Sunking warriors signature oak stave snare

When Joe Marini the drummer for The renowned rock band, The Sun King Warriors, ask us to build him a custom Stave snare drum to match the aesthetic and sound of his band, we jumped at the opportunity.

We started with a 13 x 5 solid Pennsylvania White Oak Stave shell. (Though you can order this drum in whatever size you would like) -oak is always a great choice for a very crispy, Snappy, and Punchy drum. From there we tried to do all we could to best represent the aesthetic of Joe's band. The drum features for CNC machine elephants carved into the shell, a custom 3-piece badge featuring the band's emblem and our makers mark carved into solid brass and then inlaid into a white oak platten.

The drum has solid raw brass tube lugs with a hand applied patina. It also features black nickel 2.3 mm triple flanged Hoops, vintage style strainer, diecast butt plate, diecast air vent, our reimagined internal dampening mechanism with matching Oak knob, and 30 strand snare wires

The shell is approximately 3/8" thick, enough mass for a powerful and punchy attack, but thin enough to allow for warm, woody undertones, and a buttery smooth stick-feel.

The bearing edges are an inner cut 45-degree chamfer, and the outer cut is a smooth quarter inch roundover. The round over allows for excellent shell to head contact, as well as a nice warm, fat, round tone. Where the two cuts meet there is a mildly sharp Apex that allows for just the right amount of pleasant overtones, and crispy articulation.

The shell is finished on the entire inside of the drum and on the edges with our house Blended mix of waxes and oils, and the outside has our special ebony satin oil finish

This drum features a fairly deep and wide snare bed. this snare bed should prevent all unwanted snare buzz and give the snare wires a nice cushy pillow to sink down into the snare side head.

We very much hope that you consider purchasing this instrument. It was an absolute labor of love building it... And we look very forward to it living its life in the hands of somebody that will put it to good use!

• Internal tone control
  
  
  You may or may not have encountered a drum with internal tone control or internal dampening before. I have fond memories of an old 60s supraphonic snare that I had that featured this mechanism.
  
  
  If you know what I'm talking about, Skip this paragraph. Basically, internal tone control is a small mechanism on the inside of the drum that consists of a piece of spring steel, and a circular felt dampening pad. An operation knob is placed on the outside of the drum, this knob turns a threaded Rod which moves the felt dampening pad on or off of the batter head, effectively muffling or dampening the drum to the desired amount.
  
  
  The problem with old internal dampening mechanisms was that they had a couple of small details that were overlooked, these small details turned the majority of the drum world against these simple and genius little devices.
  
  
  We have done our best to reimagine and improve upon the design of our predecessors, and have reintroduced this feature on all hhg drums including this one.
  
  
  You'll notice a small wooden knob above the air vent on this drum, the knob is made from the exact same Red oak board that was used to build this shell, and it bares the hhg initials engraved in it. This wood knob is the operation knob for the internal tone control. By turning it clockwise you advance the large felt dampening pad toward the head. The knob has a positive stop so that you can only back the dampening pad so far away from the head before it stops. This way, you are always only about a quarter of an inch away from a dampened snare drum head.
  
  
  The way I personally like to use the dampening system is to hold a drumstick in one hand, making repeated strokes on the drum at a medium to low volume, while slowly turning the dampening knob, I use my ears to listen to the drum and as the dampening is slowly applied.... this allows you to find The Sweet Spot or you have just the right amount of dampening applied without choking the batter head.

custom ordering
this is a very customized drum. We made it specifically for what the drummer who plays it was looking for. We would like the opportunity to do the same for you if you buy it today.

we can make this drum exactly as you see it in the pictures, or, we can customize it to your liking. That includes a custom badge with whatever you want on it, and also custom CNC Engravings on the shell of whatever you would like.

please let us know in the comments section of the order page how you would like your gum to be custom-built, or feel to give us a ring, or shoot us an email!