Craviotto Drums: How the Solid-Shell Boutique Drums are Made 

I love my Craviotto snares !!! Best solid shell sound !

The Stradivarius of drums! God Bless JC and the entire Craviotto Family and Thank You!

Thanks for making this video, DRUM! Magazine. I hope to visit you guys someday and meet amazing people there. Congrats!

Fabulous drums thank you for your work

This is the first I heard of the brand....inspiring to say the least!

Wonderful instruments, high professional quality for the best drums, sound incredible .

Fantastic drums.

SO UNIQUE AND SO CLASSY!!! 👍🏽👌🏽

The absolute finest!

Wow for me it’ s a complex task to bent shell i d love to see that👏👏👏🥁🥁🥁🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

Instantly sold upon my first stroke!🥁

They certainly look nice and that's a big part of selling drums!

所有欲と充足感。私の毎日はとても快適です。

Not a lot of "how" here. Still, a damn fine product. Just wish we would have seen more in the process.

I love craviotto 🥁

Any recommendation for making an old, warped shell circle again? Is there a quick n' dirty method? Thanks!

What model of wood lathe is he using i use one of them in broyhill I can't remember what model it is

There's no question that the other "big-name" drum companies make beautiful, high-quality, great-sounding drums, but ultimately, their shells are really all just glorified plywood. Again, subjectively speaking, the other drum companies make equal or even better-sounding kits, and obviously, there's much more that goes into making a drum besides shell construction and material. But when you're up in that high-end, stratospheric price range there's definitely something extremely appealing and satisfying about knowing your $6K, $7K, or $8K+ drums aren't a bunch of thin sheets of wood and a half-gallon of glue all pressed together.

😎👍🇺🇸🥁DAVID!!! The pinnacle of drum perfection!

When I imagined drums as solid shell, I envisioned hollowing out tree trunks, so they were seamless. lol.

I did not know that someone still makes a solid one ply maple shell, no doubt like the classic Slingerland Radio King shells. I have always been impressed at the ease in which I played one in 7th grade how much that student model "gave back" and made for effortless playing. hard to explain. I have also experienced that with a Ludwig 8.5"x 14" Black Beauty snare drum

I'm lucky enough (I worked hard) to have snares from a few high-end companies. Nobody - NOBODY! - makes a shell of the quality of Craviotto. The bearing edges are silky smooth in a way which no other manufacturer comes close to.

How do you build a steamer box?

I love getting my wood steamed in a nice box

....they don't show you the actual bending, and now I'm left wondering why!!! Anyway, as a vintage Ludwig guy, owner and player myself I always feel a certain thrill when I see those re-rings on a shell. I like to think this is the quality the Ludwig folks would pull out in their heydays, unless they had to deal with nightshifts and unfulfillable demand (sooner or later I'll get myself both some solid Ludwig and Ludwig shells and some 3ply WFL shells as well). About solid shells, I can maybe see the sonic advantage of having 100% wooden shells and no glue at all or just the tiny little for the re-rings, but I'm also fond of the 3ply cross-grained construction coming from the earlier aviation days and even earlier from the Legionary Shield. As we got to know through History cross-grain shells gives more strength than solid shells, and yes I know, drums don't need to be THAT strong in fact, I only liked the idea... ;-)

I still recall when I heard Craviotto drums for the first time. Francis Filion from Moist, who was my drum instructor at Saint-Laurent college in Montreal - phenomenal rock player, as solid as the shells! - played it in a Janet Jackson tribute at the Montreal International Jazz Festival. I've heard a LOT of drums in my life... but this kit, I'll never forget. Nobody even came *close* to Francis's sound with the Craviotto. Not one of mile long legendary drummer line-up had a tone like this. By far the best drum tone I've heard in my life. Even Noble & Cooley - which I played - isn't as good as Craviotto IMHO.

One of the few true hand made drums left. As much as I like DW, their claim of “handcrafted since 1972” is BS. The only thing hands do there are glue the plies and push the buttons. Craviotto are truly the masters of hand built shells. The sound (and price) attest to it.

*Now these aren’t your average packing peanuts, these are Renaissance era packing peanuts that really give quality to the shell and I think you can hear it in the drum*

Funny my old boss told me (the first time I saw a Craviotto snare)that they were made by boring out the center of one chunk of wood...I’ll admit I was intrigued by the story he was telling,But it did seem quite wasteful though I’m sure it happens more often than not....So it’s nice to know the facts,And I For one can appreciate the commitment especially holding up the tradition and standards of a man who wanted perfection,Sometimes those types of people were hard to be around as they tend to drive others crazy,as they seemed to even drive themselves crazy at times!!!My boss was a perfectionist who put really high standards on me(being his only employee at the time)and demanded perfection as he would promise the client an experience they would find nowhere else,Funny I was the guy delivering all that white glove service,while pulling full shows from the instruments to the full sound systems for entire production of large shows without forgetting one cable or so much as a guitar pick etc!!!Sorry for rambling,But your work is not going unnoticed!!!

I now want a craviotto snare.....

Picked up a snare drum and thought, oh, so THIS is how you make a drum...

I’m privileged to have chatted with Johnny a few times.

I love my DW Super Solid snare. The boys at DW essentially use the same process. It weighs a ton...I wonder what the toms and bass drums weigh on these Craviottos...

Cannot believe in these comments that no one mentions Noble and Cooley! N&C have been making SS snare drums since the Civil War! They weren’t as refined back then as they became in the 1980’s, with a little help from some suggestions from a few friends who were inventors. But they were the ones who regenerated and arguably created the ‘modern’ day, SS snare drum revival! I own two and they are just as beautifully appointed and finished as the a Craviottos are. To me, they are very special because of the cache of history they hold, as the oldest drum maker in America, still run by family members of the creators of the company. Also, I noticed they can sound vintage and modern, all in one. They’re more open than Craviotto because only one part of the hardware makes contact with the Shell. On a Craviotto, two points of contact are made, on every single lug, so there is more focus and compression to the overall sound. As my friend puts it, we would rather tone a drum down and remove sound if we have to because you cannot create more resonance or sound, than a drum already has. You can tone them down but you can’t tone them up! They make their own hardware, throws, shells, pick their own wood as well, etc. And the fact that every board sounds different has NOTHING to do with the Craviotto company! It has to do with nature because every solid board of wood is different, even if more than one come from the same tree! Craviotto drums are nice but their hardware, throws, wires and etc., are made out of their house and in fact, I have heard they are made overseas! Disappointing for an American company that charges over a grand for a basic SS snare drum! They’re nice but overpriced, for sure and here’s something they won’t tell you-As every board sounds different, there are some snares that have that MOJO, something special that stands out and grabs attention and others or, typically, many of them that have ‘that’ sound and are pretty sterile and generic. The problem with that is, you need to try a few out to really find a special one. I have played some that were just like regular snare drums and nothing really stood out about them. This, however, is something that doesn’t just occur with Craviotto but also with all the other SS snare drums or, snare drums, in general. However, when you have such high expectations, pay all of that money, possibly specially ordering one and then not being satisfied could bum you out!

I’m a drummer and believe me it’s all in the tuning,, my first kit cost 400 and my last kit cost me 3000,, is there any difference,,,yes! I’m a lot better drummer now.😉

Does Craviotto actually make their own metal hardware in house? Such as hoops, lugs, screws, throw offs, strainer, butt plate, etc...?

rip johnny

These companies that market a "Steam-bent Solid Drum Shell" crack me up. It's either "Steam-bent" or "Solid." You can't have both. Steam bending takes a single piece of wood, applies hot steam to the wood that creates a sufficient amount of moisture that allows you to then bend that piece of wood around a form. So go ahead and then just stop right there with the process. Oh wait, YOU CAN'T. That pesky seam. There is a single seam with Stem-bent shells (usually a scarf joint). No matter how you HIDE that seam, it's still there. The only way to get a true "Solid" shell is if it is hewn from a log. That's right . . take a log, chop off a section, then gut the interior leaving a SOLID continuous shell with no seam.

I have/ had been making "Solid" drum shells for about 25 years, but by solid I mean put 1/2 a tonne blank in a lathe and open it up to reveal the drums that were already made inside it, That all sounds very organic and new age doesnt it ? Its not. A kit comes from(usually) 2 blanks one 18" deep by 24/26" round and another 18" by 12" give or take a foot. prior to machining blanks must be "boiled" to reach plasticization to equallize internal tensions and then dried to an equalibrium moisture content to stabilize the structural integrity and prevent shrinkage and growth due to environmental factors. it takes a big chuck to grab a 1/2 tonne blank and turn it into a shell kit, by taking shells concentrically a uniformity of pattern and characteristics is shared throughout a kit although I never managed to cut shells in 1 inch increments 12,13,14,15,16 toms had to alternate between 2 blanks. as far as I see it the Craviotto drums Do use "Solid" stock just a differrent process (It would feel pretty Solid wraped round the back of Your head!) This process is more control able without the Crapshoot of spending months conditioning wood to open it up and find some trigger happy miscreant has peppered it with a shotgun or driven nails in it 30-40 years ago when the farmer hung a "no shooting" sign on the tree You are now trying to turn into a drum kit. when a drummer slings You a couple K for a nice fat 14x8x1 1/2"snare that wieghs 15 pound and barks like an A.K on heat it makes it all worth while. Im old loosing my eyes and Im going to stop this while Ive still got 10 digits, because Ive been playing drums for about 20years longer than Ive been making them and still do. this process used by Craviotto among others is the closest thing to solid and is repeatable and controllable with a predictable outcome guaranteeing You get what You ask for everytime and the visual appeal is stunning to boot.

It America. You get what you pay for. There's a reason these drums are so expensive and I hope they stay that way. The price itself, let alone the craftsmanship sets them apart from the others.

i thought Solid Shells are shells that have no joints in them. that's what would make the difference between that and a steam bent shell

All Craviotto does is to copy and imitate Noble & Cooley. Noble & Cooley is the best. Without a doubt. The steam oven Noble & Cooley uses is 150 years old. NOTHING, NO ONE beats that.

Nice drums Ridiculously expensive

treeeees

They look too retro( lugs,hoops). Not a fan of this 60s-70s designs. But except that, maybe they made great sounding kits!?

1:53 what sort of filthy person could leave his machines is such disgusting state?!

I think you can do it yourself, just watch and learn from Woodglut.

Technically they're not solid shells, they're solid ply shells. A solid shell is hollowed out of a log, with no joints or seams, and no steam bending. They are nice drums however.

clean me please

can i get one for free!!!?🙋🏻‍♂️

only $999,999.99 😫

It's just wood man.

horseshit. A snare drum is a snare drum

Too much blah too little production process.