Ok the drum is the first musical instrument ever made basic stuff here... Now having said that here on the rez we make drums out of trees basicly find a hollow log trim it off shape it how we want and stretch a skin over it lace it up and let it dry it will produce a different sound according to wood used like cedar produces a light sound but douglas fir produces a real deep sound and we do not have maple trees here big enough but if we did i bet they would be the best. we tune these drums with water and heat from a fire now how tech savy am i ? Help2crying2-07

While that may not be a particularly technical approach to the art of drum building, it certainly is extremely cool! The first drums were solid shell drums; the real deal, not the steam bent single ply version. Do Precision or Drummaker sell hollowed out trees? I want to get in on this! Building an entire kit that way would definitely "one-up" the Levon Helm single tension style kit.

the name escapes me at present ... but I do recall MD doing a review of a company that did just that - hollow out solid wood chunks into drums. They were absolutely stunning.

Does anyone else recall these???

I found this:

http://pdgood.us/drumshed/solidshells.html

I 'think' it's a South American drum company that makes solid wood drums from stumps. Don't recall their name...

John

Ok, I found it! I was wrong, it's -not- a South American company.

http://www.heartwooddrums.com/drums.html

Man, I'd love to hear what these tubs sound like!

John

Sacrebleu!

That's the one. Man oh man ... talk about NEATO!!!

More like sacre-green with envy! A kit of those shells has to be over $5000. estimating on the low side. In other words... above my pay-grade! Still, I'd love to play them and hear what they sound like. I 'imagine' they'd sound warm and dry. D' Drummer

John

Making those drums is a long drawn out process. The wood will crack very easy if not dried out carefully and slowly. Not to mention every man's worst nightmare..... Shrinkage! Excited

You don't mean...

[IMG]http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n632/PurdieShuffle/raymond_george-costanza-shrinkage.jpg[/IMG]

"shrinkage", shrinkage, do you? LOL

The shells look thick on those tubs. I can only guess, but it must be a tight, dry, woody sound. Seems like shells that thick wouldn't resonate as well as a thinner shelled one would. I hit one of those custom 20-ply jobs and it sounded tight, loud and dry to me. Could have been the drum, or the heads, or the tuning, but that's what it sounded like to me. I'd really love to hear these drums. Must be something truly unique.

John - 'Not that there's anything wrong with shrinkage!' Kleening