Growing Region: Midwest and Eastern United States.
Availability: Readily available and can be found with FSC (Forestry
Stewardship Council) certification. Cherry comprises 3.9% of the commercially
used U.S. hardwoods.
Weight/Hardness/Density: Slightly lighter than Maple. Cherry weighs
3.3 pounds per board foot; Maple weights 3.4 pounds per board foot.
Cherry requires 950 pounds of pressure to mar it; Maple requires 1450
pounds of pressure. A medium density wood.
Cost: 25% higher than Maple.
Comments: Cherry belongs to the rose family. Greeks and Romans used
it for furniture making as early as 400 BC.
Timbre/Tonal Color: Cherry is focused with good body. It has predominantly
mid frequencies with some high and lows giving it a full, rich, textured
sound. It was brighter than our Maple drum. A big sounding drum. When
tuned high, it has a slight metallic quality.
Dynamic Range: Articulate from PPP to FFF. The character sound of
the drum did not change from low to high volume.
Tonal Range: Cherry has a lower fundamental note than Maple. The sweetspot
is larger than a Maple drum, extending outward about 3 inches from
the center of the drum (a full inch more than our Maple drum).
Tuning Range: It has a very large tuning range. The drum went very
deep without losing its focused sound. We took this drum to the point
of the head being almost sloppy, which made it sound very fat, almost
like a calfskin head sound. It also went well into the high "ska"
sound tunings, beyond where other drums choke.
Resonance/Decay: Short principle note with little over ring. It has
a clean, focused note. Very articulate. It is clean like birch but
with more frequencies for a fuller, "woodier" sound.
Cross Stick: Richer, woodier, cleaner, and fuller sounding than our
Maple comparison drum. Rim shots are loud and cutting with a "bite
your head off" attitude about them.
Volume: Loud. Cherry has great cut and a fairly loud volume, but that
volume is controllable due to the great responsiveness of the drum.
Sensitivity: Great sensitivity. You can't fool this drum, it will
show any mistake you make.
Comments: WOW! We like this drum. Very versatile. An exotic type
sound without the exotic price tag. Also a favorite of sound engineers.
They like Cherry for its clean mic sound. They don't have to do
anything to it for it to record well.
By Greg Gaylord & Robert Bowler ("RB").
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