It makes no difference? New kit question

AModestRat

Member
Hey all, I've been thinking of building a new kit from vintage mahogany Keller shells for some time now. My only concern would be that it would sound too similar to my current Ludwig Element Birch set.

The Element Birches are somewhat thin 7 ply birch with 45 degree bearing edges, while I'd be ordering the vintage mahogany shells with full roundovers and IIRC they're six plies of mahogany and poplar.

My current kit is sized 22x16, 16x16, 12x9, and 14x6.5, I'd be ordering shells in 22x14, 16x16, 13x9, and 14x5.5. I always use coated ambassadors all over and tuned high for a nice resonance. I love those overtones!

Would the new shells make any difference? I'd still be keeping my Element Birch set and using that for jazz stuff while I'd probably be using the new kit for more blues and rock oriented stuff. Maybe I'm just overthinking all this and should do what I want?
 
Yes they will sound different. Those Keller shells along with the edges you are talking about will have a much shorter note to them than the birch shells. They will also have much lower sub frequencies in them than the birch. The birch kit will be a much brighter, cleaner, crisper sounding kit where the Keller would be the muddier, thuddier, booming kind of kit.
 
Yes they will sound different. Those Keller shells along with the edges you are talking about will have a much shorter note to them than the birch shells. They will also have much lower sub frequencies in them than the birch. The birch kit will be a much brighter, cleaner, crisper sounding kit where the Keller would be the muddier, thuddier, booming kind of kit.

Sounds exactly what I'm looking for, thank you!
 
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