Buck County Drums

One of the local drummers here has two of their kits. I don't like the finishes he has (racing stripes and powder-coated metal), nor do I especially like the way he tunes, but they seem well made Keller-shelled drums.

I'd like to put heads I like on his kit, and tune them up, and see how they sing.
 
Well naturally I know about them because anything that goes on in Bucks County has to come across my desk first lol.

A few tears back I was on a 2 drummer Allman Brothers tribute band gig in Doylestown (the capital of Bucks County) and the house set was a Bucks County Drum set that the other guy ended up using. I really didn't have too much time to check them out.

If going boutique, why not go with some form of solid shell is my stance.
 
Saw some feature from MD about their snare concept which is a thin ply shell wrapped around a solid shell with the bearing edges on the solid shell. What a pointless idea!

Just a day or two ago I saw a thread about this very drum, I believe on Facebook or perhaps another forum. One poster trashed the build concept, which the builder strongly defended. Intuitively, this seems like a flawed design to me, but I have no expertise in drum design. I'll leave it to more qualified folks to critique.
 
Whew! The world is just littered with extraordinarily-talented drum builders. The Bucks drums look like no exception.

But this gives me a business idea: I think I will establish a company producing the worst-sounding drums on earth with terrible hardware and heads made of Saran Wrap, shells made from white pine, and wraps made of paper bags and shellac.

Their selling point: the only bad drums available anywhere on earth.

GeeDeeEmm
 
Just a day or two ago I saw a thread about this very drum, I believe on Facebook or perhaps another forum. One poster trashed the build concept, which the builder strongly defended. Intuitively, this seems like a flawed design to me, but I have no expertise in drum design. I'll leave it to more qualified folks to critique.

I saw that thread as well and the argument was over the direction of the grain, evidently. I couldn't care less about that – it just seems like a weirdly compromised design anyways. Gluing a solid shell to a ply shell just makes it a bigger ply shell... I've already spent too much time thinking about it, though, so whatever.
 
Whew! The world is just littered with extraordinarily-talented drum builders. The Bucks drums look like no exception.

But this gives me a business idea: I think I will establish a company producing the worst-sounding drums on earth with terrible hardware and heads made of Saran Wrap, shells made from white pine, and wraps made of paper bags and shellac.

Their selling point: the only bad drums available anywhere on earth.

GeeDeeEmm

But with good edges and the right tuning.....
 
Chris Carr at Bucks County Drum is doing excellent work. He's quite the skilled craftsman and drum builder. I recently shared the feature that Modern Drummer did on his semi-solid shell design on our (Evans) Facebook page: Bucks County Semi-Solid Shell Facebook Post

Several individuals claimed that there would be major issues with the difference in grain direction and shift in wood over time. Chris had the following response:

"If you have never seen these drum up close, and do not know the Ply to solid wood ratio, then you are only guessing with regard to the make up of the shell So your statement is simply invalid...Ply shells are much stronger than solid wood, and the thin solid wood is therefore"unable" to move and that is why this innovation works so well. Futhermore, we have tested these for three years and never had a problem. I am a cabinet maker by trade for 30 years and have joined many wood panels to plywood substrates for stability with complete success..."

I think it's definitely important to be careful in judging a concept without substantial experience in the field being discussed. As a drum builder with 30 years of experience in woodworking, Chris is truly an expert. While there are many custom and boutique drum builders out there that may still be learning the ropes (which we support 100%) there are also those who are incredibly skilled, talented, and knowledgeable. Unfortunately, on the internet, one making face-value judgments might not see the difference.
 
Sounds like he knows what he's talking about, and looks like some nice stuff. I wouldn't mind sneaking over the border into Bucks County/Larryace's territory (coming from Lancaster County) to check them out.
 
Chris remarked on the Evans FB article that the ratio of ply to solid shell material is about 50/50. If that's the case, Chris's assertion that the ply portion of the shell is the stronger is correct. Movement in wood depends on many factors, including what species is paired with what, not just grain direction. Different species have different shrinkage / expansion rates, & much depends on the completeness of cure at the time of construction.

I'm assuming the shell construction aims to marry the stability of a ply shell with the stronger / lower fundamental of a solid shell, but I can't find any details on the Bucks county website to clarify the thinking behind this.
 
Whew! The world is just littered with extraordinarily-talented drum builders. The Bucks drums look like no exception.

But this gives me a business idea: I think I will establish a company producing the worst-sounding drums on earth with terrible hardware and heads made of Saran Wrap, shells made from white pine, and wraps made of paper bags and shellac.

Their selling point: the only bad drums available anywhere on earth.

GeeDeeEmm

I actually made a stave snare out of pine. It sounds pretty good. I am determined to someday make an entire stave set out of Spruce.
 
I actually made a stave snare out of pine. It sounds pretty good. I am determined to someday make an entire stave set out of Spruce.

Not disparaging pine, just pulled a wood type out of the air.

My cousin is a guitar builder and built his first archtop electric from white pine. He wanted something easy to carve and to obtain for his first effort, but he was surprized how nice the end result sounded and looked.

I guess there are no hard and fast rules that would eliminate pine from drum-building possibilities.

How about posting some pics of your pine snare? I'd love to see it.

GeeDeeEmm
 
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