Cravvy-Otto

Craviotto is how it’s really spelled. Being a drummer I’m always on the lookout for the latest and greatest set of drums out there…or drum. They are sort of like computers, always changing and evolving. You always have different types of woods, finishes, sizes with different drum companies trying to capture the attention of us drummers. For most of my drumming life I’ve been a brand-loyal Drum Workshop customer. I knew, even before I came close to affording a dw drum that I wanted a dw drumset.

What got my attention? Honestly, it was the marketing they put out and their attention to detail and craftsmanship in creating their drums. The marketing was great – all I had to do was turn on MTV or watch a concert live and see the white ‘dw’ logo against the black drumhead. Seeing bands that toured the world many times over play dw drums was enough to convince me of a few things:

1. They must be made well to survive all that touring
2. They must sound amazing in-person for this drummer of that band to want to use them
3. They always just looked great on stage – something about them
4. They survived the ‘fad’ phase. A lot of artists played dw drums in the early 90′s – but instead of slowly dying as the bands disappeared – they have only grown. All kinds of people play them from all types of music. A lot of other drum companies are around today just because they have a single drummer endorsing them and only seem to market to a specific crowd.

Well, I finally got a set of dw drums and will never play anything else for a few reasons:

1. I can’t afford to buy another drumset
2. They are the best sounding drums I’ve ever played
3. Being hand-crafted, hand-tuned and having each shell individually picked based on it’s tonal characteristics…with the note of the shell stamped on the inside of each drum – who does that?!?!

Well, lately another drum company has caught my eye. They actually used to produce certain types of snare drums for Drum Workshop  before splitting into it’s own company. The Craviotto Drum Company. This company is unique in that they don’t produce drums made from plies of wood. Most drum shells are made from plies of maple, birch, etc, which are then glued and pressed together to eventually form the shell of the drum. Craviotto drums are all a single ply! Does that mean they are paper-thin? Nope, it means that the wood is cut to a specific thickness of what is needed, say, for a snare drum. It’s steam bent and formed. Eventually it stays round and forms a drum shell. Now imagine this for all drums forming a drumset. I used to own a DW/Craviotto snare drum and it was so very loud. This is one set of drums I would love to sit behind one day and play. They remind me a lot of dw in that they are not mass producing drums. They are all hand-crafted and it shows in how they sound and look.

 

 

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