Should I give my DW's the pork-pie treatment?

ANIMALBEATS

Silver Member
Played a chineese pork pie, in a drum shop, the sound blew me away, especialy the bass. I have a 1995 Keller DW, and am debating wether I should give it the "pork pie" treatment, as in getting the bearing edges done by the man himself. Please dont digress into general DW hating, life it too short for me, and my eyes only have a limited time on this earth.
 
What kind of edges do your DWs have on them and how would you get them cut by Pork Pie? I've been putting it off for a while but I want to get my bearing edges on my Yamaha kit recut so I can get a fatter tone out of them.
 
To be honest, i do not know the edges on my dw, but i know that pork pie's sound better.

go to the pork pie page, price list and contact for bearing edges work
 
Time for me to beat the Pork Pie drum. :)

Prequalifier: I live 5 minutes away from the Pork Pie shop.

I have experience with both purchasing Pork Pie snares and getting my drum edges done by Bill D.

I have nothing but good things to say.

I don't know if your DW's are sorely in need of edge work. The DW folks have usually done good work on their California made drums. However, Bill ends up doing work on all kinds of manufacturers' drums.

I took my 80's Gretsch maple drums in to have them do the edges. When I got them back they sounded great. More open. He did take the bearing edge from 30 to 45 degrees. I asked him how that would affect that "great Gretsch sound" and he said the sound was more to do with the Jasper gum/maple shells than the edge. All I know is that sound improved and I get all kinds of compliments. He got it done in about a week.

I also own (3) Pork Pie snares. All great sounding snares. The company just puts out great wood drums.

I highly recommend him.

Jim
 
Animalbeats,

I just noticed that you live in Scotland. If you send the drums to Pork Pie you probably will have a bit of a wait time and a healthy shipping bill.

Not to talk you out of that but - I have to think that there's someone at least in London who could do a great job with edges. Maybe the guys over at the Mike Dolbear forum might be helpful?

http://www.mikedolbear.com/

I know we have an embarrassment of drum riches here in Southern California but every major music city has their drum technicians (Nashville, NYC, Boston, Chicago etc.). There has to be some great talent over on your side of the pond that get those DW's to sing more.

If not, Bill will be happy to do it I'm sure.

Jim
 
I've owned DW drums, and they're sharp 45's w/ a small 45 outside cut. I haven't played PP's maple drums but the recordings I've heard are fantastic. I love slightly-rounded edges and from what I've read here - they're the same as DW's, except the outside cut is rounded off to seat the heads slightly better and bring a wee bit more of the shell into the sound.
 
Unless your bearing edges are damaged, I wouldn't. I suspect the difference you are hearing is probably the shells, but it's hard to know.

I had Pork Pie recut the edges and snare bed on a snare drum that had the bottom bearing edge damaged. They did a great looking job, but I hate the sound of the drum now - it sounds boxy, and the snares have to be quite tight not to rattle excessively. FWIW

I don't mean to diss Pork Pie either, BTW. They did what they said they would, and did it well. I just don't prefer it.
 
Unless your bearing edges are damaged, I wouldn't. I suspect the difference you are hearing is probably the shells, but it's hard to know.
.

This is most likely exactly the case. It's just the shell style he likes better. If you want edges, there are ALOT of places that will do a perfect job.

If you like those China pork drums... why don't you get the Chinese guy who cut the edges to cut your edges. : )
 
It's been said many times here that the biggest difference in the sound of drums is the bearing edges and the heads. Shell construction coming in 3rd.

Many years ago a drum teacher/tech/session ace I know showed up to a gig with a brand new set of DW's (Keller era). I was oggling them and he said that he had just got them and just finished re-cutting the edges. I was amazed that he would take what were brand new top of the line drums and mess with them before ever using them. But they sounded great (this guy really knows what he's doing, I played a set of his MCAs that were the best sounding drums I've ever touched) and he explained how he did the cutting and it didn't seem to be as complicated as I thought it would be. So I took the router to the set of Pearl Sessions I had at the time and it was amazing how much better they sounded. Although they were much more sensitive to tuning than before.

When Gene D'Amico used to live around these parts, I lived about a mile from his shop and used to hang out there chatting with him and watching him do the hand finishing on his edges. I'd played a few kits that he had recut for folks and knew that they sounded much better after his magic touch.

So when this guy re-cut his brand new DW's, he knew what he was after and how to make it work.

I've played one set of custom Pork Pies and they were also great. Maybe a bit rounder sounding sustain than the DW's I've played with similar heads on them. So in spite of the very sharp edge DW uses, Pork Pie is doing something that lets the head ring even more. I could definitely see someone who desired that sound re-cutting a set of DWs to go after that.

As mentioned, a very good tech who is familiar with both manufacturers could probably do it without sending the kit all the way to LA.
 
do you think it will affect the re-sale?

I'd say no. As long as the work was flawless I'd see new edges as a plus in most cases.

I've had Precision Drum re-cut edges for two of my kits and their work was outstanding and the results immediately apparent.

First kit I had done was a maple kit that was overly aggressive and had carelessly done edges that made it hard to tune. The fully rounded edges tamed the sound and made tuning much easier.
Most recent kit got double 45 edges, same as the stock bearing edges, but they were a little rough and I was spoiled by Precision's perfectly smooth edges. Even though I kept the same profile I still got more sustain and easier tuning after getting them recut.

I'm at the point now, after two sucessful bearing edge recuts that unless I buy a drum with exceptional stock bearing edges I'm immediately sending it off to Precision Drum.
 
Why would you even bring it up to the potential buyer ?? They are'nt going to be analyzing the edges.

If they care about originality, they will. Most people aren't as well-versed in DW and Pork Pie bearing edges. There are quite a few people who are EXTREMELY well-versed in vintage Ludwig/Slingerland/Gretsch edges, though. I imagine in about 30 years or so when 90s DWs become "nostalgic" and collectable, people will pay more attention then.

(future......future.......future......)
Collector #1: "Man, these Keller-shelled DW kits are the bees knees!"
Collector #2: "Nah, when they started making their own shells and cutting the reso-side ESE edges, those are the straight poop, man! They have that nice open DW sound."
Collector #1: "I dig, bro, I dig! But, the Keller wood has aged better..."
Collector #2: "Hey, does that bass drum still have the note stamp inside the shell? If not, it's not totally cherry and factory-original condish. It devalues it about a cool grand."
Collector #1: "No, but it still has the Evans pillow, and the swiss cheese DW reso head."
Collector #2: "Cool, man. Makes you wonder why people never thought of keeping those things around, knowing that they'd be worth some mad scrilla in about 40 years..."
Collector #1: "I only use my vintage DW kit for neo-jazz. That Brian Blade was solid."
Collector #2: "I hear ya, man. I play mine with my Bill Stewart ride. Can't get more jazzy than that."
 
If they care about originality, they will. Most people aren't as well-versed in DW and Pork Pie bearing edges. There are quite a few people who are EXTREMELY well-versed in vintage Ludwig/Slingerland/Gretsch edges, though. I imagine in about 30 years or so when 90s DWs become "nostalgic" and collectable, people will pay more attention then.
"

I agree with you caddy on the Gretsch/Slingerland/Ludwig... but I have never heard nor seen that with a dw kit. And I just don't see dw kits becoming some amazing "relic", even in decades. There just is not much of anything to "covet" IMO.
 
I agree with you caddy on the Gretsch/Slingerland/Ludwig... but I have never heard nor seen that with a dw kit. And I just don't see dw kits becoming some amazing "relic", even in decades. There just is not much of anything to "covet" IMO.

Back in the day, nobody could foresee that Gretsch/Slingerland/Ludwig kits would be sought after by collectors, either. Just sayin'...

What was the BIG name in drums in the 40s?
What was the BIG name in drums in the 60s?

...aren't these drums considered "collectable" and sought-after, 60 and 40 years down the road? Which leads me to the next logical question:

What was the BIG name in drums in the late 90s/00s? I can give you a hint...it's in the title of this thread, and it's not pork pie...
 
Back
Top