Custom drums: your thoughts

And... back to the discussion.
 
wsabol said:
.....By irrational features, I was mainly referring to things like exchanging the metal knobs on the trick strainer for wood ones.. the ridiculously incredible inlay patterns we see in the "show your wood" thread.. 24k gold plated hardware.. stuff the adds value, craftsmanship, and mojo, but doesn't necessarily support the sonic requirements of the instrument. No one needs those things to achieve a desired sound, they just want them because. Not saying that all that is a bad thing, I love it. I wish I could afford that stuff. But there is a very specific group of drummers the have the power to buy those instruments, and that group happens to be the one with lots of disposable income. That's where boutique is different from custom. The affordability of custom depends on the sonic requirements of the buyer; however, boutique is needlessly expensive.

According to Wiki, a boutique is a small shop with elite and fashionable items.
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Generally I don't have to much to say around here because I don't have a whole lot of spare time on my hands, but i can only assume you're referring to the drum that I build, to spec, for a customer. That's what I do, make spec built stave snare drums.
People come to me saying that they have a Fidock, Brady, Craviotto, whatever... and they like them just fine, but that they want a snare drum built just for them and to their specs. Obviously I consult with them to help them decide which wood, thickness, and bearing edges will get them the the sound that they are after. If they want gold plating, sure! Fancy gold inlays, sure! Just because all of the aesthetic flashyness doesn't mean anything to you, doesn't mean that you can apply that to everybody. THAT'S exactly what a custom drum is all about. Call it what you want custom, boutique, it really doesn't matter to me or my customers because they have a one of a kind drum.

By the way, Here's what the owner of the cherry, purpleheart, and gold drum emailed me after he had a chance to play it. He is happy with it, and that's what counts....

Wow wow and wow!!!! It is stunning. I love the way the purple heart rims darkened up yet the stripe maintained it's color. The strainer is amazing and the purple heart on the strainer is a detail that really shows the craftsmanship in this drum. I am also happy that you plated the Bellwether logo, the drum ascetically is stunning!
The sound is warm and defined with rich overtones. The tone of the drum remains the same throughout the sustain of the ring, simply amazing.
I took it to practice the night I got it. It was the country band. The first thing I noticed was how loud it was, I was shocked. My Fidock really needs to be whacked to cut through. This snare just sat there saying "whatever you need I got it" The loudness reminded of a superphonic or a Rogers dynasonic. There a a few songs we play where the snare on the recording is tuned high, I was worrying about having to carry two snares to gigs. With this snare, I played it about 2 inches from the rim and viola! the sound I was looking for. During the ballads the snare was deep and punchy when played in the center and had that studio thud with no electronics. Simply amazing. I then used brushes on one song, thanks to the ambassador heads, it was hard to get the drum to react to the brushes. I'll have to try a different technique. Rim shots? OMG rim shots ha ha ha. I am so glad we went with the purple heart rims. The rims shots were like gun fire across the room during single stroke rolls. Absolutely loved it. When playing rim shots on the back beat they came across crisp with tone as long as I played on the sweet spot. 1/2" deviated from the sweet spot and the tone was lost. Once I get used to the drum this will be no problem. She is sensitive and needs attention, like any female lol. It is such a high quality drum and sensitive it'll take time for us to come to know one another.
So after rehearsal I stopped off at an open mike. The drummer from the house band is a music teacher, so of course I had to show him the drum and brag. I let him play it so I could hear it from the audience. Incredible. I also let another drummer play it who is a percussion student at Berkley in Boston. The drum sounded different with each player, I couldn't believe it! I don't know what you do to wood or your secrets on construction but keep doing it. I'm gonna stop calling it a drum and refer to it now as my "instrument de Stradivarius" lol
It is a beautiful piece and extremely high quality instrument. Thanks for all your hard work and attention to detail. It was worth the wait. I'd wait twice as long for something this extraordinary.
 
stavebuilder said:
Generally I don't have to much to say around here because I don't have a whole lot of spare time on my hands, but i can only assume you're referring to the drum that I build, to spec, for a customer. That's what I do, make spec built stave snare drums.
People come to me saying that they have a Fidock, Brady, Craviotto, whatever... and they like them just fine, but that they want a snare drum built just for them and to their specs. Obviously I consult with them to help them decide which wood, thickness, and bearing edges will get them the the sound that they are after. If they want gold plating, sure! Fancy gold inlays, sure! Just because all of the aesthetic flashyness doesn't mean anything to you, doesn't mean that you can apply that to everybody. THAT'S exactly what a custom drum is all about. Call it what you want custom, boutique, it really doesn't matter to me or my customers because they have a one of a kind drum.

By the way, Here's what the owner of the cherry, purpleheart, and gold drum emailed me after he had a chance to play it. He is happy with it, and that's what counts....

Wow wow and wow!!!! It is stunning. I love the way the purple heart rims darkened up yet the stripe maintained it's color. The strainer is amazing and the purple heart on the strainer is a detail that really shows the craftsmanship in this drum. I am also happy that you plated the Bellwether logo, the drum ascetically is stunning!
The sound is warm and defined with rich overtones. The tone of the drum remains the same throughout the sustain of the ring, simply amazing.
I took it to practice the night I got it. It was the country band. The first thing I noticed was how loud it was, I was shocked. My Fidock really needs to be whacked to cut through. This snare just sat there saying "whatever you need I got it" The loudness reminded of a superphonic or a Rogers dynasonic. There a a few songs we play where the snare on the recording is tuned high, I was worrying about having to carry two snares to gigs. With this snare, I played it about 2 inches from the rim and viola! the sound I was looking for. During the ballads the snare was deep and punchy when played in the center and had that studio thud with no electronics. Simply amazing. I then used brushes on one song, thanks to the ambassador heads, it was hard to get the drum to react to the brushes. I'll have to try a different technique. Rim shots? OMG rim shots ha ha ha. I am so glad we went with the purple heart rims. The rims shots were like gun fire across the room during single stroke rolls. Absolutely loved it. When playing rim shots on the back beat they came across crisp with tone as long as I played on the sweet spot. 1/2" deviated from the sweet spot and the tone was lost. Once I get used to the drum this will be no problem. She is sensitive and needs attention, like any female lol. It is such a high quality drum and sensitive it'll take time for us to come to know one another.
So after rehearsal I stopped off at an open mike. The drummer from the house band is a music teacher, so of course I had to show him the drum and brag. I let him play it so I could hear it from the audience. Incredible. I also let another drummer play it who is a percussion student at Berkley in Boston. The drum sounded different with each player, I couldn't believe it! I don't know what you do to wood or your secrets on construction but keep doing it. I'm gonna stop calling it a drum and refer to it now as my "instrument de Stradivarius" lol
It is a beautiful piece and extremely high quality instrument. Thanks for all your hard work and attention to detail. It was worth the wait. I'd wait twice as long for something this extraordinary.
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And letters such as this really tell it how it is. There are a number of companies out there that really know what they're doing. Bellwether snare drums are absolutely at the top of the pile, & almost without exception, exceed the performance of the very best the major companies have to offer. You may also be surprised to know that such attention to detail, accuracy of build, & superb sonic performance can be had at a lower price than many so called flagship offerings from the big players too. To even think in terms of placing Bellwether in the same class as someone offering a range of finishes & wraps on stock shells is just plain wrong.

In the "custom" world, there's both good & bad, just as in the mass market sector, only the variation is much greater.
 
stavebuilder said:
Generally I don't have to much to say around here because I don't have a whole lot of spare time on my hands, but i can only assume you're referring to the drum that I build, to spec, for a customer. That's what I do, make spec built stave snare drums.
Click to expand...

stavebuilder, congrats on the satisfied customer. I'm sorry if my comments offended you, as that was not my intention. "irrational" wasn't the best adjective to use the context of what I was trying to convey.
 
keep it simple said:
And letters such as this really tell it how it is. There are a number of companies out there that really know what they're doing. Bellwether snare drums are absolutely at the top of the pile, & almost without exception, exceed the performance of the very best the major companies have to offer. You may also be surprised to know that such attention to detail, accuracy of build, & superb sonic performance can be had at a lower price than many so called flagship offerings from the big players too. To even think in terms of placing Bellwether in the same class as someone offering a range of finishes & wraps on stock shells is just plain wrong.

In the "custom" world, there's both good & bad, just as in the mass market sector, only the variation is much greater.
Click to expand...
Thanks, KIS. You are correct. While my drums and many other custom/boutique builders' drums are quite pricy, they are generally less expensive than a lot of Bradys,, Craviottios and the high end offerings from DW, Pearl, Yamaha, Gretsch, etc... and most of the other high end builders. I even have one customer in Hungary that is selling His Brady and Crav snares to buy more of mine. I'm not trying to toot my own horn, just trying to say what KIS already said. That the small custom/boutique companies (and trust me, I'm small. I work out of my garage here in Northern California) can put out very high quality work that can rival and surpass the big players in the business.

wsabol said:
stavebuilder, congrats on the satisfied customer. I'm sorry if my comments offended you, as that was not my intention. "irrational" wasn't the best adjective to use the context of what I was trying to convey.
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No need to apologize, I wasn't offended. I wanted to get across the "bling" factor is a huge part of a custom drum. Sound quality is of course the priority, but my philosophy is that my drums should look as good as they sound. There are tons of stave drum builders out there and it benefits my customer and my business to build drums that are set apart from the rest by being different and recognizable before the badge is seen.
 
My idea of custom drums would be something like Pearl Masterworks. http://www.pearldrum.com/Products/Drumsets/Masterworks.aspx

I guess I would consider DW the same. Not so much Ludwig, Gretsch and Yamaha.

Of course I would take the DW's over the Pearls. To quote Steven Colbert " if it is American, I don't care what it sounds like, it is the best in the world!"
 
bermuda said:
I generally consider Brady to be a boutique builder, but for the purposes of my description for this thread, they fall into the mass-producer category, since they do not offer custom sizes. I doubt that they would consider themselves a custom shop anyway.

Bermuda
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We certainly wouldn't consider ourselves a mass-producer! Though our reputation is well-known (and extremely humbling), our workshop and "operation" is extremely small. We do venture into custom requests - a few odd sizes, multiple species shells, a Lars Ulrich-inspired orange sparkle kit, and gold plated hardware comes to mind of recent works - though we do turn down some requests that are ultimately detrimental to the sound of the instrument. A drum's performance not its aesthetics should always be the primary focus.

All the best.

Kelly Brady
Brady Drum Company



Custom Lars Ulrich-inspired BRADY kit
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Multi-species BRADY snare drum
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13" BRADY Fiddleback Marri rack tom (yes, we've never offered them).
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bradydrums said:
We do venture into custom requests - a few odd sizes...

...13" BRADY Fiddleback Marri rack tom (yes, we've never offered them).
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Beautiful drums, for sure, and I'm sure they sound great (would love to hear them in person sometime). Curious as to why 13" toms aren't normally offered. I really like that size - it scratches that 13" itch like no 12" or 14" ever could! Is it just low demand? Some other reason? I'd love to know more about the 13" aversion that seems to exist.
 
I really took a nosedive with my first post here. After disappointing many, I'll try to please a few.

Here is my latest project. 6"x12" snare. Keller shell, all Maple. My favorite part (aside from how much pop the little guy brings) is the snare throw. Strange thing to get excited about, I know. But it works well and I love the angle it sits at.

For me, new equipment brings great inspiration. Sitting behind the same tools, no matter the career/industry, can stifle creativity. So for a drummer who usually plays larger drums, playing this snare made me adjust and rethink the space I was in. The first 30 minutes behind this drum were very healthy. I chose the 6x12 size b/c it was not a size I found too many other places. I applied a coat of cinnamon colored stain, and 3 thin coats of sealant. Didn't want to add anything too eye-popping because I felt the grain was beautiful enough.

Attached you'll find two photos.

Your favorite spambot,

Kyle
 

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