Making some Drums for nzLARPS

Hi everyone,

I first had this idea probably about a year ago, and its been something I’ve been thinking about a bit since then. Basically, what I’d like to do is make some ‘tribal’ drums for use at LARPs (and whatever else is appropriate :wink:). I’m thinking 3 or 4 free standing drums that make different sounds - and perhaps also a war drum for use in battle scenes and the like. The plan is to construct them, and then donate them to nzLARPS, if it isn’t already a gear project under the club by that time.

Unfortunately, being one of the most un-handy men you’ll probably ever meet, I haven’t really got a clue about how to actually make them, exactly what shapes they should be, what materials to make them out of etc.

So I’m looking for some people who have got a clue to help me. Anyone interested/like the idea?

I’m reasonably handy at making stuff, and I think drums are a fantastic idea. But unfortunately, I don’t have any time to help you with this.

I would recommend a couple of steps:

  1. Investigate buying them new. There are trade-aid shops all over the place that have stuff like this and you may actually find it is cheaper.

  2. Check out TradeMe where you can pick up a drum like this for $40-50

  1. If you decide they’re too expensive to buy, find some pictures on the internet and take a good look at them before you start working.

Actually, i just had a thought about building these. I have a 3m long section of (unused) plastic sewer pipe. It’s about 220-250mm diameter and very solid (6-7mm sidewall ???). This’d probably be a fantastic foundation for building drums on.

I’d suggest:
[ul][li]Cut 3 lengths about 300mm long[/li]
[li]Cover the plastic in light leather[/li]
[li]Make drum skins out of light leather[/li]
[li]Lace them on like in the picture above while they’re wet and allow them to dry[/li][/ul]

First up, I’m a real life drummer and I’ve got a bunch of drums. If your in Auckland I would be happy to give you one to use as a reference.

I think that basing off the design of a real drum (but basing the look on an older one) will give you a MUCH better sound. The old two bits of leather at each end of a tube connected tightly just doesn’t come off well enough (as proven by the people who sell leather-headed drums in the walkways of malls).

Modern drums use an adjustable system that will allow you to get a much tightness on the head, thus making the best sound. The basic idea is a three part system:

The skin: this in itself has been stretched over a ring. Notice here how it is attached to the ring around the outside? We’ll come back to why this is good soon. It should come out as a fairly flat (but a little flabby) surface that is attached to the ring, however the ring will normally have a little sticky-upy bit as well.

The Shell: Should be slightly smaller than the head so that the head can fit over the top. The top of the shell should meet the part where the end of the flabby bit of the head meets the ring.

Lugs and rim: These are the bits that are around the head to create the tension. Below is a good example. The lugs are the highlighted bits. The rim is the metal circle, this should fit on the top of the head.

Now, I know I have definately not given the easiest way to build a drum, but it definately is the best sounding way, and will allow the easiest maintenance of the drums (heads need to be tightened otherwise they start sounding crap, and doing so with a thread system is hard, also, this is LARP so someone will break it, this system makes it easier to fix).

As I said earlier if your in Auck’s I’m happy to give you a drum as a reference, you can keep it. I would need to grab it from my folks place so might be a couple of weeks away, and I would take it apart with you to show how it works.

For further reference I highly reccomend using the internets. There are bound to be people out there who have documented building their own drums, try wikipedia for reading about types of drums for hints, and also googling for terms like “building drums” and thrown in words like “your own” and stuff like that.

Let me know when you complete, I’ll so give them a test run!

If you want it to go loud get at least 12 inches of diameter (300mm), unless you are going to mainly use it inside, then the 200-250mm (8"-9") should be fine.

If you want to build a big war drum I would say go for 20" (500mm) diameter, about 800mm. Then get some big ass freakin sticks and bound the hell of of it. It’ll be real loud and scary and waay too much fun.

[quote=“Ian”]It’ll be real loud and scary and waay too much fun.[/quote]It would be loud and scary and a lot of fun, but not too much fun :wink:

Thanks for the input people, its definitely already given me a better idea of what I’m looking at. I think I would indeed prefer to attach the head with lugs. I think it looks cooler, and it sounds like a better idea for the long-term - and I’m sure they could be decorated in some way to look more primitive. I was also thinking of probably using more modern skins. Not exactly the perfect look, but they’d probably be better quality (and I suspect easier to work with). And the sort of head diameters I was thinking of would probably have been 300mm at least. My plan is to make some fairly big (and fairly loud) drums. Of course, I’ll settle for the best that’s actually doable.

With regards to their decoration, which is the one area I’ve actually been able to think about a bit, I was thinking something reasonably simple - and probably quite modern, but whatever. I was thinking something along the lines of a nice dark, rich glossy paint in a few colours (e.g. black, a ‘midnight’ blue, some sort of green, and a glossy maroon), and then putting on a lacquer/varnish/whatever-is-appropriate, and giving them a nice sheen.

Unfortunately, a quick search hasn’t turned up any pictures of anything close to what I was envisioning (which may not be doable though).

With the war drum, I was thinking of something that could be moved and played simultaneously by one person. Y’know, not like one of those massive taiko drums on stands that have people at either end playing them (although those are truly awesome). I don’t know if that’s the best idea or not though.

Talk to Splntr - his father owns a music store (Piano Traders in Mt Eden) and can probably get drums or drum pieces cheaper, at least the skins anyway. They have gone away for a few days, but due to be back on the 3rd :slight_smile: Otherwise I’ll try to remember to get him to PM you when they return.

Righty-o. Its looking like this summer I’ll be attending Summer School at Uni, so I’ll probably be busy most of January and February - but that leaves the second half of November (after my exams), and December free for me to work on stuff like this. So, bearing that sort of likely ‘getting started’ time frame in mind, who is interested in taking part in this grand endeavour?

Yep, family business is Piano Traders, and we have strong ties with Rock Shop etc… in fact, was it you I spoke to in person at the last event about this?

Let me know if Im needed.

[quote=“Splntr”]Yep, family business is Piano Traders, and we have strong ties with Rock Shop etc… in fact, was it you I spoke to in person at the last event about this?

Let me know if Im needed.[/quote]Yeah, it was me. I’ll certainly say something when you’re needed :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m happy to help. I have a couple of drums you can have. For keeps.

:open_mouth: That’d be awesome! Still not sure when I’ll try to get a ‘first meeting’ arranged for, but it won’t be before November 16.

All good. I keep my drums at my folks place (flatmates + drums =/= easy) and I’m going home for dinner tonight, so as long as I’m driving (rather than scooting, which wouldn’t really work) I’ll grab a couple of old ones. I got some from an inorganic collection once (SCORE!) so I’ll prolly grab those.