Exotic drum woods and sound dynamics

Hammerofthegods86

Junior Member
Anyone have any drum shells built with exotic tone woods? Also if you can post a picture and tell how different are the dynamics of the sound compared to the big three basic woods aka Maple,Birch, and African Mahogany. Any detail about the sound dynamics and properties of the drums will be appreciated.
 
Of course exotic woods are most often used only as the outer ply (or veneer) in the majority of drums that deviate from the traditional woods. Consequently they have no effect on the tone but sure do look amazing. They're also quite costly.

Only a few of the major manufacturers use exotic woods for the complete shell. Price certainly is a factor so a Yamaha Phoneix (PHX) kit will cost you big bucks because the woods aren't cheap. Bubinga has really become a fairly common exotic wood and Tama in partucular has grabbed a chunk of the market share for drums constructed out of this African hardwood. Other than that, you'll need to look at the boutique drum maufactuers. I own a couple different Brady snare drums made out of hardwoods indigenous to Australia. They weren't cheap.

While there are subtle differences in drum tone when comparing one type of wood with another, don't believe the manufacturers' hype. A hardwood is a hardwood and the type of wood doesn't affect a drum's tone to a great degree. That has to do with construction, bearing edges, head selection, type of hoops, and tuning. All of those factors have more to do with sound than the type of wood.
 
I agree with steadypocket.

A lot of smaller drum companies often use stave and steambent shells which are, most of the time, exotic wood.

You don't always have to pay top dollar for a name either. Disturbance Drums (quick plug) for example can do a Padauk or Bubinga Stave shell snare for under $600 :)
 
Ok, I've got to chime in here. Sure, bearing edges, shell construction, hoops, lugs, overall accuracy of build, heads, tuning, etc, etc, all have a huge affect on the overall sound, but all things being equal, wood choice does make a significant, but not deal breaking, difference.

I have a number of stave snares. Pictured below is my Guru Drumworks ebony. I specified ebony because of the sound charactaristics. If I compare my maple stave to my ebony stave, the difference is massive. The maple has a lovely dominant midrange with just enough bottom end to offer weight. The ebony offers less mid range with enhance upper frequencies and crazy bottom end dynamic. Both drums were chosen to perform a specific job, & the wood choice played a big part in that. That said, all other areas of the build were also specified with a defined outcome in mind.
 

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Anyone have any drum shells built with exotic tone woods? Also if you can post a picture and tell how different are the dynamics of the sound compared to the big three basic woods aka Maple,Birch, and African Mahogany. Any detail about the sound dynamics and properties of the drums will be appreciated.

I get a chuckle from this guys approach. Instead of spending time searching and reading, just ask everyone to load up a thread to educate him quickly and easily.

Well, guess it is working.
 
I do a fair amount of work with bubinga, rosewood and canarywood solids (steambent and staves), all very nice tonewoods. I agree that there's something to be said for categorizing hardwoods into soft, medium and hard. But beyond that, different species have different personalities. For example, bubinga and rosewood are roughly comparable in hardness, but behave differently in EQ -- so they seem to lend different character to a drum. I find more difference between them, frankly, than I do between birch and maple.

And I also agree that wood selection is not the primary factor that governs the sound of a drum, but it certainly is a factor, and a relatively significant one, and every part of a drum's voice is important in determining the final qualities.
 
OK so say you have 2 identical drums, made from wood from the same tree even.
If you build one drum w/ a thin shell and the other drum w/ a thicker shell, which shell would contribute more to the final sound, the thick shell or the thin shell?
 
OK so say you have 2 identical drums, made from wood from the same tree even.
If you build one drum w/ a thin shell and the other drum w/ a thicker shell, which shell would contribute more to the final sound, the thick shell or the thin shell?
The straight answer is, they both would contribute equally, but in very different ways. Also depends on which drum you're talking about to some extent.

If I twist your question slightly towards which shell will resonate more, thus the wood's resonant tone becomes a bigger part of the overall resolved sound, then it's the thinner shell, all other things being equal. That said, bolt a ton of hardware, heavy lugs, etc to the thin shell, & the difference becomes marginal.
 
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