HARD BOP DRUMS HISTORY:
   Hard Bop Drums was established in 2002 by long-time professional jazz drummer Rob Schuh. A drummer for over 35 years, he has been a professional player for over 25 years, performing with such Jazz greats as Jaco Pastorius, John Medeski, Ernie Watts, Ira Sullivan, Tony Malaby, Charlie Rouse, Brian Bromberg, Steve Bailey, Mike Wofford and many other incredible musicians. The fact that Rob is still a respected professional drummer is what separates him from so many of today's other drum builders who really don't understand the key ingredients necessary to create a great-sounding drum--or what wood, head & tuning combinations will make for an AMAZING drum or full kit.
   Rob got into drum building by refurbishing Gretsch kits. Always wanting a vintage 1960's Gretsch kit with 18x14", 12x8" and 14x14" drums, he never found one as a kid. And the recent 'loony tune' drum collection mania has caused these kits to now sell for $5000 and up! Well, while surfing e-bay one day, Rob found a well-worn 1960's Gretsch kit with 20", 12" & 14" drums for about $1000. He purchased that kit, removed & cleaned all the hardware and then re wrapped the entire kit--and then took a new 18"x14" Keller maple shell and built himself his dream kit.
   As many drum people know, Gretsch drum shells were made for years by Jasper, a company who used a combination of maple and gum wood to create drum shells with very unique and highly sought-after sound characteristics. But while you can hear the difference between a standard maple Keller-shelled and a Jasper-shelled tom tom, you really cannot hear it on a bass drum. Well, Rob took his hybrid kit to the Phoenix Drum Show in 2003 and people FREAKED--in fact he had four people place orders that same day! And to date, he has sold about thirty of these kits on e-bay. This technique has allowed many drummers who grew up listening to Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Phillie Joe Jones etc., to now have their dream kit without having to take out a second mortgage on their home! :-) While drum shell purists may criticize the use of a pure maple bass drum with Jasper tom-toms, Rob is quick to point out that the bass drum is NOT a counterfeit, but merely a reproduction as the sound qualities of the pure maple bass drum are very similar to those of a comparably-sized Jasper shell.
   In late 2003 Rob was contacted by Tim Wolf at Joshua Tree Percussion, advising him that he was now offering his incredible stave shells in all sizes. Up until then, Joshua Tree had only been making shells in snare drum sizes. Upon hearing this news Rob flipped, as he knew that they were going to make THE most amazing sounding drums offered to the general public to date! The first Stave shell kit built by Hard Bop Drums was constructed of walnut with maple stripes in 16"x13", 14"X12" & 12"x8" sizes. After playing this kit for the first time, Rob said he never wanted to play another ply shell kit again!
   If you are familiar with how ply-shells are built, you may know that they are made from many thin plies of wood which are placed into a mold with glue applied between the individual plies. Then the shell is subjected to heat and held under great pressure for an extended period of time while the glue cures. Depending how many individual plies are used in the lay-up, the shells vary in thickness: The more plies used, the thicker the shell becomes...thus thicker shells MUST contain more glue. The biggest thing that separates stave shells from ply shells is that stave shells only require a tiny amount of glue in between individual staves. Thus while these shells can vary in the number of staves, even shells with higher numbers of staves contain far less glue (relative to the amount of wood in the shell) when compared to a ply shell. Because of this fact, you have a superior musical instrument which has a FAR greater dynamic and tuning range. In fact, upon switching from his Gretsch kit to the new stave kit, Rob noted a significant increase in the number of compliments on his drum sound at each gig--many of these coming from non musicians! :-) Reasoning that this was a true testament to the musicality of stave shells, Hard Bop Drums added these great shells to their arsenal of drum building materials in 2004.
   In addition to the stave shells from Joshua Tree Percussion, segmented shells from Global Drum Company and Rhythm King Drums are also superior to ply drums. Thus these products have been great additions to the Hard Bop Drums product line as well. And while there are other companies making snare drums using these shells, the cost is typically 3-5 times higher than those offered by Hard Bop Drums. To this day Hard Bop Drums is one of the few companies in the US offering complete segment-shelled kits.
 EVERYTHING we do at Hard Bop is about finding the best methods of drum construction and the finest materials for our drum shells--and then offering the finest customer service available.