Drum Head

[cprljohnivey]

Pardon this humble fifer's question. The drummer in my F&I unit recently broke his calf skin head and the unit voted to pay for a replacement out of the unit coffers. I know it has been some years since he has purchased once. Can someone reccomend a few vendors who carry Calf Skin Drum Heads?

Thanks,

[Jim Moffet]

Re: Drum Head

My source:

http://www.sterntanning.com/

Jim Moffet

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Drum Head

The Liberty Hall Drum Corps uses mainly calf and goat from Pakistan. If you choose to go this route, always get thin skins for snare drums, never the medium or thick sizes. Thin is a relative term.

For a 16" drum, you need a 20" skin.

Mid-east is currently sold out of 22" thin calfskin, and the next smallest size is 18", which is too small.

Active Musician sells Mid-east skins at discount prices:

22" thin goat: http://www.activemusician.com/item--MD.GT22-TN

26" thin calf: http://www.activemusician.com/item--MD.CF26-TN

I have also had good luck custom ordering from Columbia Products (nycolumbia@aol.com)

I have been able to specify a thickness between 0.010" and 0.012" for batter and they had them sanded down to that thickness at the factory in Pakistan. This makes their skins superior to Mid-east because occasionally the Mid-east skins might be 0.010" on one end of the skin and 0.020" on the other. This can make tucking the skin a little tricky.

Columbia Products even have very thin (0.003" to 0.005") slunk (unborn calf) for snare heads.

Columbia Products: http://columbiamusic.homestead.com/skin.html

Do not waste your time ordering the "chalk white" calfskins. They are literally dusted with some type of chalk, which washes off with water.

American heads are a little nicer, but are three or four times the price.

I have heard that the former owner of what is now Stern Tanning, Mr. Palansky, took some of his drumhead making secrets with him to the grave, and the quality of Stern heads is not as good as older American calfskin. I also heard Cooperman switched to English or Irish calf because of complaints of Stern heads breaking prematurely.

If you need a flesh hoop, Cooperman sells unglued ones for about $8, which you can clamp and glue to fit your shell. I am not sure how much their glued flesh hoops cost. Their standard glued flesh hoops fit too loosely, so I would recommend buying them unglued. You do not want big gaps between the shell and the flesh hoops. Their standard flesh hoops are also thicker (1/2" x 3/8") than most original flesh hoops, which are around 5/16" x 5/16". But if you already have a skin head, you do not need a new flesh hoop. But a correct fitting flesh hoop will keep the "collar" more even and cut down on the ringing tone of the drum some if you choose to go without a cloth strip muffler, which is a 20th century invention.

[Jim Moffet]

Re: Drum Head

Thanks, Will! I haven't ordered from Stern in several years (obviously those heads haven't busted!). Us Minnesotians will look into your new source next time we need to restock.

Jim Moffet

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Drum Head

Thanks, Will! I haven't ordered from Stern in several years (obviously those heads haven't busted!). Us Minnesotians will look into your new source next timw we need to restock.

Jim Moffet

Yeah, personally I haven't had problems with Stern or Pakistani heads busting. That's just what I heard about Cooperman switching sources. There must be a reason for only carrying $100+ imported skins!

One thing I hinted at was that the Pakistani heads aren't uniformly white like the American heads. Sometimes they are clear and other times mottled. One complaint I have heard people make about the Pakistani heads is some being clear. Looking at period photographs with drums, it seems that clear or mostly clear heads were rare, and that mostly white or white/clear mottled skins were the norm, but I also found this description of a drum from an 1867:

"This drum was manufactured by Wm. A. Pond & Co., of New York, the famous makers of military instruments, and whose drums and German silver fifes have throbbed and piped on many a battlefield. The shell of this beautiful drum is of German silver, elegantly polished, and having all the glow of pure silver; the hoops are of solid rosewood; both the batter and snare heads are made of transparent calfskin, so clear one can read through them."

Robert Henry Hendershot; or, The brave drummer boy of the Rappahannock - Page 170
William Sumner Dodge - Fiction - 1867 - 202 pages

I have a couple other peiod references to clear heads somewhere that I'll have to try to dig up.

[cprljohnivey]

Re: Drum Head

Thanks guys for the input... I have forwarded the info to our drummer.

[Hardtack Herring]

Re: Drum Head

"This drum was manufactured by Wm. A. Pond & Co., of New York, the famous makers of military instruments, and whose drums and German silver fifes have throbbed and piped on many a battlefield. The shell of this beautiful drum is of German silver, elegantly polished, and having all the glow of pure silver; the hoops are of solid rosewood; both the batter and snare heads are made of transparent calfskin, so clear one can read through them."

.

So this is a claim that fifes and drums were played on many battlefields?

Wm.A. Pond, was he part of Firth Hall and Pond?

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Drum Head

Wm.A. Pond, was he part of Firth Hall and Pond?

Same Pond. Look in Dan Emmett's fife section in Bruce and Emmett's for another reference to those German silver fifes.

So this is a claim that fifes and drums were played on many battlefields?

I guess so. But consider the source -- Robert Henry Hendershot's biography. The "Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock" was a fraud. I used that quote for this part: "batter and snare heads are made of transparent calfskin, so clear one can read through them."


Here are those other references to clear calfskin:

"imparts the following information...dressing skins for drum-heads, so as to obtain them clear and devoid of opaque spots...

Scientific American, Volume 5, 1861


"Parchment is made from the skin of the sheep and Vellum from the skin of the young calf.

Case of specimens of parchment and vellum contributed by Mr. John Lever, Sizelane, City.
I. Skin of vellum for binding and for drumheads.
II. Skin of transparent vellum for lacemakers, and also for tambourines and drum-heads. "

Catalogue of the Collection of Animal Products belonging to Her Majesty's ... - Page 69
Art objects - 1858 - 118 pages

"SNARE DRUMS, made from the best of well seasoned Rock Maple, extra fine and clear Calf Skins, for both beating and snare heads"

Elias Howe's Boston Drum Manufactory Advertisement

[joewhitney]

Re: Drum Head

I had two heads from Stern break the first time I played them, one their thin model and one their medium, and their thick ones were too thick to play well on. Had to sand them down, which can make them weaker.

Clear heads were popular even into the 1900's. I can't recall any of the originals I've seen having had those blazing white skin heads that Cooperman made popular, but quite a few you could see right through.

Hendershot was writing for the public of his time when he talked about drums and fifes on battlefields. Patriotic art of the time often showed a brave drummer boy beating during the battle, which of course was what Hendershot was claiming to have been.

Joe Whitney
2nd SC String Band
Liberty Hall Drum & Fife Corps