Wild Jelly Bean

Sizes: 10x5,5 13x8,5 16x12 and 26x13

For 1,5 years I have been working, in many small steps, on this wild jelly bean kit. All drums have different finishes AND different hardware. I challenged myself to let the drums vary in their appearance as wi(l)dely as possible without loosing some sense of coherence in the complete set. I guess I was trying to express something about how liveliness is at its maximum on the thin line between order and chaos, a theme that fascinates me ever since I was involved in art and making.

The 16 inch drum can be used as a bass drum, giving the opportunity to use this drumset in two different configurations: Big (26" Bassdrum, 13" racktom, 16" floortom) and small (16" bassdrum, 10" racktom, 13" floortom).

Details about each drum:

10x5,5. Segmented mahogany(like) shell, 8 mm thick. Inside finished with linseed oil and wax. The outside is finished with a handmade piece of paper from Papieroffizin in Germany that I drenched in hard 2k lacquer. Hardware is handmachined from brass, lightly patinated and waxed.

13x8,5. A vintage shell, supposedly Leedy from the 40's. Three plies (mahogany, probably poplar, mahogany) with maple re-rings. I steamed the warped shell back in to round, trued it and gave it perfect edges, 45 degrees inside, 4,5 mm. radius outside. The finish inside is acrylic paint, outside is acrylic paint, hard 2k lacquer and gold-leaf. The vent-hole grommet is turned from wengé. Hardware is vintage and refurbished; I collected it from old drums over the last few years.

16x12. A vintage Premier floortom shell that I made shorter. Three plies of mahogany with a beech re-ring. I trued it and gave it my patented "suction-fit" bearing edges* to allow for very low tuning without wrinkling heads. The lugs are vintage John Grey, the floor tom leg brackets are of unknown origin. The brackets are fixed to the shell with a thick piece of leather in between to keep the shell more resonant. All metal parts are made matte in a tumbler and waxed. Hoops and air vent grommet are handmade from birch. The batter side hoop has slots to make it possible to let the screws sink below the surface, which makes for more easy playing when used as a floor tom. The finish inside and outside is lacquer drenched fabric. I made some metal parts that allow using this drum as a kick drum with or without a riser.

26x13. Pieced together from two shallow vintage marching bass drums, one of which was a Beverley. Three plies of birch with beech re-rings. The hoops are some kind of tropical hardwood and have inlays, the airvent grommet is turned from more or less the same wood. The finish is hand painted and lacquered. Hardware is from a vintage Dutch brand called Royal and is chrome plated brass. The brackets for the spurs are vintage John Grey and were adapted to make them work a lot better than they did. I made the spurs from steel. The brackets are fixed to the shell with a thick piece of leather in between to keep the shell more resonant.

* note: Of course this is a joke.

Prize: Sold.