Review “Greg Gaylord’s Drum Solo”

Enter Drum Solo, the brainchild of Greg Gaylord.  Greg has been interested in building drums for several years, and has spent a lot of time examining modern and vintage drums to determine for himself what really makes a good sounding drum.  Based on his research and many experiments with shell materials, lugs, strainers, heads, edges, etc., Greg has come up with his own concept of the ideal workhorse drum.  The name of his company, DRUM SOLO, is a play on words that reflects how Greg is trying to build drums~ by himself.  He makes his own tube lugs, cuts his own bearing edges and snare beds, produces segment constructed shells in exotic woods and is on the verge of producing his own steam bent shells.

The drum sent for review was a one ply solid Ash 5 x 14 model.  The edges featured a 45 degree inside cut which goes all the way to the outside of the shell, producing a very sharp edge which is only slightly reduced by the final hand sanding.  While Greg also uses a minimal countercut on the outside of some of his drums to increase the fatness of the sound, this particular drum was constructed without the countercut to take advantage of the solid ash shell’s clear, ringing sound. Outfitted with a Gibralter strainer, Greg’s own tube lugs and 2mm solid brass hoops, the standard of minimum contact hardware mounting is consistent throughout with the exception of a cast butt plate.  The overall effect is that the shell’s vibrational capacity is not impeded by flush mounted, cast fixtures. Another contributing factor to the drum’s resonating ability is the use of a single small vent hole, placed at the bottom of the shell about ½” from the bottom bearing edge.  The 1/8” vent is drilled through the snare side reinforcement ring and was virtually invisible when the drum was assembled. There was no brand, badge, or sticker, on the outside of the drum, but the inside of each drum is signed by Greg.

The overall appearance of the drum is unique in the fact that, while the majority of the parts are brass, some parts are plated in brass where others are solid.  While the hand buffed tube lugs are solid brass, there is a really neat two tone effect which is caused by the ultrasonic process used to remove polishing compound after the lugs are buffed.  It almost makes them appear as if the posts are one metal and the tubes are another.  However, this is just an anomaly caused by the treatment of the metal during finishing. The hoops are solid brass, but they are also another shade.  The butt plate is a cast zinc part with brass plating, giving one more color to the palette, and finally the chrome plated tension rods and strainer add a contrasting tone.  Greg has chosen to leave these parts in their natural color to eliminate the high cost of plating and the resulting jump in production time and the overall price increase that would go along with a plated package.  However, the drum can be ordered with all the parts plated to match for an additional cost.

When all is said and done, there is one thing remaining:  to let the drum speak for itself.  In back beat situations, the rim shot sound was cutting and loud, lots of projection and easy to hear.  The ash shell produced a warm, fat tone and performed well at lower tunings.  The drum also had a full harmonic ring at lower tunings which disappeared when it was tuned higher, even though the bottom end was still strong at high tension.  Snare action was uniform throughout, with even response over the entire head, but the overall tone and resonance of the drum was very zone sensitive. I was able to produce a wide variety of sounds at any tuning just by picking a different area of the head. There was a noticeable “sweet spot” in the center of the drum which resulted in a very focused, crisp snare tone, in contrast to the ringing, looser snare sound with more over-ring when the drum was played outside the sweet spot.  I would attribute this to the extreme head response of the bottom head which is heightened by the minimal venting of the shell.  Since the air doesn’t have a quick escape route, direct hits to the center of the drum tended to accentuate both the snare sound and muffling capacities of the snare wires at the same time.

CONCLUSION:  If you’re looking for a drum that can provide a focused non-rimshot back beat for a portion for the song and then produce an equally defined alternative sounding crack with a lot more ring for the rest of the song, this is your instrument.  The tremendous variety of tones that could be coaxed from it just by aiming the stick at a different area make the Drum Solo snare a very versatile and articulate snare drum for general purpose work.  I did have some concerns about the 2mm solid brass hoops as I’ve seen these hoops crumple under a heavy hitter, but if you play only occasional rimshots, it shouldn’t be a problem.  Given the exceptional range of tones available from this drum, I would assume that putting a slightly thicker top hoop on to accommodate heavier playing wouldn’t significantly alter the tone quality.  But the real capper is the price.  You’d expect to pay a premium price for a solid (one ply) shell snare drum, but Gaylord has really honed in on keeping the cost down while producing a great workhorse drum, and since all sales are direct (no middlemen) there is no mark-up or discount schedule to decipher.  The price of $495 is well below any comparable drum and makes this a real no-brainer.  My advice: Buy one of these things before Greg comes to his senses and starts charging what they’re worth!