thanks man, those drums are all made in house, I used to play Bomba, native to puerto Rico, my neighbor across the street is an ex new yorker who was born in PR but raised in NYC, he came to australia in 1988 with the us military, partied hard here during world expo 88 then met an aussie bird and is still here, ended up living across the street, he got me back into drums, in my late teens and very early 20's I played in a heavy metal band "Ceremonial Death" was the name! it was just a garage band, only involed booze n.....what ever else bands get up to ! we didnt gig, only parties....but wild ones LOL
the neighbor taught me some rythyms and I picked it up real quick, he said why dont you buy some drums, life was a bit tougher then 8yr ago, so I started making my own drums, using a different timber in each one I made they consist of tasmanian oak (not pretty but very light) Spotted Gum (very pretty but real heavy) and australian Iron bark, one of the most hardest timbers in the world, ...pretty plain but good grains can be found but its brittle and real heavy!
thats why I just use tassie oak now coz of the weight and just stain them! or 2pac clear!
I started out making straight staved drums (all my drums are staved) held by 3 biscuits between each stave and held by good old gorilla glue,
They sounded ok but as I made them better they were starting to over-ring when playing real tight skins so I made a bending press, converted an old 50L air comp into a boiler and sat it over a fire and steamed the heck out of the steam box holding the stave's, this worked great but could only do 3 timbers at a time because ya lose heat in 10 seconds flat when ya take timber out of the steambox! so speed is a must....after a couple yrs of that drama I got it down to 7-8 staves at a time in the steam box, then wip em out real quick and lean on the press, 15 mins to cool and they stay bent, the success ratio is about 2 out of 10 can break but im doing all this at home with things ive made! but now will never make another straight barrel, the curved ones aucousticly are way better, the sound bounce's around the curved inner's and shortens the sound and fattens it as well! the over-ring has gone so they sound great now.
the skins are prepped at home too, when I was working as a stock feed driver I rubbed shoulders with....well farmers of course so cow,calf,goat and even skippy all had their turn at being belted on the drum well after they passed on to animal heaven! so it was easy to grab an animal skin, it stank the hell out of the truck, the ute and sitting at home drying on the fence was real good for neighbor relations... but I got it done!
after a few years it was apparent that goat skins were the best to use so I just use them now!
all the metal work is done here too! if anyone has noticed theres a very original design on the two drums on the shelf, the side plates are hidden inside the drum and only a single 10mm stainless shaft comes through the hole and the stainless turnbuckle hooks over it, then tightening is real easy as is loosening after events etc!, totally my neighbor and my idea, we even came up with the use of a wooden flesh ring, I was having real trouble trying to roll perfect circles in my steel bender for the skins pinch principle for tightening, the constant high humidity and then the dry and then wet weather all have the skin contracting and stretching overnight and the drums would constantly go out of tune! to fix this we came up with the idea of a wooden flesh ring so the top pinch ring can pinch through the skin then indent the timber forming a way better pinch n grab, stoping the thing from going out of tune!
i'll try n find some old vids and get some pics of my crude as F steam bender and boiler,,,, jeeez you guys will laugh but it all worked, some of these drums are 8 yr old, I didnt wanna sell any till I knew they would last at least 5 yrs, well they lasted but its real hard to sell em because drums like the african djembe, well thats an instrument thats 1000's of yrs old and refined etc, they sell brand new for $250-$400, and have an unmatched primo sound, mine cost $170 in materials alone and weeks to make, how the hell can I make anything on that idea ha ha ha , so for now they sit till he comes over for a beer or 3! I havnt made any for almost a yr now, I only got number to 14, Ive given a few away, peeps love em, just another old hobbie now~! still great fun, and free entertainment without the need for power!
