Does Drum Shell Material Really Matter? An Interview with DW’s John Good

Date:2020/3/3 11:47:56 Hits:

Few drum makers live as far out in the weeds as John Good, Vice President of DW Drums. From tension rod thread counts to gluing temperatures, no variable is left to chance in John’s obsessive pursuit of creating the best-sounding drums on the planet. John also happens to be a pioneer in modern shell-making innovations, in terms of both materials and construction methods used. So what better resource to help us put to rest this topic once and for all? Sweetwater sat down with John to get the straight dope on a question that persists today: do the tonewoods that make up your drum shell really affect its tonal qualities?

The Importance of Tonewoods
Sweetwater: Do you feel that a drum’s tone is fundamentally influenced by its shell material?
John Good: I’ve spent a lifetime comparing drum woods: maple, birch, oak, mahogany, exotics, etc., and I can tell you, point-blank, that yes, all those different materials have a different character. But how you orient the grain, and how you treat the bearing edge, really captures and exploits what those different woods have to offer. There are so many complex things at play that it’s hard just to say, “this does this,” and “that does that.”

What’s more important to you: build quality or shell material?
Accuracy and attention to detail is everything with whatever material you’re using. Bad bearing edges, gaps in the wood, poor quality materials, inaccurate manufacturing — these things do absolutely nothing for expression.

What is DW’s grain orientation all about?
Traditionally speaking, we (drum makers) always thought the thickness of a shell was responsible for its pitch: the thicker the shell, the higher the pitch; the thinner the shell, the lower the pitch. But when you start working with grain — vertical grain, horizontal grain, and now, diagonal grain — the thickness of the shell becomes inconsequential. You can drive the pitch up or down, warm it up, make it colder, or make it more pronounced.

How does a shell’s bearing edge impact its tone?
The sharper you make that edge, the more cut and articulation you’ll have. How much you round the edge over from the outside of the shell — the degree of countercut and how much you contact that drumhead — will change and exploit the bottom end and the beef-and-potatoes of what that shell has to offer.

Tonewoods Compared
Could you give us some broad, sweeping generalizations of the qualities you hear in DW’s tonewoods?

Maple
Maple is the engine that drives most drum shells and drum sets today. You can extract highs, mids, and lows from maple all day long. Maple has a nice vibratory pattern, which is quite long lasting and can be manipulated in many ways, depending on the thickness of shell and grain orientation. That’s why it’s the most common wood we use at DW.

Cherry
Cherry, compared to maple, has a darker, gutsier sound; an inherently rich bottom end, but the decay of the shell is a bit quicker. You can actually draw more dynamic velocity out of it. With maple, depending on the thickness of the shell, it’ll stop speaking if you hit it too hard. Cherry can take a bit more. Maybe it’s the density and the juice in the veneers — we’re not sure exactly.

Birch
Birch has a fast vibratory pattern and is very expressive. It’s wonderful in the studio. It just expresses itself and gets out of the way, without having to resort to gates or muffling devices.

Oak
Oak has a beautiful, powerful punch to it. It’s very expressive and pronounced but tends to decay a little slower, depending on the grain orientation.

Purpleheart
South American purpleheart, which I’m very big on these days, has a very articulate, expressive pronunciation, but doesn’t sustain as long as maple does. It’s an attractive option for fusion players — applications where the drums have to speak, be accurate, and be on time.

Sitka spruce
We’ve just recently added Sitka spruce to our mix. It’s a tonewood used for the top of just about every acoustic guitar. It has a tendency to bring all kinds of tonality and warmth and expression, depending on how it’s built.

Almond
Almond’s Janka hardness rating is 1700. It’s pretty doggone hard — every bit as hard as purpleheart. But the material isn’t long — only 36”. The way we’re putting it together is quite unique. We’re staggering shorter pieces with the longer grain. It’s a whole new layup that will allow us to use species that are not capable of delivering us 8′-long contiguous pieces. It’s a breakthrough for us. I’m really excited.

What is the Pure series?
The DW Pure series is where the characteristics of each of these woods are best showcased. Pure Maple, Pure Cherry, Pure Birch, Pure Oak, Pure Purpleheart — there’s a purity about these shells that, if you really want to look into the artistry of putting a shell together and what you can do within the parameters of that material, it’s in the Pure series.

What drums are you proudest of?
I personally flew to the Australian outback to source the woods for our 2018 Tasmanian Timber kits. I’m extremely proud of those drums. I’ve never heard anything like them. The year before that, for our 45th Anniversary drums, we flew to the Stradivari forest in Italy, to the base of the Dolomite mountain range — I mean, we climbed the mountain to get those woods. I’m extremely proud of those too. Now I’m excited to celebrate California with our Pure Almond kits. The almond orchards where we source the woods grow 80% of the world’s almonds for consumption. When you go there, you see the youngsters growing as far as the eye can see; you see the teenagers across the street, exploding with billions of almonds. And maybe another couple miles down the road, there’s an old orchard there, 25 or 30 years old. When the trees stop giving almonds, they just mulch the place up. They mow it down with these great big earth-moving machines, or they mulch it up or chop it up for firewood that you buy in your local grocery store. I want to celebrate what we’ve done with this beautiful wood and the story behind it. It’s a magical time for us at DW. Drum making has really come into its own.

Will we continue to see other locally-sourced woods from DW?
I’m starting with this one, and believe me, I’m always on the hunt. I’m sailing down the Danube in a few weeks. My wife forbids me to get off that boat and go hunting (laughs). It’s always on my mind.

Prev:3 Awesome Melodyne Tricks for Guitarists

Next:Choosing an 88-key Digital Piano

Leave a message

Message List

Comments Loading...

Products Category

Products Tags

Fmuser Sites

Does Drum Shell Material Really Matter? An Interview with DW’s John Good

Leave a message

Message List