This month I want to write about my step son, Evan Thomas, and my son, Paul. Both are drummers and both are very handy and skilled craftsmen. Evan builds steam bent single ply drum shells in the tradition of Slingerland Radio King snare drums. He builds them by hand in Phoenix; no automation, no specialized machines. We sell them on DrumSellers.com to drum builders, drum builder supply houses, big and small drum companies, and can build them out with hardware and heads as finished custom drums. Famous Drum Company has been a joint venture between Evan, me and his mother, my wife Georgetta. We started working together in 2018 and showed his shells at the 2018 Chicago Drum Show. Covid put the kibosh on the momentum. Then there was a move to his new quarters and workshop after his first workshop was sold out from under him by the landlord. (the first shop was the porch of his tiny trailer). The new shop is inside and has fancy things like air conditioning! It’s only recently that production has ramped up to a respectable number. I just started listing his shells on DrumSellers.com and I’d like for you to check them out.
My son Paul lives in New Orleans and is going to tackle building my Famous DrumWrapper machines. Georgetta and I showed the machine at the 2018 Chicago Drum Show as well. Paul is a trained welder and fabricator, but his job for the last few years has been as a union electrician doing lighting and electrical for major movie and tv series productions in New Orleans. He’s been off work since the writer’s strike and has been doing other side job work. He is quite the renaissance man and world traveller. His current projects include raising the roofs of old school busses and converting them into camper/RVs. I’ve been looking for a new builder for those wrapping machines which I’ve had made a since 2002. I went through three builders over the last rwenty years who didn’t work out for one reason or another. I stopped production when Covid hit. I was starting to look around Memphis for a builder when it dawned on me that Paul could do this. He said yes immediately. I’ll be taking the two machines I have on hand down to New Orleans this summer. Hopefully I can soon start getting them to the two dozen people on the waiting list.
So check out these links to the shells, the DrumWrapper and the video of Evan making the shells which is about the most “drum nerdy” thing you’ll ever see. I’m very proud of my boys.
Evan at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix
Paul volunteering at Standing Rock protest He noticed there were no fire extinguishers in the camp and that access for firetrucks was severely limited because of roadblocks so he bought some at Walmart to set up fire extinguisher stations.
Evan happier than a pig in slop.
Paul’s bus before decapitation
Paul. I don’t know if this was posed or not.
Georgetta showing the shells and drumwrapper at the 2018 Chicago Drum Show
Drumwrapper Model 2
the first of three videos of Evan making the drum shells. See all the videos at Famous Drum Company YouTube channel