It’s been ACD’s goal from the very start to forge a new path and make things happen that haven’t necessarily been done before to offer original and fresh solutions for drums and drum hardware. Not to be different at any cost but simply to get the best performance out of our products. Great efforts are taken to produce in house and independently. That often means crafting our own tools and machines off the beaten path. These ideas are constantly evolving and fresh ideas come into the mix all the time that are waiting to be put in action.

The mission statement is to fulfil our customer s’ requests and build instruments and hardware that will last at least a lifetime.

Drum shells are rather simple. Lesser occurring obstacles result in free and natural sounding vibrations that gives you an harmonic resonance.

The planed staves are cut to size and glued together to build a polygon. We make sure that the number of staves matches the number of lugs because we thing it results in a pleasing aesthetic result. A shell with 10 lugs for example is built from 20 staves.

In the following steps the polygon becomes a round shell. We utilise special self built machines for this process. The wood grain is vertical meaning it follows the depth of the shell in other words the staves are standing up if you will. Very little glue is used in the process of gluing the staves together roughly 2% compared to the standard ply shell on the market resulting in a much more potent shell resonance.

Due to modern gluing techniques and our next to zero tolerance we are able to build a stable stave shell with a shell thickness down to 6mm. This very thin stave shell is still stable and offer a very rich resonance. Our standard woods are beech, oak and mahogany. Combinations of these woods are possible too as well as any special request you can imagine.

The planed staves are cut to size and glued together to build a polygon. Once done these are cut into different rings and staggered. In the following steps the polygon becomes a round shell.

We utilise special self built machines for this process. The wood grain is horizontal meaning it follows the like most ply shells are known for. Very little glue is used in the process of gluing segments together as well roughly 6% compared to the standard ply shell on the market resulting in a much more potent shell resonance.

Less resonant perhaps as the stave shell but still much more resonant than a standard ply shell. Our standard woods are beech, oak and mahogany. Combinations of these woods are possible too as well as any special request you can imagine. An interesting option with this building technique is to utilise less dens wood like spruce or Swiss pine. These offer a beautiful look and a deep and dry sound.

One could possible run into problems with these less dense woods that the bearing edges come untrue over time due to pressure and contact with heads, snares, mounting materials for the snares because of the relatively small contact area and the soft wood. To prevent that from happening it is possible with this type of construction to add a harder wood ring to the top and bottom of the shell to have the edges protected and get the sound for the softer core wood. If you have an idea that you’d like to see come to live please feel free to get in touch and let’s make it happen!