Deleted

I think Evetts only do ply, not sure though. There is also PA Lovetone doing Solid Snare drums in Western Australia. Doc Sweeney never seems to get a mention here.
From what I gather, Doc Sweeney simply puts drums together. Their solid shells are made by Cask. Why not just buy from Cask? Their hardware is all kinds of stuff. I just see nothing that would make me want a Sweeney drum over another boutique maker.
 
I’ll toss Oriollo into the mix.


Regarding all these boutique wood drum shells, most of them are stained and sealed with a satin or gloss finish. No wraps, and very few paint jobs. It is fine wood working, for sure. Looking at the Cask shells, I’d have second thoughts about taking any of those into a club.

rs=w:1300,h:800


rs=w:1300,h:800
 
I don't think they are available for club use..I don't under stand why having a nice kit at home makes a drummer irrelevant...seemingly.
 
Why would you not take your nice drums out to gig ? I take all my kits to gigs regardless where I play whether it be concert halls or bars . I keep an eye on my equipment and I am careful with it . This whole idea of keeping your best drums at home and playing a lesser model kit for gigs illogical to me .
Because my brain sees those amazing drums as fine furniture or pieces of art. Sculpture. It’s not a matter of “they’re too good for the bar”.

Edit: if I had a Star kit, I’d definitely take it out for every gig. 🤷‍♂️
 
Last edited:
Because my brain sees those amazing drums as fine furniture or pieces of art. Sculpture. It’s not a matter of “they’re too good for the bar”.

Edit: if I had a Star kit, I’d definitely take it out for every gig. 🤷‍♂️
Why would you not take your nice drums out to gig ? I take all my kits to gigs regardless where I play whether it be concert halls or bars . I keep an eye on my equipment and I am careful with it . This whole idea of keeping your best drums at home and playing a lesser model kit for gigs illogical to me .
It’s illogical if you spent $1000 or less on drums. It’s highly logical not to want to take a DW 50th Anniversary kit to an outdoor gig at Hurricane Charlie’s Bucket o’ Blood on the beach.
 
It’s illogical if you spent $1000 or less on drums. It’s highly logical not to want to take a DW 50th Anniversary kit to an outdoor gig at Hurricane Charlie’s Bucket o’ Blood on the beach.
So, that’s an absolutely extreme situation, but if I’m playing a local pub/club or somewhere at least reasonable, I see absolutely no reason not to bring your best gear.

Why have nice gear if you aren’t going to gig with it at least some/most of the time? So you can look at it at home? Huh?
 
Last edited:
So, that’s an absolutely extreme situation, but if I’m playing a local pub/club or somewhere at least reasonable, I see absolutely no reason to bring your best gear.

Why have nice gear if you aren’t going to gig with it at least some/most of the time? So you can look at it at home? Huh?
So it doesn’t get clowned by drunks. But yeah, more polite gigs with less annoying load ins, sure.
 
No disrespect to anyone out there trying to bring new wood drums on the market, but other than outstanding finishes and the occasional cool new hardware bits and bobs, I’m not seeing anything out there that makes me want to spend my money on any of them. And this is coming from a guy that has spent way more than he should have on drums and equipment over the past 30 years or so.

What has piqued my interest for the past few years are people making metal snare drums. People like Beier…who isn’t in the game anymore. (WHICH SUCKS!! I I NEVER BOUGHT ONE AND NOW I CAN’T FIND ONE!)

VK Drums – Holy heck they look gorgeous. I’ve tried various thicker metal snare drums over the years and I don’t keep them, but those VK folks are doing something right. Would love to try one. Dang those Brits…always an elegance about their products.

AK Drums – If you don’t know…just look him up. Words escape me other than “master craftsman” and “true artist”.

Keplinger – The opposite of AK, but with a rustic, simple charm that delivers in the sound department.

A&F – Had one, sounded incredible. (Withholding construction comments for now.) Sold it to help fund a future purchase in a different size that is more to my liking. Haven’t found one yet.

I would be remiss if I didn’t include Dunnett. Love him or hate him, he’s been in the game a long time now and he has a legion of fans behind him because his metal drums sound great.

Those are the boutique drum makers that have my interest lately.

And to think, 5 years ago I HATED metal snare drums. Not disliked, not felt indifferent to, no – straight up HATED.
 
Why would you not take your nice drums out to gig ? I take all my kits to gigs regardless where I play whether it be concert halls or bars . I keep an eye on my equipment and I am careful with it . This whole idea of keeping your best drums at home and playing a lesser model kit for gigs illogical to me .
I have enough pieces to make 2 kits that I use for two types of shows & locations:
My Gretsch Catalina Club is the "bar basher". The basic 4-piece I take to a dive bar with drunks wanting to come up on stage to show me they can play Freebird.
The other is my 24x18 Tama SuperStar kick, 16x16 floor tom & 14x5 vintage Rogers PowerTone snare that I don't necessarily like to take out to rowdy clubs like that. Mainly because they sound really good & I wouldn't want some drunken riot to put those to rest. These are also my studio drums that make my engineer happy.

This is how my brain wraps itself around the illogic of not just using one kit for all needs.
 
Will have to second Cask Drum Craft. I've got a shell that has been made for me by them and it's awesome: solid walnut in 13x6.5 size (if i remember the depth correctly). The shell came in raw. I put a few coats of oil myself and assembled it with a local made lugs and Angel Drums iron hoops. Sounds and looks great.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20220723_161212-01.jpeg
    IMG_20220723_161212-01.jpeg
    470.6 KB · Views: 7
I have to confess that the changes at Noble & Cooley-- the name I would've mentioned in this thread a few months ago-- have left me with a LOT less excitement about them. I know a lot of the old stalwarts for that company have rallied behind the new regime and I'm sure they're nice guys and all but I just can't bring myself to care much anymore. I may even sell the ones I have.

But I do respect what AK does, for sure. Oriollo, too.
 
Why would you not take your nice drums out to gig ? I take all my kits to gigs regardless where I play whether it be concert halls or bars . I keep an eye on my equipment and I am careful with it . This whole idea of keeping your best drums at home and playing a lesser model kit for gigs illogical to me .

The only (and I mean ONLY) reason I take a B-rig out is for multiple-band bills where I'm responsible for backlining a drum set. In those cases, I don't want other people playing my A-rig, because I'm that guy. LOL. Otherwise, it's all A-stuff, all the time.

With regards to boutique stuff, nothing really blows my hair back these days. I've been through a ton of boutique drums and cymbals and am now to the point where I just want high quality, off the shelf stuff that sounds as vanilla as possible and looks equally plain.
 
Boutique stuff looks and sounds nice, but you probably won’t get your $ back if you’re trading it in someday.
 
The only (and I mean ONLY) reason I take a B-rig out is for multiple-band bills where I'm responsible for backlining a drum set. In those cases, I don't want other people playing my A-rig, because I'm that guy. LOL. Otherwise, it's all A-stuff, all the time.

With regards to boutique stuff, nothing really blows my hair back these days. I've been through a ton of boutique drums and cymbals and am now to the point where I just want high quality, off the shelf stuff that sounds as vanilla as possible and looks equally plain.
Absolutely onboard with this thinking. Life’s too short to leave my nice gear at home.
 
Absolutely onboard with this thinking. Life’s too short to leave my nice gear at home.

My B-rig looks almost exactly like my A-rig, so most people don’t even notice the difference when I’m backlining the “lesser” drums. I used to be that guy who left the good stuff at home in fear of it getting beat up. Finally realized (after 40+ years) that all my favorite sets were always the most beat up ones. Now, I’m on a quest to get this last A-rig set of mine beat up as much as possible before I stop playing.
 
I don't know if these are considered "boutique" anymore, but here's my list:

I really like what C&C is doing these days. I like that they've moved away from Keller and have been making their own shells for a while. I'd like to try one of their kits.

Oriollo metal drums.

I'd like to play a Noble and Cooley, maybe a kit made before the past year or so.

I would also like to play a Brady kit to see if it lives up to the hype.

It would be cool to play a Carolina Drumworks.

I'd love to play a Ludwig "The Chief" snare drum.
 
My B-rig looks almost exactly like my A-rig, so most people don’t even notice the difference when I’m backlining the “lesser” drums. I used to be that guy who left the good stuff at home in fear of it getting beat up. Finally realized (after 40+ years) that all my favorite sets were always the most beat up ones. Now, I’m on a quest to get this last A-rig set of mine beat up as much as possible before I stop playing.
Lol…it’s a sharp ass kit. I like the stripped down look too. And it’s black. I wanted my Ludwigs black but couldn’t get the black diamond Ampeg tolex since Yamaha is so hard to get parts from.

Fortunately I will never have to worry about gigging my good set since my Ludwigs are both my good set and my beater set ;)
 
Back
Top