply shell and glueing it inside another shell. I've got a unique hardware design which'll probably take way too much time, but its still a fun project. At this point I've got the shell done and the preliminary bearing edge idea cut.