The backstory:
It's really hard to find a 16" legged floor tom for my PDP CX series drums. When they show up, they go for over 300 bucks, because they are scarce. So I bought a cheap PDP 16" legged floor tom in the X7 series I think it was. 89 bucks delivered for a complete brand new drum. The catch? It was made from poplar.
My plans were to re-wrap in WMP it to match my CX kit. The 89 dollar drum is a lacquered drum. And I can make any drum sound good, I'm like the Wizard of Odd.
Now I'm not so sure. When I got it, I headed it, tuned it and played it. I didn't really like it TBH. It seemed like it lacked warmth and that general tone I like. It had/has this high mid fundamental... something I'm not after in a 16" floor tom. It really never sounded like any 16" floor tom I heard before, how is this possible? Edges were fine. I removed all the gaskets, brush lacquered the insides, and got Pearl ISO feet. I put S hoops on it too. That improved it a lot, but still, that high mid fundamental was ruining my high. I wrapped it anyway and used it.
So I played this poplar floor tom for probably close to a year now, and it was just OK. Some nights it sounded OK to me and other nights, no.
Last week I saw a lacquered concept maple PDP shell, bare, for 15 bucks. So I snagged it. (plus 35 shipping though, doh!)
Last night I stripped the poplar drum of hardware, peeled off the wrap, and transferred everything to the maple shell. Luckily all the holes matched perfectly.
I just got done lubing and heading and tuning it and holy crap on a cracker, what a difference the maple shell made. Now the drum has a totally warm sustaining long note, much longer than the poplar drum. And tons more satisfying.
It's the same shell, same ply layup, same dimensions, just different wood.
So some drums just sound better than others.
Now my Sonor Player's kit is made from all poplar too and I LOVE the tone of those drums. Nice and warm. Go figure. PDP's design just doesn't bring the best from poplar IMO. Boy does it work on maple though. I suspect the Sonors have a more rounded edge to bring out the bottom end of the poplar. That's a theory, I have to compare bearing edge profiles, and I don't have the time for that now.
So just a curious observation. I can usually improve the sound of a drum, but in the end, you can only do so much.
I remember a set of Pearl Exports that try as I might, I just couldn't get to sound good. (They were in a rehearsal space)
So I can't make every drum sound the way I like them.
People talk about how great the CX drums are, and I like them a lot, but the concept maple AFAICT, is the same shell. The CX's are older and are further along in the lignin hardening process, but the concept maple shells are beauties when it comes to sound.
Just some obs.
That's it, carry on.
Curious observation FWIW
It's really hard to find a 16" legged floor tom for my PDP CX series drums. When they show up, they go for over 300 bucks, because they are scarce. So I bought a cheap PDP 16" legged floor tom in the X7 series I think it was. 89 bucks delivered for a complete brand new drum. The catch? It was made from poplar.
My plans were to re-wrap in WMP it to match my CX kit. The 89 dollar drum is a lacquered drum. And I can make any drum sound good, I'm like the Wizard of Odd.
Now I'm not so sure. When I got it, I headed it, tuned it and played it. I didn't really like it TBH. It seemed like it lacked warmth and that general tone I like. It had/has this high mid fundamental... something I'm not after in a 16" floor tom. It really never sounded like any 16" floor tom I heard before, how is this possible? Edges were fine. I removed all the gaskets, brush lacquered the insides, and got Pearl ISO feet. I put S hoops on it too. That improved it a lot, but still, that high mid fundamental was ruining my high. I wrapped it anyway and used it.
So I played this poplar floor tom for probably close to a year now, and it was just OK. Some nights it sounded OK to me and other nights, no.
Last week I saw a lacquered concept maple PDP shell, bare, for 15 bucks. So I snagged it. (plus 35 shipping though, doh!)
Last night I stripped the poplar drum of hardware, peeled off the wrap, and transferred everything to the maple shell. Luckily all the holes matched perfectly.
I just got done lubing and heading and tuning it and holy crap on a cracker, what a difference the maple shell made. Now the drum has a totally warm sustaining long note, much longer than the poplar drum. And tons more satisfying.
It's the same shell, same ply layup, same dimensions, just different wood.
So some drums just sound better than others.
Now my Sonor Player's kit is made from all poplar too and I LOVE the tone of those drums. Nice and warm. Go figure. PDP's design just doesn't bring the best from poplar IMO. Boy does it work on maple though. I suspect the Sonors have a more rounded edge to bring out the bottom end of the poplar. That's a theory, I have to compare bearing edge profiles, and I don't have the time for that now.
So just a curious observation. I can usually improve the sound of a drum, but in the end, you can only do so much.
I remember a set of Pearl Exports that try as I might, I just couldn't get to sound good. (They were in a rehearsal space)
So I can't make every drum sound the way I like them.
People talk about how great the CX drums are, and I like them a lot, but the concept maple AFAICT, is the same shell. The CX's are older and are further along in the lignin hardening process, but the concept maple shells are beauties when it comes to sound.
Just some obs.
That's it, carry on.
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