To build or not to build

[Re-tox_stl]

So I am currently in the market for a new drum kit, and I cant make up my damn mind. My budget is around $1000, and I was thinking about building my own kit from scratch.So I was just wondering if any one out there had ever built there own kit before, and if it was terribly difficult or not. I really like the idea of making exactly what I want, but I dont want to go spend a lot of money and fuck something up. I would also greatly appreciate any suggestions on brand name kits.

Much love, Drew

 

[dintymoore]

You have to do what you know is right.

For me, I'd buy a used set, probably off of Craigslist. I would think that it would be cheaper than making it yourself.

I'm a vintage Gretsch and Ludwig fanatic. The old drums were made from trees that were very old, sometimes several hundreds of years old. Go look at Home Depot and the 2x4's have hardly any grow rings, it's all farmed low density wood. There isn't as much great wood around nowadays, but there probably are some great shells you could find.

I got my Slingerland kick, the same size/brand as Buddy Rich used, for $80.

In the end, the drumset brand really has minor effect compared to the player, heads and drum set preparation. I could use any functional drums and be ok.

Cymbals, on the other hand, you are stuck with what they sound like and they've always been the hard one. Finding drums are easy compared.

 

[Greg_L]

So I am currently in the market for a new drum kit, and I cant make up my damn mind. My budget is around $1000, and I was thinking about building my own kit from scratch.So I was just wondering if any one out there had ever built there own kit before, and if it was terribly difficult or not. I really like the idea of making exactly what I want, but I dont want to go spend a lot of money and fuck something up. I would also greatly appreciate any suggestions on brand name kits.

Much love, Drew

I don't really think building your own saves anyone any money. For 1000 bucks you could basically build a really nice kick, snare, and one, maybe two toms. If that's all you need, go for it. You might eventually want some hardware, pedals, cymbals, a throne, and heads for those drums, so that's gonna put you way over 1000.

Find a nice used kit and rock the fuck out.

 

[frederic]

Over the years I accumulated two used Simmon's sets (the old octagon ones), as well as numerous roland drum pads and a couple of other brands mixed in.

I had to make the drum kit framework myself and I did that by welding flat strips to black pipe, then drilling a hole through those strips to bolt them to other black pipes. This allowed me to quickly assemble what essentially is a three-sided frame, to clamp all the drums to.

These are fed into a Roland PM16 and that provides a midi note on each time I whack any of the drum pads. The two simmons drum pads are connected by a "Y" cord so both bass drum pads fire off a bass drum midi note on command, just in case I can someday learn how to operate both my feet at the same time I also have a couple of homemade pads which I made out of plywood and a piece of 1/4" thick rubber both cut into a circle and screwed together around the perimeter, with a piezo buzzer element tossed inside and connected to a jack for the patch cord. The rubber came from an industrial mat a friend gave me for nothing. Plywood was lying around, and the buzzer elements I picked up mail order for about a buck each, and just had to pry off the plastic buzzer housing and use the guts. They come right out with a hammer




I cobbled my drum kit together in this manner partly because I'm cheap and partly because I'm not really a drummer, and wanted it more for doodling and general practice.

It's an ugly kit, but functional.

 

[ausrock]

So I am currently in the market for a new drum kit, and I cant make up my damn mind. My budget is around $1000, and I was thinking about building my own kit from scratch.So I was just wondering if any one out there had ever built there own kit before, and if it was terribly difficult or not. I really like the idea of making exactly what I want, but I dont want to go spend a lot of money and fuck something up. I would also greatly appreciate any suggestions on brand name kits.

Much love, Drew

For everything (shells and h/ware) you'd need search out (Google) Drumfoundry.

For info and help building http://www.drumshed.org/forum/ or it's spin-off http://www.ghostnote.net/vbforum/

Alternatively, you'll find guys at those forums who may make a kit to order.

 

[dintymoore]

Whether you find it difficult to build a kit: to me it depends on if you are a do-it-yourself type of person. If you've never used a drill before... er... I wouldn't do it. But if you are the type of person who can measure, follow instructions and basically not screw things up there's not too much difficulty there.

I built a snare drum from a shell I bought 35 years ago. It was an A. F. Blaemire shell if anyone remembers them. It was the first one I did and it came out perfectly. The shell sucked and I ended up changing it back to the original but that's another story.

It's not a bad idea to have some new drill bits and brad tip bits are good. When I want to drill something real accurately I usually put a few pieces of masking tape on it so you can mark it real well.

 

[Rimshot]

The only real good reason to build your own kit is when you have a specific need or an idea for how you want your kit to be and none of the manufacturers make exactly that. I made my kit (7 pieces) and used Tama hardware. I used all Kellar maple shells (10 ply for the toms and 8 ply for the kick) that I purchased from Anderson, the snare drums change regularly depending on the sound I want (I own many snares most are 14" but greatly vary in depth and materials). I needed and wanted shallower drums because I don't want to have to wallop them to get good resonance. 8",10", 12" rack toms and 14" and 16" floor toms and a 20" kick. My deepest Tom is only 12" deep and my kick drum is 14" deep. I play a lot of small clubs and mostly hard bop jazz and fusion with a lot of acoustic instruments and we all use mics.
This kit has great sound and is wonderful for recording. The shells resonate beautifully and they're all the right size for me. I also have my first Slingerland 5 piece and an old Rogers 4 piece (both from the 60's). I bought a Tama 7 piece kit where the shells were destroyed for about $100, but the hardware was good and I took all the hardware to the wheel and polished it up and replaced the springs and nuts where needed. I bought enough really nice dark blue and green mother of pearl wrap from drummaker.com and I have this really great sounding and good looking kit. Idid all of the bearing edges myself on a shaper table and carefully measured and drilled all of the mountings on a drill press. (I do a lot of woodworking).
Unless you have specific needs, it's not necessary to make your own kit, but if you have specific sizes and arrangements, then maybe it's worth it. I confess a certain amount of pride in telling people that it's a kit that I custom made for myself.

 

[dintymoore]

T... I confess a certain amount of pride in telling people that it's a kit that I custom made for myself.

And you should be, that's pretty cool.

 

[grimtraveller]

So I am currently in the market for a new drum kit, and I cant make up my damn mind. My budget is around $1000, and I was thinking about building my own kit from scratch.So I was just wondering if any one out there had ever built there own kit before, and if it was terribly difficult or not. I really like the idea of making exactly what I want, but I dont want to go spend a lot of money and fuck something up. I would also greatly appreciate any suggestions on brand name kits.

Much love, Drew

One question comes to mind - do you have an idea of how to build a kit and what kind of kit you want that can't be gotten any other way ?
With that out the way, because I'm in 'build it yourself' mode at the moment, if you can answer the above question, I'd say do it. If nothing else, it's a story to tell your grandchildren.