The Drums
I have made quite a few drums and often reskin and repair them for people as well. I find that when the drum shell rims are round, flat, smooth inside and evenly rounded at the edge you get marked improvement in tone, tunability and volume and this is also a good time to feed the wood some linseed oil to preserve it. Matching the shell to the right skin is also crucial as is the first tightening down before drying; making sure it is even tension and the rings level. Here is a little rooskin one I skinned up and will sell for $225;
I skinned the following recently; a batan, which has skins on both ends and is tied round the waist, and a kiga, a shorter squatter bugarabu, and which both sounded great with a very thick cow skin. These originate from the Ivory Coast and are made from Euroka wood.
I made seven of these little djembes which sounded surprisingly big and full and sold them for around $170 and swapped this one with the other shown here (which I found broken at a garage sale and restored) for the 32 inch Premier I will use for the next Double-bass- banjo with the lovely folks at Billy Hydes Drumcraft.
I have started making some bendy bass bongos from a Boer war snare and a 44 gallon drum cut 1/3 of the way along and with Weber barbecue lids welded on the bottom which will be fitted with pedals operating hinged valves to alter the resonant frequency something like when you shove your fist up the end of a djembe and the bass tone drops. I plan to mount my roto-toms on it too so with a couple of big fluffy beaters I can play percussion basslines. I might even make some bass marimbas too. I reckon I'll have a ball! I restored these nice bongo's after finding the rims nine years ago and broken shells recently, then made the adjusters from bolts but I can't bring myself to part with them.
I have a good selection of vinyl skinned drums my friend Gabe has skinned up for sale in the happy high herbs shop in Nimbin which are very loud and extremely durable, they never need tuning and still play when you stab them with a knife, great option for a subtropical climate where temperature and humidity changes are radical and very hard on the skins. These can be left in a hot car, played in the rain and don't lose their tuning at all. There are various shells to chose from starting at $150 to $425 for a large master shell from Guinea in Africa. A great investment as a re-skin is around $100 and would normally be needed every two years at best, whereas these I have never even tuned up and should last indefinitely.
I really love the feeling of playing percussion instruments more than anything I have tried, although sax is great fun too but you have to think and feel - drums is all feel.
Making drums doesn't give much financial reward though so I end up keeping most.
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