How a Custom Drum Is Built, Start to Finish

It starts with what you play, where you play it, and what you wish your current drums did differently. Out of that comes a size, a shell construction, a species and a hardware direction. Nothing is ordered until the plan makes sense for the music.

The right board decides everything after it. Wood is chosen piece by piece for grain, figure, stability and moisture content, and photographed so you see exactly what your drum is being made from before it is cut.  Metal is chosen based on what you want to achieve sonicnally, as well.

Staves are cut for length and edge grain angle, then glued along those edge grains into a cylinder, much like a barrel is built, or a plank is steamed and bent around a form, or a solid block is hollowed, or metal is spun and bent or cast in a foundry. For wood drums, then the shell is milled by hand so it turns perfectly circular, brought to its final thickness, and left to settle before anything else happens to it.

Bearing edges are cut to the profile chosen for your drum, the snare beds are shaped, and every hole for lugs, throw-off and vent is laid out and drilled on the shell itself.

Sanding runs through progressively finer grits, then the finish goes on in thin coats with cure time between them. This is the slowest part of the build and the part that cannot be rushed without it showing.

Lugs, hoops, throw-off, butt plate, wires and heads go on, and then the drum gets tuned, played, adjusted and played again until it does what it was designed to do. You get photos and video of the drum building process and gorgeous professioan studio images when it's done, before it ships.

Drums ship packed to survive the trip, anywhere in the world. See the process in pictures on The Method page, hear finished drums on Hear the Drums, and get in touch when you are ready to start yours.