Drum Shell History Questions

If I understand things correctly, back in the day some drum companies used shells made from combinations of different woods on their pro level drums. And the old Tama Imperialstar was a pro line kit that used a shell made from inexpensive luan. This leads me to a couple questions.

Question #1 - Besides the old Imperialstar, were there any other pro level sets that used luan or any other inexpensive wood for their drum shells?

Question #2 - When and how did all maple and all birch shells become the industry standard for pro level drum sets?

Thanks

1) I am sure there were. Was was more common were drums that were a mix of maple with a less expensive wood, as pretty much everything from the 60's and early was.

2) It was a slow progressing. In the very late 70's, Yamaha introduced the 9000 series (later re-named the Recording Custom) and then Tama came out with the Superstar, which introduced an all birch shell as a pro level wood to have.

As the 80's went on, Pearl introduced the MLX and BLX lines of maple and birch. As the end of the 80s, Tama came out with the maple Artstar II, Sonar came out with the all maple Hi-light, not not too long after Yamaha came out with the maple custom.

Although DW has existed since the lat 70's, the company didn't gain much traction in the market place until right around 1991 or so, pushing their concept of all maple.

By 90/91, nearly every drum company was advertising their shells as being all one wood, (all maple or all birch) and pushing the mentality that mixing wood was somehow an inferior concept.

Which is funny that in the last several years, these same companies are now pushing the concept of mixing woods as a superior concept.

When I was a kid in the 60's we never cared what the drum was made from or what bearing edge it had. We just accepted that a Gretsch sounded like a Gretsch, a Ludwig sounded like a Ludwig... etc,etc.
As has been said, the 70's brought many changes to the way that drums were made and how they were marketed.

DrumEatDrum said:

1) Was was more common were drums that were a mix of maple with a less expensive wood, as pretty much everything from the 60's and early was.

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...it would be interesting to know what the cost difference actually is between, say, birch plies vs. maple plies vs. beech plies vs. mahogany plies vs. mystery plies, etc., given that the cost component of a wood shell is a fraction of the hardware cost of a given kit's total manufacturing cost (and ignoring expensive exotic finishing veneers and the like)...

...similarly, it would be interesting to know what cost advantage would accrue to manufacturers using locally sourced woods vs. woods requiring ocean transportation...

singing drums said:

...

...similarly, it would be interesting to know what cost advantage would accrue to manufacturers using locally sourced woods vs. woods requiring ocean transportation...

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Well, much of that is built into the history.

American drum companies have largely focused on maple, because it's plentiful in North America.

Yamaha and Tama made their original high end kits out of birch as it was plentiful in Japan.

Lower end asian kits have been made from luan and such because they can get it cheap in that part of the world.

When many of the Asian brands began making maple kits, much of the maple was indeed sourced in North American. Yet, over all, these kits did not cost more than any other high end kit.

My Premier Signia were made in England, but the maple is from North American. Yet at the time, they were still cheaper than many other maple kits available at that moment.

And now we have "made in china" drums with wood sourced in and around china, which come in much cheaper compared what was available before.

Although I've been told technology advances have made the actual process of cutting down the trees, and slicing it into useful plies much more efficient, which (supportively) one of the man reasons why china can make all maple and all birch shells at low prices. For example, The Mapex myidenity drums are assembled in Nashville, TN, out of "made in china" shells and parts, yet they don't cost and arm and leg even with the shipping and American labor cost.

I'm not sure we can know where much of the 'maple' comes from in drums , at least modern mass produced ones in a 'global' manufactureing economy. Maple is way more widespread than just N America.
http://unlgardens.unl.edu/maplesabout

Sure Ludwig or Gretsch in USA likely uses N American maple, felled in country but the source for so many other kits, pro and intermediate level, mass produced elsewhere, could really be allover the globe.
At the end of the day its marketing, boasting where the wood is sourced, and I'm not sure its of any consequence in ply drums.

Building using indigenous species makes sense on so many levels. Shipping of wood is a big cost factor (in the cost of the wood), so best kept local. All that said, it's good to know where most sheet comes from in terms of industry. Drum manufacturing accounts for a minute percentage of ply sheet consumption. Almost all of it is produced for facing of construction boards. It's grown fast, & sheets cut in colossal quantities. It's cheap, very cheap.

Where the ply sheet is sourced pales into insignificance compared to the quality of timber bought. Just because it's birch or maple from a certain wide geographical area means very little, but the quality of the sheet matters. You can buy a range of qualities in just about any popular species. In all but the best ply drums, only the outer plies are usually of higher quality. All this 100% maple talk is fine, but that can easily be 80% low grade + 20% finishing grade. It's mostly a visual distinction between qualities of sheet, but it can be condition/structure too. Once it's sandwiched inside a shell & glued up, you'll never know.

Where quality of board really matters is with solid shell forms, & non more than steam bent shells. But beware of this too. Same with species, just because something is made of (insert species here) & xxxx ply, or 100% xxxx or solid shell xxxx doesn't guarantee it's going to be a good drum. There's a huge variety of qualities of everything out there. Just because it has a label, means nothing.

Solid shell drums are supposed to make for the ultimate drums, yet I see a higher percentage of really crap solid shell drums than I do ply drums. There's some especially nasty quality stave & segmented shell forms coming out of Asia right now, but hey, they're cheap - & as they're solid stave, they must be good - right?

All this to be taken in context though. In almost all ply shell constructions, the cost of the sheet, & the shell layup itself, accounts for a much smaller portion of the drum's cost than you'd imagine.

...appreciate the insight/history...

...in a previous thread, a custom builder revealed that there are 3 grades of plywood used in drum making (e.g., grade a, grade b, grade c), and that top-level manufacturers only use grades a/b to produce shells...in another thread, it was suggested that the "highest quality" birch and maple plies come from scandinavia and canada, respectively ("high quality" defined here as having favorable visual and acoustic/sonic properties)...

...if so, that would somewhat explain the higher map's charged by the name manufacturers for their top-end kits (re the high shipping costs required to transport grade a/b wood plies to their various factories)...it would also explain the challenges faced by custom builders of the highest-end stave/steam bent snare drums (in terms of raw material sourcing/costing/pricing challenges for builders seeking the highest sonic and visual standards)...

bobdadruma said:

When I was a kid in the 60's we never cared what the drum was made from or what bearing edge it had. We just accepted that a Gretsch sounded like a Gretsch, a Ludwig sounded like a Ludwig... etc,etc.
As has been said, the 70's brought many changes to the way that drums were made and how they were marketed.

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Good point. Through the 80's it was never a topic of discussion (i'm sure it was on some level). I remember talking about it in the early 90's. I have researched it a bit out of curiosity and it used to be a point of emphasis in older ads from the 30's,40's, and into the 50's. After that begins the "branding" era. It's a common tie between generations, our desire to imitate our heroes. At this point from about the mid 60's until the early 90's, shell material is no longer advertised the same. For example, the profit margin of Pearl Exports far exceeded the profits of the MLX series. Pro's played the MLX which was all maple, but none of the ads in Circus or Hit Parade mentioned it, and Pearl sold 20 million Export kits. DW's influence on the wholesale change in the way we look at drums cannot be overlooked. Better materials make better drums and that is "what we do" was their mantra and they shouted it to anyone who would listen, and we did. Everyone else made good drums out of good material too, but DW caught them asleep at the wheel. After that every major drum co. was racing to tell you what their top kits were made of. Until you get what we have now. The most knowledgeable consumers ever with a vast array of incredible drums to choose from.

keep it simple said:

... In all but the best ply drums, only the outer plies are usually of higher quality. All this 100% maple talk is fine, but that can easily be 80% low grade + 20% finishing grade... Once it's sandwiched inside a shell & glued up, you'll never know.

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Except sometimes you can indeed tell, even on supposedly "best ply drums." In the mid-early 1980s I bought a new 10 inch tom to expand my early-early 1980s Gretsch kit, and it's obvious by looking at the bearing edge that the inner plies are lower quality. Still sounds great, but even all these years later that drop in quality in a presumably high-end drum is annoying.

Anduin said:

Except sometimes you can indeed tell, even on supposedly "best ply drums." In the mid-early 1980s I bought a new 10 inch tom to expand my early-early 1980s Gretsch kit, and it's obvious by looking at the bearing edge that the inner plies are lower quality. Still sounds great, but even all these years later that drop in quality in a presumably high-end drum is annoying.

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That Gretsch kit probably had the Maple "formula" shell: maple/gum ply. Those inner plys are gumwood, not maple.

Also, there are no rules on how to companies should cross laminate plys. Looking at ply shells edge on, seeing color differences between plys doesn't necessarily equate to wood quality, but could very well be that the vertical grain edge appears a different color than the horizontal grain edge.