Update on Wac'd Drums

Gary has little white plastic plugs that he dyes to match the color. I will post a photo.
And when I say dye to match I mean brown to brown, black to black, not brown to siena gold or such non-sense. At least not yet.
Sorry for the blur.
 

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Hey Everyone, Sorry I've been away for what seems like a long time , but other than the fact I've been computerless for nearly two weeks , which turned out to be a problem with the company I work for and not my computer, I've had numerous other fires burning that needed attention.
After being a lineman for twenty of my twenty three years at my employer , the bean counters decided that we cost the company to much money to keep going ( all of it crap of course !) so we got reassigned. Not overly happy about where they put us , but hey, hopefully for me I won't have to worry about it for much longer.

As far as Wac'd drums is concerned, we are moving along nicely and should be producing product within the next couple of months. I've got more ideas that should make it from the drawing board to production soon including the "multi hoop" . The " Bass Station" will most likely be the next product out of the gate once we get the lugs into production.

My partner Sean is starting to really step it up on the production end and we will have some top quaility stuff under his supervision. The attached pics are of his shop and I spent 3 hrs there today just watching the machinery in action. Just to cool!

I also spent a Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago with a reporter that wanted to do an article on the lugs you can check it out here - http://www.examiner.com/drums-in-tampa-bay/local-inventor-s-wac-d-drum-ideas-may-make-holes-obsolete . I had a great time doing the interview and was quite happy with the way it came out.

And one final bit of news , I have been approached by a major drum company ( though I can't release their name just yet ) and they want to add drums equipped with our lugs to their line up. We will be in talks very soon . That DOES NOT mean we won't be selling our products out right to anyone that wants to purchase them. I will have more on this as it comes to fruitation.

Those that have recieved the test lugs I will be in touch with you in the next week or so to get an update. So thats it for now, just happy to be back in action !

Thanks Everyone ! I would still be sitting on all this if it wasn't for all your support !

Gary
 

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Great news on the major interest. I was hoping that would happen for you! I'm thrilled that this is working out for you.
 
Great news Gary. I missed you at the last clinic as I was in Maryland spoiling the grand lads.
 
Yeah, great news on the drum company interest Gary. Hope you've got the trademark stuff sorted, as that's just as, if not more important than, the patent. Good luck with your negotiations.
 
Gary recently shipped a set of his Wac'd lugs for me to try out, and I have to say that I'm extremely happy with them. They make head changes and tuning a snap! It easily cuts the time it takes to put new heads on and tune at LEAST in half, if not more. And on top of that, they look awesome!

The following pictures are of the lugs on a 10" carbon fiber tom. I actually used lugs that were intended for a 5" or 6" deep snare, and used extra long tension rods. This drums sings beautifully now, it infinitely easier to tune than before. The previous lug system tensioned the heads against the flange that circling the drum underneath the batter head. Now, I can just ignore that flange!

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Looks very cool Luke and it does make tuning and head changing much simpler. I have them on my Steambent snare and one crank makes all of the difference in the world without the fear of wrinkled heads or dead spots or spots that ping forever.
 
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Great news Gary! Congratulations! Hope you make a boatload of dough! It's really cool to see this thing take shape.
 
Great news Gary! Congratulations! Hope you make a boatload of dough! It's really cool to see this thing take shape.
Thanks Larry ! It seems like it is taking forever to get a full head of steam going.
In the back of my head I have to keep telling myself the things our parents always told us , "patience is a virtue" and "good things come to those who wait " !

The longer it takes me the better prepared I'll be, atleast I hope so !

I wanted to add this well written thread by Harry here also, as I don't know how many others have read it -

http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76177

Thanks everyone for supporting me in this, I hope I don't let you down.

Gary
 
Hey Bud, you can't let us down. You have invested your own time, money, dreams, energy on this project, and we all wish you the best. if it doesn't work out, I could use a new guy to mow my lawn. You have backers and more than a few beta testers so have at it and let the chips fall where they may. But you won't let any of us down. Takes guts to make a move like this.
 
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Some audio of my Sonor Safari snare with Gary's lugs being played in a large hall.
Drum solo is near the end of the track.
 

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Gary, keep your chin up. It's a great product - nothing will take that away from you. I've had a few fellow drummers check out my snare after playing live, so your system is generating interest. And like the other beta testers, I'm loving the easy tunability of the system.
 
A couple of new things but first I want to say Thanks to Andy, Harry , John , Larry , Bob ,Luke, Luis and everyone else that has been really supportive of my efforts. You all are the driving force behind everything that I have accomplished so far.

Legal stuff - The Articles of Organization are ready to go in. I am waiting for one signature and the paper work goes off to the State. Hopes are to have everything signed and sent in next week. Once they are approved we will have become a legitiment company!

Next on the list is getting the Operating Agreement done, to which we have decided to go with a law firm to handle this. It may take alittle longer but its in everyones best interest that we do it this way. Everyone will have the same know how going into this so there should be no surprises for anyone.

Also I have given many sleepless nights to this, but I feel the only way we will be able to march ahead at full steam is to go out and try and find a large chunk of Capitol money.
I plan on trying some of the local "hometown" banks before I resolve to going to some of the bigger institutions.
If anyone has any suggestions as to how to approach this, what they may be looking for , what I need to provide to them to help facilitate this , PLEASE help.
All of us have pretty much poured everything we have into this already so what we need now is a good infusion of operating money.

Now on to some fun stuff ! I know many do not follow facebook (which is where I have been spending an awful lot of time lately) so I will now introduce you to some of the Wac'd Drums logos and our drum badge. Please share any thoughts you may have about them as anything can be changed! We were really fortunate that someone knew and set us up with the graphic artist Buddy King of the Grave Digger monster truck fame. Buddy is the designer of all the graphics you see on it and he has numerous other notable projects under his belt. The guy has been a pure joy to work with!

Also we should be starting production (finally!) on the lugs for the 5-6" shells and have come up with nickel finish that looks and wears like chrome plating , but without all of the enviromental issues associated with chrome plating. I was and still am amazed at this finish!

And I started the website, but right now theres not much to look at. Feel free to check it out and give me feedback on that also before I get to deep into it.
http://wacddrums.com/

Again thanks everyone!
Gary

Oh and btw , next week Jennifer will be redoing one of her drum covers with a singer that is coming from N. Carolina. It will be another video for you tube , but it will be done a little more proper than me and my zoom camera. This should be a blast!

the first one would be the drum badge, the rest would be for stationary, tees , hats , etc.
 

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This is a really cool system you have here, and I wish you the best of luck in the future.

I'm going to be honest, though, I don't like the logos. They look cheesy. I think that your clean and simple hardware should be matched by a clean and simple logo. Conveniently enough, the metal stopper that prevents the lugs from spinning is a slightly deformed "W." Maybe a simple stopper logo could double as a hint at the product's function and at its name?
 
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