Hi DMC, good to have you here
I think I/we got lost in the terminology. This drum is stave construction, but staves of alternate colouring are not used to get the visual effect. In other words, there isn't a light stave, then a dark stave, then another light one, etc, as is the case with a mixed timber species example. The individual staves are taken from a specific part of the log, the section that transitions heart wood & sap wood. They're then effectively book matched to get the seamless cohesive look to the shell.
The reason for doing this isn't just visual, it's also a tonal choice.