Dustin Ragland

Dustin plays for Charlie Hall, Student Film, and Dr. Pants. He has been a full time drummer for 9 years, and has played for 16. He produces and mixes records in OKC; teaches recording/songwriting at ACM@UCO in OKC; and reads maps for fun. He also makes his own music as Eutopian Accident, at www.eutopianaccident.com.

Dustin’s Pro Drummer Tip:

“My bit of tip for drummers out there is perhaps to encourage you to search for the many different kinds of tones each drum is able to give you. What I mean by that is, we have at our hands and feet quite a few tonal options, just within the way and where we bang on the drums. A snare drum has hits in the center of the head, the rim, the rim shot, the cross stick across the snare, or just a simple click on the rim, to slapping the sides of it with a bare hand, to muting it with the off-hand…to turning the snares off and doing all of the above all over again!

I would encourage you to seek out ways to make your kit offer you the tones you want, without having to go to programming first, especially when it comes to muting your drums. One of my favorite mutes is to keep an old head from each size and flip it over (it fits exactly, of course!) and use it as a mute. It keeps quite a bit of attack, but much more muted, with a perfectly shrunken decay.

That’s only one simple example, but try to experiment with different muting and altering techniques that can be easily and quickly changed during a set, and build a small army of helps to carry along with you to gigs where those kinds of subtleties shine through. A few dish towels, rubber coasters, old heads, sheets of paper, cracked cymbals, jingle bells, flyswatters, old necklaces with jangly pieces-all of these things can easily take your kit into loop-ville, while keeping your feel and timing, and live performance! Of course not all of these are useful for something like an arena gig’s broad strokes, but for studio and smaller venues they can really open up a song or two!

We get to play remarkable instruments, we don’t have to rely on amplification, and we have a lot of notes available to us. Choosing them well, and making them our own is a joy we get to participate in!”

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Where do you live? Lakeland, Fl

What are the sizes of the drums you built? 7×10 7×12 12×14 14×16 18×20 (depth x diameter)

What type of shells did you use? Keller maple shells, 10, 12, 14 are 6 ply and 16, 20 are 8 ply

What type of drum hardware did you use? Hoops are maple, lugs are a basic Yamaha style teardrop, but I powder coated them with an “antique silver vein” finish.

What type of finish/wrap did you put on your drums? “Sapphire Blue” water based dye, several coats of poly using steel wool between coats to get the satin finish.

What was your favorite part of building your drums? Watching the “finish” evolve between coats, sanding, poly applications.

What was the hardest part of building your drums? For me it was the “sanding.” I have trouble with my wrists (tendinitis). Second, would be applying the polyurethane. It was my first time and I had a few runs I had to repair on the first couple of coats.

How long did it take you to build your drums? Well… About 9 months. However, I had to put the project on hold several times. Probably about 80 hours total. The powder coating added a good amount of time.

How much money did it cost you to build your drums? For actual drum parts, I suspect around $1400. I had additional costs with tools, router table, powder coating equipment, etc.

How did you learn about building custom drums? I bought the “How to Make Custom Drum” book.

What is 1 tip you could share with someone who wants to build their own custom drums? Don’t rush process and don’t settle for “good enough.” If something doesn’t turn out the way you like it. Fix it or redo it. I made that mistake and had to refinish two drums after I had already applied the polyurethane. I thought it was “good enough” then once the drum finish was complete… “good enough” didn’t cut it. I should have made that call after applying the dye.

Jon Cohan

Jon Cohan is a Boston-based studio drum tech (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dropkick Murphys, Fall Out Boy), drummer, author (Zildjian: A History of the Legendary Cymbal Makers, Star Sets: Drum Kits of the Great Drummers, The Drummer’s Almanac), magazine writer (DRUM!, Traps, Rhythm), drum consultant, and recovering custom drum maker. You can check out Jon’s drum tech blog at www.allthingsloud.blogspot.com

Jon’s TIp:

“I ALWAYS use nylon or metal snare drum cord instead of the Mylar strapping many companies provide. Good cord, such as the products made by Trick, Pure Sound, or Gibraltar , allow the snares much greater response and sensitivity than the straps. Also, be aware that over-tightening your snare wires against the snare-side head will also result in a loss of response. Seems pretty obvious, but you’d be surprised how many drummers make this mistake.”

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Name: Justin

Where do you live? Philadelphia, Pa

What are the sizes of the drums you built? Snare Drum – 14×8, Bass Drum – 26×16, Floor Tom – 16×16, Rack Tom – 13×8

What type of shells did you use? All shells are 8 ply Keller VSS Maple with reinforcement rings on the snare drum.

What type of drum hardware did you use? All of my hardware is from drummaker.com. I used classic pearl style drum lugs along with the classic style bass drum claws to get a 70s style looking kit.

What type of finish/wrap did you put on your drums? The Wrap is a silver glass glitter.

What was your favorite part of building your drums? My favorite part in building process was putting on the wrap and beginning to see what the drums were actually going to look like.

What was the hardest part of building your drums? The hardest part for me was making sure all my measurements were exact and all the holes were drilled right. I was always nervous before drilling any holes into the drums.

How long did it take you to build your drums? It took me about 6 months to finish my set.

How much money did it cost you to build your drums? I want to say around $1500-1600. I didn’t buy everything at once so I forget exactly how much the total cost was.

How did you learn about building custom drums? I did research online, watching YouTube videos and read your eBook.

What is one tip you could share with someone who wants to build their own custom drums? Do your research and read the eBook before you begin to build your custom drums. It’s an exciting process to be building your own custom drums, just be patient with it.

Tip: Learn how to transcribe drum music!

Chances are you’ve heard Dale’s drumming recently.  Dale’s drumming propels the lilting melody of the hit song and perennial summer favorite “Kiss Me,” by the group Sixpence None the Richer. He has recorded for labels such as Mammoth, Virgin, Almo Sounds, Elektra, Epic, Sony, RCA and played on jingles and commercial projects for Southwest Airlines, Pepsi, Scholastic Books, and Frito-Lay. He’s also performed on numerous television and radio shows in the United States, Europe and Japan, including The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O’ Brien, and Top of the Pops (BBC). You can find out more about Dale by visiting his website or taking private lessons from him.

Dale’s Tip

“Learning how to transcribe will not only make you a better drummer, but a better listener as well.
When I’m asked to play for an artist or event, I typically am “subbing” for the regular drummer, and am faced with having to learn a large amount of songs in a short amount of time. Being able to quickly transcribe a song’s arrangement and drum part allows me to create a chart, so that I don’t have to rely on my memory to play the song.
When I have found a song that I enjoy listening to, transcribing helps me to focus on the parts of the song (the song structure, melody, words and the orchestration), that makes the song unique.
When I hear a drum part or fill that I find interesting or something that I wish I could play, I find that transcribing allows me to figure out exactly what the drummer played.
As I’ve transcribed, I’ve noticed how good drummers can structure their drum parts to best serve the song and the musicians they play with. Transcribing has helped me become a better listener, and has helped me become more aware of a song’s arrangement and all the component parts that work together to make a song stand out. The focused and intense listening that is required to transcribe has helped shape and form my drumming and given me real examples of how to “compose” a drum part that supports and interacts with the song and other musicians as well.”

Did this tip help you? Leave a comment and join the conversation!

With Valentines day around the corner, I thought it would be nice to give away my eBook for free!

How to get my drum building eBook for free:

From February 14-17, anyone who buys  The Cobus Method (affiliate link) or Mike Michalkow’s Drumming System (affiliate link) by clicking through either of my affiliate links will also get a FREE copy of How to Make Custom Drums!

After this promotion is over I will verify that you purchased one of those products by using my affiliate link and I will send the latest edition of “How to Make Custom Drums” and it’s bonus material to the email address associated with your purchase!

Also – Get 40% off Mike Michalkow’s Drumming System and a signed card from Mike if you buy it during this promotion!

Why I am giving away my eBook for free:

To keep it short, I own and believe in both of these products and I think that any drummer would benefit greatly by studying and practicing the methods and systems laid out in the DVDs. You can see my full video reviews of each product by checking out these older blog posts:

• Mike Michalkow’s Drumming System Review – How to Play the Drums
• The Cobus Method Review – How to Play Drums Like Cobus

One of the other reasons is that I may receive a small commission if you purchase using my affiliate link.

I was able to meet Mike Michalkow at NAMM this year and learned that not only is he a great teacher, but he is nice enough to let a stranger take a picture with him! He was very friendly, and in the music business that goes a long way. That only made me want to promote his products even more!

Although I didn’t get to meet Cobus, I still believe in his method. Just watch any of his YouTube videos and you may realize that you would benefit from letting Cobus teach you how to play the drums by ear!

Remember this promotion is from February 14-17. Make this Valentines Day doubly special by getting 2 great resources for the price of 1!

Don’t forget to watch Brian Frasier-Moore at the Super Bowl performing with Madonna! I was able to check out Brian’s kit at NAMM this year, and it is a beast of a drum set. It features a custom rack design by Chris Achzet. Chris has been Brian’s primary drum tech for the past 9 years. Brian was endorsed by TAMA drums for over 10 years but was recently recruited by DrumCraft – A German based drum company. Check out the press release from DrumCraft’s website:

We’re very proud to announce that Brian Frasier Moore has joined the DrumCraft family! Brian resides in Los Angeles and has recorded and/or toured with such artists as Janet Jackson, Christina Aguilera, Usher, Aaliyah, Madonna and many more…

Brian will perform with Madonna at the half time show of the Superbowl on Sunday, Feb. 5th in Indianapolis.

We are honored to have Brian on board as a new DrumCraft artist and look forward to a long-term relationship and are excited to watch his career further develop using DrumCraft products.

I’m excited to see him play today. Make sure to friend him on facebook and/or follow him on Twitter @BrianFrasierM. I’m sure he’ll be posting some behind the scenes updates!

Truth had some great drums at their booth. They just released a Matt Greiner signature production model kit that sounds phenomenal! If your interested in hearing what Truth Drums sound like you can check out their new site  that provides high quality audio samples of truth drums.

You can also keep up with Truth by following them on Twitter: @truthcstmdrums

1. Check out the putting green on the side of that snare drum!

2. Adding a 15″ maple ring in between the tube lugs adds a very interesting look.

3. Beautiful Lime Green sparkle with a very inventive X design!

4. This snare looks somewhat like a normal metal snare wrapped in the middle, but if I remember correctly, Geoff told me they were 2 snare shells cut and put together with a middle shell of maple.

5. Coach hand bag snare drum? I wonder if this is a real Coach print!?

6. This is a hybrid kit. Maple with acrylic pinstripes! Genius. Nice detail on wrapping the suspension mount!

7. Here is the complete drum set.

I hope you are inspired by these incredible drums!

What drum stands out to you the most?

Let everyone know by leaving a comment!