Acrylic shells vs. Wood shells

T

thenumber24

Junior Member
So i'm looking into building some shells of my own for my drumset. I am heavily considering building an acrylic drum set, but I have one major problem: I've never played one and I can't find anywhere in my area that has one I could play. I've used an acrylic snare before and liked what I heard but i'm not sure what the rest of the kit will sound like.

Does anybody have any experience with acrylic shells? Their sound characteristics, pros, cons, etc..?

If I do go with acrylic shells, I'll be using the AquaBomb shells available from DrumBuilder.If I don't go with acrylic, I'm going to be using the standard Keller VSS hard rock maple shells.

Any feedback would be very helpful. Thanks!
 
I have two acrylic kits and a acrylic snare. I like how loud and bright they are. They don't have nearly as much sustain as a wood kit. I also have a maple keller kit. Maple will be better for a general use I think, but I like the look and sound of my vistas and piglite.

Have you ever drilled acrylic before? Do you have the drill speed specs/bits for that? If you crack a shell drilling it thats bad news. Are you getting them pre-drilled? If you buy the pre-drilled shells and assemble the hardware then thats super easy.
 
If I buy the shells I'm definitely going to have them predrilled. It's worth the money for me to have a pro do it.

The drums are mostly going to be used for live, but I might also take them into studio when I record this February. I play in a hardcore band so I'm mostly interested in them having a solid and loud tone, not too worried about sustain, so that is good to hear. What heads do you have on your acrylics?
 
I play doom and will be recording on my 22x14 15x13 18x16 vistalite at the end of Jan. Haven't decided what snare but I may opt for 100% acrylic. I'll probably post it here in the your playing.

I recorded with a vista 13x9 tom before on a frankenstien maple/acrylic/mahogany/aluminium kit and it sounded very big and deep. I have 2 PS3's on the kick and I really like the deep 70's thud with the oil filled evans hydros.
 
i'm definitely interested to see how they sound recorded as I am still debating on whether i wanna take my acrylics into studio if i do end up building this kit.

hahaha link me to your bands page, i wanna hear this shit haha
 
i dont have experience with an acrylic kit, but i did bring my Pig Lite to a recording session once and it was a nightmare for our engineer -- much too much sustain and overtones for his liking. We wound up using my craviotto solid maple snare -- dry yet punchy.
 
Hmm maybe I shouldn't bring an acrylic snare to record. I have a 2ply evans ST and a 42 strand on my 14x6, and I don't find it to have a lot overtones at all. What heads did you run on yours? Just a loud quick crack whenever I practice/gig mine.
 
Evilbagua said:
Hmm maybe I shouldn't bring an acrylic snare to record. I have a 2ply evans ST and a 42 strand on my 14x6, and I don't find it to have a lot overtones at all. What heads did you run on yours? Just a loud quick crack whenever I practice/gig mine.
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I don't know your recording experience but the mic picks up so much more than we hear live. I would not bring anything acrylic to a recording session without a wood-shell back up. I think the fact that bonham played acrylic live but would not record with them says something.

That being said, I love acrylic drums live.
 
Fat Elvis said:
I don't know your recording experience but the mic picks up so much more than we hear live. I would not bring anything acrylic to a recording session without a wood-shell back up. I think the fact that bonham played acrylic live but would not record with them says something.

That being said, I love acrylic drums live.
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This is beyond helpful! I have a DW maple snare that I love, recorded it sounds absolutely amazing. I'll probably buy my acrylic set because of this. Any recommendations on good sites to buy them from? The only place I've been able to find them at is DrumBuilder.
 
Fat Elvis said:
I don't know your recording experience but the mic picks up so much more than we hear live. I would not bring anything acrylic to a recording session without a wood-shell back up. I think the fact that bonham played acrylic live but would not record with them says something.

That being said, I love acrylic drums live.
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Hmm I'll be doing a few songs for a 10" vinyl split in January. I really want to try out one of my acrylic kits I want to record atleast the kick and toms so if it isn't as good as wood I'll live. It's 1 day and 2 songs.

I have always recorded maple or mahogany in the past. The guy I record with is pretty well respected in the extreme metal world has told me he has never had any issues with acrylic snares in the past.
 
Evilbagua said:
Hmm I'll be doing a few songs for a 10" vinyl split in January. I really want to try out one of my acrylic kits I want to record atleast the kick and toms so if it isn't as good as wood I'll live. It's 1 day and 2 songs.

I have always recorded maple or mahogany in the past. The guy I record with is pretty well respected in the extreme metal world has told me he has never had any issues with acrylic snares in the past.
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Awesome. Then go for it. I love my pig lite which is why I brought it to the session. However after complaining from the engineer, we scrapped it and with with the maple. However in retrospect, our engineer was a bit of a diva.

Good luck and have fun.
 
lol a diva engineer, sounds like the best studio ever haha.

i'm definitely interested to hear those recordings with the acrylic bass drum and stuff though. you should definitely post those.
 
Did you build this kit after? I'm about to build a 22,10,13,16 acrylic kit in flurescent green with chrome for cast hardware, getting it pretty cheap off a friend who started to build but didn't have the time, he's had it drilled except for the kick drum spurs, did you get your acrylic kit pre-drilled or did you do it yourself? If you did it yourself, where did you get the drill bit? Cheers
 
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