This is my longest blog. Let me know if you like it. May be the next one will have 20 parts. Or 56.
What can be done when you know that you will always face drum makers that leave your sound up to chance?
A lot.
It is time to reveal to this modern world the existence of an old and venerable profession that drummers have so far almost completely ignored: the luthier.
What is a Luthier? Normally, he’s the maker of Luths, a romantic string instrument that has lost its popularity. Later on, the name extended to describe the maker of all string instruments, from guitars to violins. Nowadays, it is a prestigious terms that means someone who makes musical instruments.
Luthier of drums.
That works.
All right, with that out the way, let’s go back to the meat an potato of this blog.
I didn’t know any of the things I just wrote until 4 days ago. Until then I thought that all drum kits will require patience and understanding in order to make them sound coherent.
Then I got a drum set from a luthier. It is a five piece kit.
And it is my first coherent drum kit. No discrepancies here. No lone duck sitting by himself. It is one kit. And one kit only.
It was made from the same wood. Same plank of wood. No, really. You can follow the grain all around the shells. More than that, you can hear it. The snare is a close cousin of the toms who happened to be brothers and sisters with each other. And the bass drum participate to the same tone. It is one instrument. All the piece push towards the same direction. You put that kit at the middle of an orchestra and it is becomes really easy to blend: the personality of the kit will tell you what to do.
This kit is made of mahogany. It is a departure from all the other kit. Mahogany is really not a wood you often encounter in drumming.
Who can tell me what a are the most common woods we found in drum making?
The answer is in the next (and last) blog.