coyerdrumworks

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Brushed Brass Snare Drum Lugs

Just shipped out 10 brushed solid brass lugs to Art in Louisiana. The tubes are 3.5” long with a 1.5” center hole offset. Can’t wait to see these on Art’s snare build!

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Customer’s Custom Snares Builds with Coyer Drumworks Raw Brass Lugs

Sage from California sent me pictures of the 2 snare builds he completed using Coyer Drumworks custom brass snare lugs.  They both turned out great!  He just ordered another set of brass lugs for a copper shell that is in the works.

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More raw brass snare lugs

I made these for Sage in California.  He is working on building two snare drums and needed the tubes to be 4″ long.  He is going to put his own patina on them.  He needed 16 total lugs.

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Mini Aluminum Snare Lugs-Brushed and Chrome-Like

I made 3 sets of these for David in NY.  1-All Brushed with beveled lugs bodies and tubes.  2-All Brushed rounded off lug bodies and tubes.  3-Brushed rounded off lugs bodies with chrome-like tubes.  Dave was building 3 all aluminum brushed shells with 1/4″ holes for each lug.  I place a “nipple” on each lug to give it a tight fit on the shell

Set #1 The first picture shows the lug mounted on one of the all aluminum brushed shells.

Set #2

Set #3

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Leedy Drum- Forever Keeping Time

A friend gave me this drum a while back and thought that he had found a gem on ebay.  After receiving it in the mail he realized that the drum was not what he had hoped. He gave it to me asking if I could salvage it as a drum knowing that it may be as good as scrap.  I gave this project a go by first installing reinforcement rings which gave the shell rigidity, but I soon found out that a conventional head would not fit over the bearing edge not to mention that the tension rods took some force to feed them through each of the hoop eyelets.  I tried multiple approaches and in the end decided to turn lemons into lemonade.

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Raw Custom Brass Snare Drum Lugs pre-patina

I made these recently for Ramy in TX.    Ramy is working on a snare project consisting of two 4“x14″ brass snare shells and he wanted a “raw” look to the lugs (semi-unfinished).  He needed 10 lugs per shell.  I made the tubes 2″ long.  After I machined them, I put them in the oven at 450 deg. for about an hour.  This gave them a “pre-patina” look which is exactly what the customer wanted.

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Custom Aluminum Snare Lugs for a drum builder in CA.custom

Just made these for a snare drum builder in California.  He is working on a custom build using a hand made shell from Brazil.  These are all aluminum lugs with 3″ long tubes.  Of course all lugs come with the proper hardware for adhering to the shell.   

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Marching Snare live, played by Dale Baker

Dale Baker is still enjoying the Marching Snare Conversion I made for him.  See here.  See my tumblr post here for the details on the conversion.  

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Slingerland Marching Snare to Kit Snare Conversion

Jonathan from Knoxville, TN contacted me and had an old 50s Slingerland Marching Snare shell which was given to him by his Uncle and Jonathan desired to have it transformed.  This was a great project to work on.  Jonathan desired to have the depth of the shell cut from 10 inches to 6.  Jonathan and I collaborated on the final build specs. I cut the shell with no power tools.  After cutting the shell I had to fill some holes and reinstall reinforcement rings.  I moved the Slingerland badge to another location ( I had to as the former location was too close to the bearing edge after the shell was sized to 6 inches).  The outer and inner plys are genuine mahogany with the middle ply being poplar.  While sanding the shell I noticed some small white lines in the grain.  I know that I did not put them there so I researched and found out that these are mineral deposits that the original mahogany tree picked up during its growing process.   There were a few mineral deposits that I didn’t sand out allowing the shell to retain its history and character.

Here is the shell when Jonathan shipped it to me.

During the shell cutting process.  You can see in the lower left where the original badge was located.  The picture here shows the second cut on the shell to get the 6 inch depth.

Here are pictures of the final build with custom aluminum and brass tub lugs.

Here are some comments from Jonathan "...your level of craftsmanship and attention to detail far exceeded my expectations! The drum is truly a work of art. Thanks again for taking on this project!"   "I finally got a chance to play my snare and I'm very happy with the outcome, it might even replace my Ludwig Acrolight as my go-to snare. I took the drum to show my uncle and he was blown away, he didn't realize it was the shell he had given me until I told him. I will definitely recommend your work to my friends and hope to work with you again in the future."

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Solid Cherry Snare Drum featuring Coyer Drumworks Drum Lugs

Check out Garrett's spectacular cherry snare drum build using Coyer Drumworks 100% brushed aluminum and brass lugs.  I enjoy the stories behind projects such as this.  Garrett's father purchased this cherry shell with the intention of building it into a snare, but just never got around to it although he had applied red dye and shellac.  He gave it to Garrett as a Christmas present so Garrett went to work on it by removing most all of the red dye and shellac.  Eric contacted me about making some brass/aluminum lugs for him and I was happy to do so.

Here are some comments from Garrets:

“Thank you so much for such a well made and classic looking product to compliment all the hard work that was no doubt put into the manufacture of this solid shell and the fun I had building it. This snare sounds incredible but I think it might even look better. Thanks again, Ken!“

“I’m really glad I went with the brass tubes on the lugs. I think it’s a great and different look. Not unlike a Noble and Cooley SS.“

            Check out the pictures of Garrett's beautiful cherry snare!

The shell when Garrett received it.

After Garret stripped the shell of most all dye and shellac and applied the final finish.

The beginning of assembly.

Showing different hoops and tension rods.

“The finished drum the way I envisioned it. I couldn’t be more happy with it!“  “Thanks again for your work on the lugs!“

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10 Brushed Aluminum with Solid Brass Tubes heading to CA

I made the tubes 3-5/16 in. long.  Glad to help out another drum builder with their work.  All lugs come with all you need to mount the lugs to your snare (washers, gasket, screw and wrench).

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Some other builder’s work and comments

Daniel from South Dakota

"The lugs will go great with my custom snare drum I am building. Looking forward to receiving them."   "Thanks so much for the lugs. They look and work great. I gave you a complete 5 star review."  "I have showed a few professional drummers and got raving reviews from all of them on looks…"  "The lugs work great and I love that they are light weight!"

Here is Daniel's Custom Built Snare:

Don from Wisconsin built two custom snares

Jason from Nevada

"Ken- Those look awesome...The lugs look great! You do fantastic work and thanks again"

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Fell drum builder turns out a great looking snare

Derek from Georgia contacted me in need of 8 custom aluminum lugs for a snare project he was about to begin.  Derek built the following:

13"x6.5"-8ply shell

Yellow powdered aniline stain-satin finish

S-Hoop on top, Triple Flange on bottom

Trick Strainer (brushed looks matches great with the lugs)

8, 4" long-Custom Coyer Drumworks brushed aluminum lugs

Puresound snares

I enjoyed working with Derek on this project sharing some advice about finishing the shell along with some other tips.

Some of Derek's comments on the lugs I made for him:

"Ken,

The lugs arrived today and all I can say is WOW! I can not wait to get them on the shell. You are a craftsman! Thanks again, Derek"

  "Thanks so much for your advice and fine work on the lugs. It's everything I thought it'd be."

  Here is the great looking snare Derek built:

Great work Derek!

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Left-over African Drum turns into...

The piece of the shell leftover from the African Drum was not wasted.  Dale Baker and I collaborated on this project.  I took a used Rhythm Tech head (13") along with the attached Active snare wires (both Dales) and mounted them on the shell side closest in diameter to 13". You will notice that the shell does taper to a smaller diameter opposite the head side of the shell.  Dale Baker also had an old left-over Remo PTS shell and I used the "clip on lugs" to hold the PTS head to the shell.  Because the snares are mounted inside the shell, I had to cut two "slots" to accommodate each end of the Active snare.  This was another interesting project.  The clips provide slight tension to the head over the edge of the shell. Striking the head of this drum does provide an interesting sound.  

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African Drum turned Snare Drum

Dale Baker had an African drum (hand tucked hide heads held with rope tension) which he was interested in having made into a snare drum.  The shell was made of pine staves approximately 3/4" thick.  It was tapered from top to bottom and not perfectly round.  As a result of the taper, I could only find about 5 inches of the drum workable.  I put a slight outer round over bearing edge on both the top and bottom of the shell while keep the 3/4" thickness intact, made 6 Coyer Drumworks Aluminum lugs, used 13" hoops, Ludwig strainer and butt plate.  Because the shell was not perfectly round on the outside, I had to spend time strategically placing the lugs on the shell so that the lug would be as perpendicular as possible.  Finally, because the shell was not 12-7/8" in diameter (the size of most shells to fit a conventionally head) but more like 12-1/2" to 12-5/8" the lugs had to be raised off the side of the shell more than usual.  There are other plans for the leftover African shell...more to come on that later.

Before:

After:

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George Lawrence, the owner of notsomoderndrummer played in a jam session or two at the drum show.

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Nashville Drum Show

I had the priviledge of attending the Nashville Drum show put on by notsomoderndrummer.com.  Here is a great video taken by drummercafe.com which captures much of what I saw at the show.  It was a great time to meet some custom drum makers, drum dealers and professional musicians (i.e. Zoro who just came out with a book called "The Big Gig").  There were also multiple outdoor jam sessions by some talented musicians.  There were both new and vintage drums for sale and on display not to mention the Snare Drum Olympics which is an opportunity for drum makers to showcase their snare drum(s) having them judged on both appearance and sound.   

  A very large acrylic bass drum to welcome all attendees.  

I saw some old Rogers and Camco kits during the show.