Welcome drum enthusiast!
Craig here at AVA DRUMS I (mainly) build stave drums in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
The aim is to build drums to the best of my ability, using the best materials and unique techniques, that result in fantastic sounding drums!
From lumber selection right the way through to the most high end Italian finishings, I got you!
CUSTOM IN-HOUSE TONGUE AND GROOVE
This is the standard joint on all my stave drums. The cutter for this profile was designed and made in-house for one purpose, AVA drums.
Here you can see the T&G profile that’s machined into each stave. This allows for precision alignment during glue up to retain the flat outer sides of the staves when assembled. The top and bottom reveal is then machined round for the skin to seat.
SHELL MODELS
In an effort to evolve the simple stave drum I now offer some different models of stave construction.
STRAIGHT-STAVE
This is a regular straight up AVA stave shell with custom in-house tongue and groove joints.
STABLE-STAVE
This is a straight style AVA stave shell with stave re-rings added for extra durability.
This is my most popular construction method. 11mm shell with maple rings.
This shell has a 1mm piece of flat horizontal grained maple in between the stave shell and stave re-ring.
This piece adds even more strength but it still allows the shell to expand/contract just like a normal stave drum.
A year long experiment with this construction had pleasing results, an unfinished shell that was exposed to the crazy humidity swings here in Alberta was able to shift without any harm or distortion to the shell. (Now discontinued, all STABLE-STAVE shells now constructed with 45 degree rings as per below, leaving this info here for reference.)
I have also developed the STABLE-STAVE model from a different angle now too… 45 degrees to be precise!
This design utilizes reinforcement rings with the grain and glue lines running at 45 degrees to the main shell to give a cross laminated structure.
The idea here is there’s no natural fault line so the strength of the shell is enhanced significantly,
But, the rings should have enough movement to let the shell breathe.
SLIM-STAVE
This shell has 5mm thick staves. This model now also utilize the 45 degree re-ring design
The re-rings have the the grain and glue lines running at 45 degrees to the main shell.
Rings are approximately 1″ thick on this model drum.
SUPER-STAVE
Inner and outer vertical grained pieces house a thin horizontal center piece for maximum strength and stability.
The SUPER-STAVE is designed specifically for ultimate durability, but also allows me to run the shell a little thinner than I would normally be comfortable with, makes for a great sounding drum. All toms and Bass drums use this construction method by default.
This design is incredibly strong, the center cross lamination pieces increase stave strength tremendously. To test this I have driven over test pieces, and put the staves in a vice and smashed on them with a hammer. Crazy strong!
The actual secret here is the horizontal cross lamination pieces are thin enough to let the entire shell flex and not focus any trauma back to the joint.
ROUND OVER BEARING EDGE
After the addition of reinforcement rings I thought the thickness of the shell at the bearing edges was a bit too much for a full round over so I designed a little Ogee shaped cutter to allow a full round over bearing edge. This keeps the rounded diameter to a small dimension, then curves away through the reinforcement ring.
This really sets the drum up for a really fat sound. Gets a lot of shell to head contact and helps absorbs unwanted overtones right into the shell. Do not waste energy through some sort of external dampening, use it to bring the shell to life! This Edge can be added to the batter side of a snare and will be used exclusively on all bass drums.
AVA LUGS!
After a lot of trial and error and many hours of design with help from a few special friends along the way, I now have our proprietary custom machined AVA drum lugs.
These were designed to have a self-aligning feature that would avoid tension rod splay from different hoop selection and keep everything nice and true. Tension rod splay is a no no here at AVA. I find that some triple flanged hoops and die-cast hoops often have different hole spacings, problem solved!
AVA lugs are machined on a 5 axis CNC mill from billet aluminum to the highest of standards, precision and tolerances. Almost NASA quality!
They have an indexed stainless steel “piston” insert that can travel to/from the shell to aid alignment.
These lugs can be anodised in a variety of colours and they also have laser cut gaskets for a really tidy fit to the shell.
Are these the best lugs in the world?
SEGMENTED WOOD HOOPS
These can be made with AVA STRIKE-PLATES installed in the areas that see the most abuse.
Can be cut from 3.2mm phenolic or carbon-fibre!
The hoops have a recess machined into them to house these pieces.
The plates sit just proud of the hoop surface to take the stick impact.
CAST METAL SHELLS & HOOPS
Available in Bronze, Brass, Aluminum and Copper.. All sizes and depths- please inquire!
All cast shells have AVA OCD edges and beds cut in-house.
AVA faceted cast hoops available for 14″ snare builds.
ACRYLIC!
Acrylic shells available now too, in-house AVA OCD edges and beds!
ANODIZED SEAMLESS ALUMINIUM COMBINATION SHELLS
These shells are available in 14×5.5 and 14×6.5 and can be anodized in a variety of colours
These shells have a SUPER-STAVE resonant snare side added.
The addition of the wood to the shell allows me to use my own snare bed profile.
The idea behind this approach is to remove some of the high end tinny frequencies and replace them with a little bit more low end.
Anodizing creates a very protective layer that is very scratch resistant, its rated 9 out of 10 on the Mohs hardness scale, meaning its second only to diamond!
All this happens at a molecular level so its as close to being a bare metal as can be, but will have an attractive aesthetic for many years to come. No lacquer or sealer applied.
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My aim is precision made, high quality, great sounding drums with a unique twist.!
There are many options regarding depths, bearing edges, species and finishings. Please message with desired spec.
Prices are in Canadian $$$
Custom, made to order drums.. What do you want?
Craig McKean
AVA Drums
Check out these stave kits!