Valley Custom Drums
In 1974, my father and I started a World Famous Drum Shop that would last for more than 25 years. The music business consisted of the Large Chain Discount Music stores that not only sold Drums, but also Guitars, Keyboards as well as band instruments. There were the Mom and Pop Music Stores that sold the beginning instruments and then there were the Custom Drum Shops that catered to the Professional. There were only a handful of Drum shops and these were mostly in the big cities.
Professional Drummers, wanted to hang out and learn from other Professional Drummers. My father has been a professional Drummer for most of his life. He was a traveling musician and would always tell me stories of how whenever he went to the big cites, the first thing they would do is try to find the local Drum Shop. He knew he was likely to run into the Top Drummers, meet them, tell stories and learn and talk Drums.
Ever since I was 7, I was fascinated by music. At the same time, my dad had been working on his drums as well as a friend’s and I seemed to be infatuated with the workings and the parts and he wanted me to help out. I was hooked. Soon he was running Ads and people would come over for lessons and we began working on their Drums, repairing them, customizing them and changing the color. Soon we became so busy that we decided to open a Shop.
Snare Drums have always been a personal thing. Top Drummers would go to a gig with a case of up to 10 Snare Drums. They needed to be prepared for any situation.
In 1974, the Japanese companies were still in their infancy. You had your major Drum companies like Ludwig, Rogers and Slingerland, and there were a few companies that were going through some rough times, like Camco and Gretsch. The Japanese Companies were only making Metal Snare Drums and so were most of the major Drum companies. We saw a need for a Custom Snare Drum.
For years, Drummers have been customizing their Kits and building Snare Drums. They would take Toms and cut them down, experiment with other company’s Throw-offs and different snares and heads, to find the right mixture. We too had been doing this to customer’s Drums, experimenting with different types of woods, thickness of the shell, number of plies, bearing edges, etc. What we found was although it was important to have excellent hardware and parts, the key to making a great Drum was the shell.
Wood:
The key to a good shell is the wood. There are many types of woods used on Drums, Maple, Birch, Mahogany, etc. The major characteristic is the way it vibrates. In order for it to vibrate, the shell has to be thin, however if it’s too thin, it will break and have a lot of overtones and if it’s too thick, it won’t vibrate hardly at all. So the key is to make the shell in plies. There goes the experimenting! Most of the Drum Companies used 3-6 thin plies, but since these plies were very thin, they needed to reinforce it with a ribbed piece of wood or it would crush. Another factor was different woods vibrated differently. We found that the best sounding wood was Maple. Not that Birch and the other woods weren’t good, they just didn’t have the same tone or bite that Maple has. There is a certain resonance that Maple has that no other wood does for Drums. Most of the Major Drum companies have and are still using Maple, but although the combination they used sounded great as a Tom or Bass Drum, it wasn’t the same on a snare. So now that we were narrowing down the type of wood, we needed to find the correct mixture. We experimented with all different thickness of plies, number of plies, ribbing and finally came up with an answer.
Plies:
The answer is you need enough plies that you can still have the resonance, still have the tone and still have the strength. Also, there are the types and thickness of plies. You can have 3 plies that are just as thick as 10 plies, so again the key is to use top quality plies of Maple of even thickness. Through our experimenting, we found the proper number of plies was 8 plies. Thick enough and thin enough.
Size:
Size is also a key factor to the sound. As I mentioned earlier, Top Drummers carry an assortment of Snare Drums, from very small 3” Piccolos to 12” Marching Drums, all having their place and purpose. A smaller size Drum will of course have a higher Pitch where as a larger or deeper Drum will have a lower Pitch. Also, there is the head size, from 12” to 15.” What is right, they are all right, it just depends. For some situations, you need the smaller size since a smaller Drum will be crisper, more sensitive and give you that orchestral buzz. For some situations, you want a fat, meaty sound for the power of a backbeat. But most Drummers, unless you are a Top Drummer don’t have the room or the resources to buy a lot of Snare Drums, so we have taken the steps to have sizes that will fill all categories.
Bearing Edge and Snare Beads:
The bearing edge is where the head rests on the shell. You want to create a point with enough plies touching the head to allow it to vibrate and be able to tune the Drum. If you have a flat bearing edge, all of the plies will be pushing against the head and this will deaden the sound and make it difficult to tune. Consequently, if you have an edge that is too sharp, it will never tune properly since there will only be one ply touching the head. The key is to have a sharp edge with enough plies touching the head. The other very important factor is the snare beds. This is the area on both sides of the bottom of the shell near the Throw off and Butt Plate where the snares run along the bottom head. If you do not have a Snare bed, when you pull the tension on the snares it will bow and the center of the wire snares will not touch the center of the head and the same if the beds are too deep. You have to find the happy medium.
Hardware:
As mentioned, the most important part of the Drum is the shell, but the Hardware is what keeps it all together and allows you the ability to play the Drum. There are the Lugs, these are mounted to the shell and allow you to tune the drum and hold the heads on, there are the Rims, these hold the Head, the Tension Rods, that go through the Rims to tighten the head, the Throw-off and Butt which allow the wire snares to be pulled against the head. The Heads, top and bottom, thin for the snare wires, heavy and durable for the beating of the sticks and the attack sound. These are all important factors and while it may seem that all the Lugs and Tension Rods do are tighten the heads, the Throw-off and Butt tighten the Snares and the Rims pull down the head, there are many more important things to consider.
Putting it all together:
In designing a Custom Snare Drum, I like to compare it to a Professional Race Car or a Professional Mountain Bike. Not all of the companies make everything great, if they did, there would be no need for us to build a Custom Drum. While, some companies will have a great sounding shell, they may have a poor Throw-off or their Snare Beds are too deep or flat bearing edge, etc. We take the best components and together they make the best looking, the best sounding and the most versatile Snare Drum around.
In a Professional Race Car, they will have a company that makes the Engine, the Transmission, the Brakes, all to exacting and different standards. Likewise on a Professional Mountain Bike. A company will make the Gears, the Frame and Rims and components, all allowing this person to have an edge over their competitor. It is the same way in Building a Custom Snare Drums. You need to take the best components from many sources and together, create the ultimate product.
Richard Syde