Outdoor photo shoot

[uniongoon]

Took a couple hours to set my kit up on my deck along with my finished and not quite finished snares. For those of you who have not seen my previous build threads, the kit is a Pearl Masterworks drumkit which I bought piece by piece in various colours. 8,10,12,14,14 ans 22.
The chrome was powder coated with translucent blue and the rack and boom arms were powder coated gloss black. The kit finish is 2 mil vinyl vehicle wrap, using photo's I purchased from a photo sharing site. The snares were mostly built by me.



Left pile top to bottom, 4 1/2 taiwan hammered bronze shell. parts currently on loan to finish another drum.. 6 1/2 solid brass custom with maple lugs, custom etched finish. Ludwig 6 1/2 bronze import. and at bottom, a custom hybrid, 7 X14 solid steam bent shells, formerly 1920's Ludwig and a 1950's birdseye Radio King. 2nd pile, a Keller maple shell with a plastic faux wood finish, bought this drum for parts. 6 1/2 maple Sonic shell with a wood veneer and Gibraltor maple hoops, very nice sounding snare from a budget priced build. Bottom, 1947 Slingerland 7X14 with Stellar wood hoops and powder coated originally nicket beavertail lugs.
3rd pile, a Walnut stave 6X14 using Tama Superstar smoked chrome hardware. And another hybrid built with shell scraps, birdseye veneer. 2 unfinished shells, top is Canarywood, bottom is Tigerwood (I think), next, by itself, a cherry stave 7X14. right pile, 3X13 Brass Pearl picollo, 7X14 Elm stave with Allstar lugs and a Dunnet throw. 7X14 Walnut stave with Maple stripes. 5 1/2X14 Birdseye maple with DW tube lugs and throw and wood hoops fastened with polished brass antique claws. And bottom another Walnut stave with a Burl Maple veneer. And finally, the white and black is the 15X12 tom of my soon to be completed Cherry stave kit.

[uniongoon]

And one more snare shot





And cant ignore my faithful Signias. These still have their place, bottom sweet rock kit.

[Arky]

This is pure decadence!! I'm envious ;-)

[the_dude]

Your view isn't too bad either.

[The Black Page Dude]

Sweet kit uniongoon ... you should post it here as well!

http://www.theblackpage.net/show-us-your-kits

[marko138]

Looking good, brother!

[Drumolator]

That is one sweet drum set with many cool snares. Peace and goodwill.

[keep it simple]

Great shots, & huge man hours represented there, not to mention a big lump of skill. Superb!!!!!

[LeftoverPenguin]

I would love to just be able to make my own snare drum. How/where did you develop you skills to get into doing that? Obviously it takes time to design and build them, but does it cost about the same as buying a mass produced snare? Less?

And question about the powder coating on your rack: does clamping and un-clamping over and over chip away at the powder coat over time? And do you notice the added thickness in any way?

[longgun]

....gorgeous drums, love the snares

[Bo Eder]

Outstanding collection there! The photo looks like you put a blue filter over the lens and it only worked on the drumkit. Before I read the post I thought there was something wrong with the camera! Nice job on the blue shade. You need to post some videos so I can hear those bad boys!

[drumhedd]

Your handiwork is incredible! Very impressive... that drumkit is very classy.

[uniongoon]

Originally Posted by LeftoverPenguin

I would love to just be able to make my own snare drum. How/where did you develop you skills to get into doing that? Obviously it takes time to design and build them, but does it cost about the same as buying a mass produced snare? Less?

And question about the powder coating on your rack: does clamping and un-clamping over and over chip away at the powder coat over time? And do you notice the added thickness in any way?

First off, thank you all for the kind words. I learned to build very gradually, I have been tinkering with rebuilding, re finishing since I was in my teens, am 48 now. But finally committed to the extra step of building my own shells about a year ago. Mostly learned from searching the internet and from the great support group at Ghostnote. As far as cost, this is a tricky question. Many of my snares utilize top of the line parts, for example the Elm snare cost around $400 to build. Many deals now are so good, when you break down the parts list, it often seems cheaper to buy factory, but you do not the the one off custom drum either. Die cast hoops are a big cost item, as well as a good throw off. So really, you cant compare a $200 snare with triple flange hoops, a mediocre throw, cheapie wires to a snare with die cast ($50-80 per hoop) Trick throw, ($55-75) Puresound brass wires ($30) Brass tubes lugs etc. Alot of guys, including myself do find deals on whole snares, strip them and use the parts on our upgraded shells. Which is what I did with the Walnut snare out front with the smoked chrome hardware. I charged my friend $250 to build it using his Superstar snare as a donor.

Lastly, the powder coat is much more durable than paint, it is not indestructible, but it holds up with responsible handling. I dont toss my stuff into the hardware case. The thickness is no different than a layer of paint.

[Roadydad]

Love those snares. I'll be right over, ok !