Thursday
Nov302006
Todd's drum
Thursday, November 30, 2006 at 02:41PM
I come from a long line of carpenters: My grandpa, my dad, Jesus... My brother has it, too, I think. They can, and do, make beautiful things out of shapeless pieces of other things. They look at a room and think "I wonder what that wall would look like if I put it over here?" You know, sort of like Michael Jackson's does with his nose.
I got none of that in the ol' bloodline. I build other things, but I usually use words and notes. And I build the occasional, ok habitual, pedalboard. So I guess I got a little of it.
I'm surrounded by people who are good manly men, in this sense. Guys who are good with their hands. Guys who build stuff. Of all the guys I know that are, forgive the pun, built this way, I can think of no one better at it than Todd Bragg.
Todd's the drummer in Caedmon's. Before the band took off, though, he spent three or so years designing and building custom furniture. And it's cool. They bought a "fixer-upper" house. It belongs in a magazine now. He's amazing.
We played a show a few months ago in West Virginia (see "The Voices"), and Todd found this really huge, beat up drum backstage. He asked around and found that it never got used. I think he gave them fifty bucks or something and took it home.
He did the research and found out it was a 1929 Slingerland kick drum for one of their earliest drum sets. He refinished it and sent me some pictures the other day. I thought it was so awesome you guys had to see it.
Here's what he started with....
And the final product...
The moral: Todd is cool.
STT: 812,140
I got none of that in the ol' bloodline. I build other things, but I usually use words and notes. And I build the occasional, ok habitual, pedalboard. So I guess I got a little of it.
I'm surrounded by people who are good manly men, in this sense. Guys who are good with their hands. Guys who build stuff. Of all the guys I know that are, forgive the pun, built this way, I can think of no one better at it than Todd Bragg.
Todd's the drummer in Caedmon's. Before the band took off, though, he spent three or so years designing and building custom furniture. And it's cool. They bought a "fixer-upper" house. It belongs in a magazine now. He's amazing.
We played a show a few months ago in West Virginia (see "The Voices"), and Todd found this really huge, beat up drum backstage. He asked around and found that it never got used. I think he gave them fifty bucks or something and took it home.
He did the research and found out it was a 1929 Slingerland kick drum for one of their earliest drum sets. He refinished it and sent me some pictures the other day. I thought it was so awesome you guys had to see it.
Here's what he started with....
And the final product...
The moral: Todd is cool.
STT: 812,140
Reader Comments (16)
WOW
Oh, that is gorgeous.
Amazing. Way to go Todd!
CJH
props to Todd- that thing is beautiful!
dude.
That bass drum is sweet!
no freakin joke. that's amazing.
but how does it sound... :)
Even without this drum, Todd is one of the Most Impressive Human Beings I've Ever Met. He's so talented that I am actually kind of (irrationally) afraid of him.
All that and good-looking, too.
I hear he's handy with a little guitar repair, too. :D
That's incredible.
Wondrous.
Fear the Todd.
That is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
I am so NOT the handy man. How the heck do you get from pic 2 to pic 3? That's amazing.
yes I agree...Todd is a freak of manliness. He's so talented and just being around him you get the impression that he could build anything he wanted. His garage looks like a wood-shop...tools everywhere.
Todd rules!
But everyone knows when you strip the original finish from a vintage instrument, it's value goes down! He might have well just slapped on a Red Hot Chile Peppers sticker... oh, wrong forum.
Bravo and well done, from a guy who can't even make a spice rack as well as Homer Simpson.