Finally got my new snare... Worth the wait!

[crazyhorse]

Well a lot of you know that I'm one of the advocates of either building it yourself or having a smaller company do your drums vs the name brands. A few weeks ago I started talking with this french canadian furniture builder about building Stave Drums... He'd been thinking about doing it as a business and I offered to be his test dummy.

So... I commissioned a 13x7" birds eye maple snare that was to be about a 1/2" thick and use tube lugs to keep that classy look. It started out as just a shell but the more I talked to Francois I decided to just have him finish the drum vs me taking a chance on screwing it up when it got here. Finishing keller shells is one thing but this shell would be a work of art. In any case, she shipped out last week and 7 days later I got her. It's pretty cool, there was just a little bit of sawdust inside the box which really gave a feel for the fact that this is a hand made work of art, not just another drum.

Now... those of you that have never played on a stave drum (this included me until yesterday) you are REALLY missing out. I can't believe how easy to tune this drum is and the depth of the tone. I was a little worried because I didn't have any 13" drums but I figured having 7" of depth would help out. This thing is SENSITIVE. You can go from the quietest and best sounding roll you've ever heard to down right loud by just adjusting your playing. I honestly wasn't expecting something this versatile but I can tell you I will not buy another snare drum that's not built like this. (Unless of course you count the Titanium one I'm building... but we're talking wood here!)

I'll try to get by the studio this week so I can record this one... I'm actually selling a few of my goodies so that I can commission either a Santos Mahogany or Bubinga for my next one.

Pictures:

http://www.wrxhackers.com/NewDrums/MyStave1.jpg
http://www.wrxhackers.com/NewDrums/MyStave2.jpg
http://www.wrxhackers.com/NewDrums/MyStave3.jpg
http://www.wrxhackers.com/NewDrums/StaveBadge.jpg

Woohoo... I'm #1! lol

Seriously though.. before you go drop $300-400 on just another plywood drum wait till you hear this thing and consider actually getting something different. I know I've been saying that a while but now after truly sitting down and playing one, it's that darn good.

[Trommur]

Beautiful Snare, and definatly a good buy!

Joe

[crazyhorse]

Thanks. =) Just wait till you hear it

[DuxTer]

Awesome snare, I'm thinking about commisioning a stave shell snare at a company in Italy called Le Soprano. In addition to the stave shell they construct the hoops and lugs out of brass. From your response to this snare you seem veeeery satisfied with it, do you recommended stave drums? And I'd love to hear how she sounds!

[crazyhorse]

I would... I've played on a bit of everything and as far as wood goes, get the stave drum built. I'm going to opposite way with my hoops though as Francois is in the process of making me some maple hoops for this drum. Just waiting on his tool company to finish up the knife for cutting them I guess.

My concern originally was that with such a thick shell it might not be as sensitive as some of the ply snares. After getting a chance to play it I reallized I had nothing to worry about at all. Now when you DO hit hard... it will be louder than your average snare drum for sure. So you've got a really nice range to play with.

What wood are you thinking of going with?

[gmrakich]

Great looking drum....congrats. He might want to change the name of his company though : ^ )

[crazyhorse]

What.. you've never heard of a Unix Shell before? lol Yea I'm not a huge fan myself but there's a pretty good chance I'll be selling his shells here in the US soon if I can get my butt in gear and make it happen. I'm gearing up to provide various kinds of shells to custom builders (don't really want to have to build for a living.. to me it's just a hobby) and I'll probably end up carrying Francois' stuff under my name. So it'll be a more drum oriented name when that happens.

[fourstringdrums]

Looks very nice. How much did you pay for it?

[DogBreath]

My friend, that is truly a work of art. And the sawdust in the box was indeed a nice touch. Congratulations on being #0001!

[d.c.drummer]

Wow that looks nice. My guess is, making snares like that, he's going to meed more than four spaces for serial numbers =)

[GRUNTERSDAD]

Absolutely gorgeous bro. I should be able to hear that one down here. I'm still saving my pennies.

[crazyhorse]

Sent you a PM fourstrings. Thanks for the compliments guys. I'm going to try my hand at stave building but Francois has a good 20 year head start on me in the wood working department so I've got a while till I'm going to be able to keep up with him.

Just got back from the local Guitar Center and showed it off to one of the guys in the percussion section. I think he's on his computer right now emailing Francois to get one of his own... lol They tried to get me to trade it in but I don't think so.

[mind_drummer]

Awesome snare, Congrats !

Check your PM :-)

[crazyhorse]

Replied to ya...

For everyone that might be interested Francois' website is: http://www.conceptionunix.com

You'll have to excuse his english... Silly French Canadians! =)

[mind_drummer]

Replied to ya...

For everyone that might be interested Francois' website is: http://www.conceptionunix.com

You'll have to excuse his english... Silly French Canadians! =)


OLA ! .

[crazyhorse]

Couldn't resist... lol

[Ozzy Biz]

Wow, I love it. Very impressed.

[hauk]

thats really cool. i'm not sure how crazy about the tube lugs i am though, just because of the 7" depth.

[crazyhorse]

Can't please everyone... lol Nah I wanted the tubes for a classic look. Would have been a LOT cheaper to go with normal lugs but that's the look I was going for.

[Ozzy Biz]

Don't worry crazy, I love the tube lugs. I really like how they are screwed into the shell so close to the rims. Cool.

[crazyhorse]

I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not... lol

[Ozzy Biz]

I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not... lol

if you're talking about me; i wasn't being sarcastic. I really do like that the points where the lugs are fixed to the shell are about as far apart as possible. It kid of opens the look of the snare up a bit, under the tube lugs. i don't really know how to explain it. But it works for me.

[Wavelength]

A Unix snare? Why not Linux? :)

[crazyhorse]

Cool Ozzy.. wasn't sure if you were worried about the strength or not. I wanted to see as little tension rod as possible. On my blue snare I went too short with the rods so maybe I was compensating a bit!

You know... I still don't know why Francois went with the name Unix... lol

[mind_drummer]

Cool Ozzy.. wasn't sure if you were worried about the strength or not. I wanted to see as little tension rod as possible. On my blue snare I went too short with the rods so maybe I was compensating a bit!

You know... I still don't know why Francois went with the name Unix... lol

It may come from the term "Unique" ????

[frank0072]

Woow, now that really looks special :), I love how you talk about it, you have a great passion for your instrument :), have a lot of fun playing this baby!

[gaspesien]

Good God! This shop is an hour from here! I'll try to visit Francois's shop, the prices are fair, I might, at last, have the snare of my dreams! Thanks for the hint!

And by the way i think he writes in english way better than you can write in french, or maybe you can prove me wrong! *jokin' *

[superbatmat]

I give you my Dw collector snare drum ! ok ?????

;-)

[crazyhorse]

Hahaha you'd be correct sir... I did learn some Spanish in high school but never any french. Who speaks french anyways?! =)

That'd be a negative on the DW... lol I'm serious, I'm not buying another ply drum after owning this unless it's just a project for me to finish up. You could always sell it on ebay though, lord knows DW stuff fetches sill money there!

[mind_drummer]

Good God! This shop is an hour from here! I'll try to visit Francois's shop, the prices are fair, I might, at last, have the snare of my dreams! Thanks for the hint!

And by the way i think he writes in english way better than you can write in french, or maybe you can prove me wrong! *jokin' *


Tu as bien raison ;-)

[Flamacue]

I'm still waiting to hear it...do you have a sound byte of you playing something on it?

[crazyhorse]

Tomorrow... I'll record it in the studio. Probably not bringing my entire set this time as I'm just recording this snare and some Saluda hats I just got in. Nice to have a buddy that will hang out and let me just record my new gear. =)

[crazyhorse]

Sorry guys.. had to cancel the studio time. I'm going to be there Saturday though.

[gretsch223]

Look great! Can't wait to hear it!

[Deathmetalconga]

Incredibly nice drum. Anything that's not a Tamaha/Gretschpex/LuDWig definitely catches my interest!

[crazyhorse]

I was wondering when you'd find it Conga.... Actually I stumbled across a guy today that built his own iron wood drum. Pretty impressive actually.

[crazyhorse]

And I'll bump this since I got a sound file of this too tonight...

http://www.mckenziedrums.com/SoundFiles/MapleStave1.mp3

http://www.mckenziedrums.com/SoundFiles/MapleStave2.mp3

Yea yea.. I know.. sloppy playing