The Deli Magazine/Steve Maxwell's - PART 1a Drum History & Construction 

These guys speak so much truth, especially about Rogers. Their shells are NO JOKE! BOOM factor x10 with so much power and low end. I love my Fullerton era Rogers and use them mostly for rock. 22x14, 13x9, 16x16, 18x16, 14x5 COB Dyna. Sometimes I use my 14x10 rack tom in place of the 13x9.

this was possibly the most informative and easy to understand drum video ever!!!. HOLY COW!!!!! MORE OF THIS PLEASE!!!!!! this guy is AMAZING!

Knowledge! Thank you for this vid. I love the sound of older drums and have always had an appetite for them on records through sampler. Recently have had saved enough money to buy my own set of vintage drums to play myself. This helps!

Great video! I have a Rogers big R set with a 22 and a 24... talk about a big sound! Thanks for sharing.

OMG just came across this video. I love the info!!! Thanks soooo much for putting this out!!!

Michael Vecchio tells his italian second name in a perfect italian pronunciation, quite a rare thing for an american guy, grats to him for that

Another aspect of the drum head relationship to the bearing edges was that the drum shell molds and the laminates for shell wall thickness that were designed for shells from calf skin era drums were nt always perfect round or perfect flat across the drum sound edge. This means that once manufactured mylar heads ( Remo, Slingerland, Ludwig for example ) had different out side diameter and collar curve that some drum shapes did not fit idealy. This is true also of metal shells especially timbales which I am very familiar. The Gretsch & Slingerland metal sound edges remained rounded which is derived from the need for calk skin to travel durring the tuning process and not have sharp edge to bind on and cause premature stretching or tearing of the skin. Leedy metal shells , Ludwig, and later a redesigned Slingerland snare shell sharp edge and Rogers sharp edges were taking advantage of plastic heads ability to endure tuning w/o tearing heads to produce more focused attack and tone but also molded the head to a less flexible tuning range. sharp edges molded to the drum and detuning made the molded edge float above true flat on the sound edge to produce dead spots. Sharp edges also are not shaped w/ the same curved radius of molded plastic heads whith a standardized diameter. Some drums outside diameter would not allow free floating heads that spin evenly on the drum shell ( before adding rims etc ). Some shells were slightly oblong like in the scase of Ludwigs mass production of 1960's rock era with drum wrap coverings that were laminated with the wood laminates or had over lap seams that interfered with the free floating perfect roundness of drum shells. This is why I loved Rogers for sets and the Rogers dynasonic snare drum manufacturing tools and overall design were the same as used to create Rogers timbale shells ( same brass or Chromed brass and same bearing edges. I noticed Rogers timbales shell sound edges were machined on a flat disk sander to creat a true flat edge on the 45 degree inward flande of the drum shell. The timbales used 5 lugs w/ a solid steel rim eliminating the need for 6 points of tuning and thus the 5 points compensated for the dead spots across the drum inbetween tuning lugs opposite side of shell. This was better engineering drum people often neglet to metion. It was George Way of early vintage Leedy who designed the concept of free floating heads on drum shells and also in the case of Leedy brass shell / calf head timbales, used solid steel rims ( not thin flanged rims we use today ) and incorporated a rim mount sytem so as to not add stress to the shells w/ mounting hardware and not choke the shell resonance which affected the " Cascara " or shell tone...when sticks play the shell sides. The vintage Leedy brass was thicker / darker in tone but softer and more true brass than the brass alloy used today. Rogers was the first American drum company to redesign the metal timbales drum and snare drum to be well matched to standard modern plastic head dimensions ! The others were just prolonging calf era designs productions and inherant design flaws. Leedy lug castings * ( inveted by George Way of Leedy fame...with the internat self aligning lug hut insert had stronger / strength to weight ratios for their 2 sized drum lug castings. They do not crack and do not shear off / break at the mounting screws. Modern drum smiths have redesigned aspects of drum bearing edges and corrected problems by re possitioning the harrow rounded bearing edge to the inside radius of wood drum shells so new heads fit easilt and seat properly even at low tension tuning. No need to force a head to mold to the sound edge or have binding heads to shells. This also offers a wide vroad tuning range of plastic heads reminicent of calf heads, like the " Dresden" sound edges used on vintage timpani taht are designed to have a head travel / wide range tuning and not damage expensive heads of any type. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it ! lol

very worthy info ... i own gretsch renown so i needed to know why so many people love that "gretsch sound"

Hardwoods are produced by angiosperm Trees. Softwood is wood from gymnosperm trees. Wood types are about different types of grain and growth not different types of actual hardness. For example Balsa wood is very light and easy to distort or cut through but it is and angiosperm and is classed as a hardwood. Manufactured sheet materials are most likely influenced by manufacturing process and glue etc. and often use shit or cheap wood or even compressed sawdust or shavings glued together. Any type of mass production is going to consider cost of manufacture above all else. The bigger the brand name the easier it is to use rubbish materials because people buy into the brand before anything else. Just a thought.

What is that mechanism inside the Gretsch Tom? The metal mechanism is that a muffler?

I didn’t know Woody Allen was a drummer!

Jess BIRCH? What a suiting name.....

Isn't that Gretsch a 3 ply shell?

SUP JESS !

psssssszzzzzzzzzzffft....Jess!!!!

Woody Allen "look-alike" is a cool cat....

Why do people use the wrong terminology it's a bass drum, and a drumset! Who started this is wrong lingo with a kick drum and a drum kit?

...ehm, that said, LUDWIG all the life for me!!!!