newest snare project

gwaco

Senior Member
hi all , yes i'm at it again ,which is why i have been somewhat scarce lately. for those that remember toward the end of 2009 i put together a snare for jennifers teacher casey grillo to show our apprecation for all hes done for her .
well that snare has worked so well for him and has become his workhorse snare that he asked me to build him another snare , this time a piccolo because that is one type he doesn't have . well he supplied me with the shell (old dixon) and some hardware bits (lugs) and gave me the green light to do whatever i wanted to do with it ( maybe a bad mistake on his part ! ) so here is the progress of it so far . i am really hoping to have it done before he leaves for the kamelot european tour the 17th of march , but i don't know if thats gonna happen .
the first pic is how the shell was given to me and the rest from there forward . originally he had it set up to do the lugs in 8 rows of 2 lugs but the hoops were bottoming out on the lug bases way before the heads reached any tension, so i had to come up with something else which you see in the next pics . the lugs run in a single row with them being equally spaced and each lug set in opposite orientation . the biggest problem with this is that a lug needs to sit right where the strainer and but plate go so i had to make a bracket that would let the strainer clear the lug . mind you that the lug has been severely altered along with the strainer . the strainer is a pretty basic piccolo strainer that just about every drum builder website sells but i had to gut it and basically rebuild it from scratch with a few obvious things added !
in keeping with my idea about building something never seen before i decided to add a little personal touch to the shell and decided to cut out casey's name in the shell , ( don't worry the letter A will have a center to it , i just didn't put it in yet ) once he saw it he loved it and even though i am not sure how this will sound he wants them open to act as air vents . i do have a secondary plan in case the sound is not what he wants but i also think it looks pretty cool seeing thru the shell , we'll find out soon !
Enough with the babble , on with the pics !
 

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they keep coming ! wait till you see the strainer !
 

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well this is where i'm at with it right now ,i'm quickly approaching around 60 hours of time into it so far , but i will keep this updated as i still have more tricks to pull out of my hat on this snare .
back to work i go !!!!
 

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after posting i came up with a few more thoughts that i missed !
the shell is 13x3 1/2 and looks to be maple .
also one of the things i noticed when looking at a hundred photos or so looking for ideas, the one thing that i didn't like was when you look at some of the piccolos from the side you notice a difference between the spacing between the hoop and lug on the top and bottom because the snare side head draws up further than the batter head do to the thicknesses, so with that in mind the lugs are actually set closer to the top hoop to make up the differance ! if none of this makes sense just look at some pics of different snare that show side views and you'll see what i mean .
the hoops in the photos are just for mocking up purposes and not going on the finished project ( those will be somethiong else special ) just incase you were wondering . i noticed how bad they looked in the photo .
thats all i got for now , so now i'll get back to work !!!!!......
 
Gwaco---I built custom snares and kits for over 10 years--conawaydrums-- and this TOTALLY brings back some great building/experimenting memories! I love the Ego spike lugs and what you've creatively done with this small shell. The additional skulls on the strainer are very sharp too! All-in-all, just a great looking snare that I'm sure will sound just as good as it looks. The recipient should be very happy to have this in his arsenal. Again, great job!
 
Nice job neighbor. That looks scary. The router work name looks cool also. Good job.
 
Gwaco---I built custom snares and kits for over 10 years--conawaydrums-- and this TOTALLY brings back some great building/experimenting memories! I love the Ego spike lugs and what you've creatively done with this small shell. The additional skulls on the strainer are very sharp too! All-in-all, just a great looking snare that I'm sure will sound just as good as it looks. The recipient should be very happy to have this in his arsenal. Again, great job!
thank you ! maybe it will reinspire ? building these custom drums and snares are one of the most relaxing things i have done in a while ! i just got a email today from the recipient , and yes hes very happy so far seeing whats going on . in fact i can't really put down the words he used - but he is happy !
 
Nice job neighbor. That looks scary. The router work name looks cool also. Good job.
howdy neighbor ! no router work here ! all hand cut . i wish i could have used a router or scroll saw or anything electric , but due to the curvature of the shell i thought it best to be slow !
btw - are you going tomarrow night ? still up in the air for me & jennifer .
 
I guess I will. I don't know this guy so there may be some news things to pick up. If it looks bad I will leave early.
 
That is some nice work once again! I reckon it sounds nice and dry with Casey's name sawed into the shell like that! Are you going to add any kind of colour to the shell or will it remain natural?
 
That is some nice work once again! I reckon it sounds nice and dry with Casey's name sawed into the shell like that! Are you going to add any kind of colour to the shell or will it remain natural?
thanks again everyone ! b.p. i had to wait till i finished the shell to answer your question so you can see the answer .
as you look at the pics your eyes aren't decieving you , the inside of the letters are red and i still haven't put the center of the A in yet . and the best is soon to come !!!
 

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Talk about a well-vented snare :)

Love what you're doing to this baby ;)
 
See if you can find some Mother of Pearl and put it on the inside behind the cut out name. Or did you tell me you were lighting this one.
 
See if you can find some Mother of Pearl and put it on the inside behind the cut out name. Or did you tell me you were lighting this one.

shhh ! don't let the cat out of the bag ... its basically done and all i am waiting on is 4 lugs (which should be here today , fingers crossed ) . i haven't posted any pics lately due to the fact i don't want to give too much away before i actually give it to casey with in the next couple of days after which i have LOTS of pics to post and a sound and visual vid .
so stay tuned , it'll be worth the wait ! trust me ......
btw , grunter your new avatar looks soooo much like you !
 
well the snare got delivered tonight to its new owner so i can now post pics and a video of it ! first i need to thank sarah at ego lugs for expediting my order after hearing my deadline , thank you . and also to alfred at southern engraving who whipped out my badge in a day ,and drum factory direct ! thank you . so on with the pics and enjoy the video ! don't quite know how i will top this build but my mind is already workin on it .........
btw , i named this snare the TOAO (the one and only ) !
the video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7o8oOFNQ5o
 

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