There is more to making a drum set than the wooden cylinder . Most companies have a proprietary ply makeup they request from various companies like Keller or Nordic or Gladstone . The bearing edges , lug placement and size , finish work (interior and exterior ) all take a lot of skill and time . N&C most likely get their walnut shells for their kits from DS an Italian drum company that makes their own excellent drums .
Point is it's misleading when they elude to making their drums by hand ("we make only professional drums, primarily by hand") when Union shells are made by a third party contractor, and walnut shells come from Italy. That's just misleading. They ain't making those shells. Period. All those pics of sawdust and wood shavings elude to a small shop painstakingly making each and every drum by hand from trees they chopped down out in back of their workshop. It's a bunch of BS. Good marketing, but quite misleading.
I believe my first generation Horizon series shells were made by Keller. Correct me if I'm wrong.
The vast majority of the drums made by N&C are their steambent single ply snares that are in fact made in-house . This also an includes the strainer and lugs made in house (not many majors can attest to that fact). Drum set sales are a very small percentage of their sales . I would hazard a guess that they don’t make even 100 kits total per year .
www.noblecooley.com
Even that is kinda debatable, right? Most of the major companies have some beginner/intermediate lines that are manufactured and assembled overseas. As mentioned by somebody else, these things are all made spec, so it's not like it's just generic off the shelf parts. There is a large element of planning and design.
Well, no, but I get where you're coming from. I didn't specify "for every model they make". A company either does or does not.
Fair enough. I take your point, as well.
Lol…
I've been to the factory multiple times. They make the steam bent single ply drums from scratch by hand. That is their leading product, which is why they post pictures of locally sourced logs coming in to the factory and why there is piles of wood clippings and sawdust on the floor.
Pretty much all the innovation in drums and cymbals has come from small makers (one to three person outfits). When I was a busy working drummer the mainstream companies had zero interest in innovation and just thought making and selling decent quality drums was good enough.
I gathered they sorted out something, how do you feel now that Nick has remained 'owner' but stepped down from active drum building? It looked like they made some of their drama public and it has settled down. Probably make business sense to have a Jones in the company, if not just for the name, perhaps some experience oversight as well...plus makes their loyal boutique customers feel better, especially in their expansion efforts to not entirely sell out but rather grow....wise choice.
