How can one tell if a drum is made of Birch or Maple?

  • Thread starter Thread starter qbert1
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qbert1

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I'm looking at a used kick drum, but neither I or the shop owner can tell what kind of wood the drum is made of. What is the difference in visual appearance between Birch and Maple? There are no markings on the labeling, infact the series name doesn't appear.

Any help is appreciated.
 
Well I believe birch is a lighter wood in appearance but there are several different wood types involved in drums. Yes Maple and Birch are the more popular ones but some of the cheaper kits use a layered shell usually a combination of falkata and basswood which both are cheap alternatives to birch and maple. Kits can also be made of Mahogany, Poplar, Oak all giving different sounds. If you think its birch or maple the difference between the two is subtle but noticable. Birch is a little less bassy than maple and some think it has a tighter overall sound but thats mostly opinion. So if you have another kit you can compare it to you may be able to tell. Honestly though I'd try to take a picture and post it on here see if anyone recognizes the brand.
 
Thanks, but I'm pretty sure it's one of the two. I'll see what I can do about a picture. The drum is by Premier if it helps. It's an opaque yellowish stain job...sorry I'm not better in my description.
 
An old Premier kit?

If you get pics I'm confident that i can identify what kit it is (unless you know already) and work from there. Most premier series were restricted to one type of wood...and depending on what kit you have we should be able to work it out.
 
I think, judging by the logo badge, a red "P" against a black background, it's from the late 90's. I certainly could be wrong. still working on a pic.
 
In the 90's Premier made a Genista series which was Birch and a Signia series which was maple. Both had the same badge.

As has already been point out, Birch tends to be a little lighter in color than Maple and does not project as much "low end".

I could be wrong, but I thought Signia did show the series name on the kit, whereas the Genista did not.
 
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