Birth Of A Zendrum

The following is a photo essay (in progress right now) showing the creation of a Zendrum.

My original design idea was a Zendrum composed of three layers, each a different exotic wood. After talking with David Haney about the dozens of types of woods a Zendrum can be crafted from, and drilling him about the appearances and properties of each, I knew I wanted something more interesting to look at than my dark red painted Zendrum. So I needed a nicely figured wood for the face. I liked the tone of Yew, but the grain wasn't interesting enough. And I wanted a light face so that the pads would be clearly visible to an observer. Spaulted Maple. And I wanted a contrast to the middle layer - Purpleheart. And a nice interesting edging for the back - Zebrawood. I liked the flow of light to dark. It would look like this:

David took my idea to Kim, the master craftsman behind the woodworking of each Zendrum. He quickly pointed out the unfortunate resemblance of my idea to Neopolitan Ice Cream, with stripes of vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. Looking at it now, yes, I'd say it was a bit garish, and I was really looking more for a 'beauty of wood' type thing.

Kim kept my basic idea of front to back getting darker, my desire for attractive grain and my faceplate and came up with a different suggestion. He removed the purpleheart, moved up the Zebrawood, and backed it with rich dark Wenge.

Wow. Much richer, much more beautiful. I was sold on that idea.

Here we see the actual three slabs of wood used to craft my Zendrum, and the drum itself actually IN the pneumatic glue press in that bag on the table.

The rough assembled beast looks like this coming out of the press. The finish to be added later will bring out the wood grain and enhance contrast. The effect so far is beautiful. I just hope the pads don't obscure too much of that delicious Zebrawood...

Next, a drill is cruelly taken to this vibrant wood for pad placement. The back has also been hollowed out for the electronics by this time.

Starting to look like a real Zendrum by this time. A real gorgeous Zendrum. Look at the wonderful way Kim has aligned the Zebrawood to get the long sweeps of grain on the longer edge and the tighter face on the smaller edge.

That's Kim hiding behind the unit just before it leaves the woodshop. His job here is done. The body is fully milled, carved and sanded. Next stop will be many, many layers of clear coat.

After clear coat, the colors become far more vibrant. The logo has been painted on at the tail in multiple colors

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The interior of the drum is ready to receive the electronics.

The circuit board is attached, and the pads affixed with their cables threaded through. Midi connections are also threaded at this point. Tiny looking circuit board, isn't it?

All of the pad conections are slotted to their contacts on the circuit board. Plastic wire ties are used to control the tangle of cables into something manageable. The backplate of the Zendrum is also attached, where the power switch and inputs are. The datapad and the ribbon cable connection are routed as well, next to the sustain button.

And the final instrument can be seen here.

 

 

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