5 Tonewoods Drummers Need to Know About

While the wood selection is secondary to pickups and electronics when choosing a guitar, the importance of wood in drums is incontestable. A drum’s hardware, plies, bearing edges and build quality are important, but the choice of wood is crucial to determining a drum's sound.

While most drummers are familiar with maple and birch — and qualitative distinctions such as bright/dark, warm/stark — the range of options available to modern drummers now runs along a spectrum rather than a dichotomy.

In an effort to cater to the wider sonic palette demanded by today’s players, independent and large manufacturers increasingly are offering new options, such as poplar, mahogany and gum.

To make your trip through the forest a little easier, today we’re looking at five great tonewoods gaining traction in the drum making playing communities.

Bubinga

Introduced by Tama in the 2000s as an option on its flagship Starclassic series, bubinga is the newest entry on this list. Bubinga belongs to the Guibourtia demeusei tree family and is found in the dry woodland areas of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Heavy, aggressive and focused, bubinga is front and center when played. Around 50% harder than birch or maple, this is an immensely dense wood with a heavy bearing both sonically and physically. Often perceived as a blend of the dark attack of birch and the warm projection of maple, bubinga drums benefit from a lower tuning for a fat attack. Though this wood can be more expensive than others on this list, its aggressive character makes bubinga an excellent candidate for presence in metal.

Like many kinds of wood on this list, bubinga often is used with maple or birch in various ply configurations, but complete bubinga shells are not hard to find.

Rosewood

Hailing from the genus Dalbergia, and often thought of only in the context of guitars for fretboards or full instruments, rosewood pulls double-duty as an attractive option for a drum as well. While the word “controversy” rarely finds its way into discussions of different types of wood, scarcity is a part of the ongoing dialogue on rosewood's use. Facing near extinction in Brazil due to a combination of harvesting for furniture and instruments as well as land clearing by farmers, Brazilian rosewood came under tight restrictions in June 2014, prompting the market to shift to Indian rosewood. Many articles and countless internet feuds concern the merits of Brazilian vs. Indian rosewood, but the only difference is the ability to boast of owning the more-coveted Brazilian type.

Favored for years by guitar luthiers and used as a standard on the back and sides of many acoustic guitar models, rosewood’s reputation for a rich tonal spectrum is not unmerited. Most comfortable in a lower-mid tuning, rosewood’s density is comparable to bubinga and brings an attack capable of attaining high decibels while retaining a musical character. In addition to the attack and presence inherent in this option, rosewood’s vertical grain and carmine coloring make the wood visually distinctive and immediately recognizable.

Cherry

Typically thought of in the context of cabinets, bursts or pies, cherry’s wide range of application has gained traction in the drum world in recent time. Designated as a tree from the Prunus genus, cherry has frequently been used as an inlay or veneer due to its status as an exotic wood. Full kits were all but unheard of until boutique companies such as DW and Craviotto began producing them in the past ten years.

Billed as an alternative to maple by DW, cherry shares the warmth of the popular wood, but that’s where similarities stop. Cherry, like bubinga and rosewood, is dense, giving drums extra muscle when projecting with a timbre darker than maple but short of that associated with birch. As aforementioned, cherry typically was reserved for the veneer ply of a shell; full cherry snares and sets often sport a natural finish, showcasing the wood’s unique, irregular grain. The most expensive wood on this list, cherry is a luxury option, but if you’ve got the cash to spend, you’ll have a Rolls Royce of woods on your hands.

Oak

The adage “strong as an oak” has been around for centuries, and that’s because there’s credence behind the platitude. Resilient, durable, and inexpensive, oak belongs the Quercus genus comprised of over 600 species of tree. This arboreal giant has been long-favored by carpenters for its accessible price and practical applications in constructing support beams, doors and floorboards.

Oak’s admired qualities from those in construction transfers to the drum world. Another dense wood, oak brings the darker hues of aforementioned entries but finds itself in a unique position as a happy medium between maple and birch. Most notably, oak drums bring an “EQ’ed” sound not immediately inherent in most drums, providing a clear projection favored across the spectrum of genres. Pioneered by Yamaha and billed by the company as a wood deserving recognition alongside maple and birch, oak’s acoustic quality and accessible pricing make it one of the best options to investigate on this list.

Luan

Jeered and slighted since its introduction as a drum wood in the ‘60s, luan is this article’s sleeper hit. Also known as lauan, meranti and incorrectly as Philippine mahogany, luan comes from the Lauan tree of the Shorea genus found in Southeast Asia. Infamous as the wood of choice among Asian drum manufacturers in the ‘60s and ‘70s, luan gained a reputation as an analog of basswood: cheap, brittle, and without merit.

The reality of luan is far from purists' dismissive view, which has dogged the wood for years. Luan produces an immersive, warm response and medium-short decay sitting comfortably in the low spectrum, offering a solid foundation for the rhythm section and full sound from a three-piece to full Motown sound. Only available in vintage Japanese drums for years, luan has mounted a comeback in the 2010s and is even an available option for C&C Custom kits.