I started this build by asking myself, "what drum would you build for yourself?" This is what I came up with. A simple and elegant drum that sounds amazing, constructed from one of my favorite North American hardwood species.
The foundation for this drum is the 14 X 7 cherry wood shell. I used quartersawn North American black cherry to build this drum, it is a fantastic species that is a bit softer than maple which makes for a buttery fat sounding drum with tons of punch and articulation. It has an absolutely beautiful grain structure that is tight and smooth, it's a pleasure to work with and always makes for a great looking instrument. The shell is about 5/8 of an inch thick, equivalent to somewhere around 30 ply. The added sickness balance the softer wood species make a drum that has a lot of power, but still a wonderful wood tone.
I decided to add a subtle Touch of visual interest to the drum by in laying a quarter inch wide strip of genuine New Zealand abalone. The glowing blue, green, black, and silver colors of the album bologna wonderfully offset the golden Orange tones of the Cherry.
The bearing edges on this drum feature 1/4 inch radius roundover on the outside, and a 45 degree inside cut, at the Apex where to meet everything is gently softened by hand with 400 grit sandpaper making for an edge that is Silky, and allows for tons of head to Shell contact. I have found in the past that this is the best possible edges that you can cut on a Stave drum.
I spared no expense on the hardware either. I started with some heavy-duty 3mm no flange hoops and vintage style claws for a bit of a classy old school vibe. Then I topped everything off with my signature hhg lugs.Each lug is CNC machined, featuring a subtle concentric Circle profile in the center as well as for radiused fill its around the circumference of the post. Next I installed a classy inde strainer, diecast butt plate, diecast air vent, antique silver diecast hhg badge, and finally my version of the classic internal tone control/muffler. It is similar to the Vintage mechanisms found on old slingerland and Ludwig Drums, with a couple of key upgrades. We put in some safety measures so that mechanism can never be loosened more than about an eighth of an inch away from the batter head. And we hand make the operation knobs ourselves, on this drum we went with a matching cherrywood knob with the hhg logo engraved on it.
As always, the drum gets finished up with nothing but top notch Evans drum heads, featuring a hazy 300 snare side, and a reverse Center power dot Coated better head. Finally, I strapped on some of my very favorite snare wires, pure sound custom Pro 24 strand brass.
In short, I really believe this is one of the finest instruments we've produced, nothing but top quality components and material that make for an absolutely fantastic sounding and looking drum. I hope you'll decide to add it to your arsenal!