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SHOP TALK ||| RICH MANGICARO
SHOP TALK
THE PATH TO Performance Series
On this day, we were here to discuss DW’s
proprietary HVX shell. It’s only found on
DW’s Performance Series drums, a series
that is price point sensitive, only in that
they are less costly than custom drums.
Make no mistake, these are Oxnard,
California-made, high-end drums with pro
specs all the way! John makes it clear,
“We wanted to give Performance Series a
sonic personality all its own, not just make
a production version of our custom kits. It
was really important to develop something
that was modern, versatile and, most
HVX Shell
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importantly, lived up to DW’s reputation
for professional sounding, drummerfriendly
drums.”
As we sat in John’s office, we were
surrounded by wood veneers of every
conceivable variety and shells literally
littered the floor to the point where it was
hard to find a place to step. It’s obvious
that John spends plenty of time doing his
homework. We were also treated to a walkthrough
of DW’s state-of-the-art Custom
Shop, the shell shop, to be specific. There,
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TECHNOLOGY
by Rich Mangicaro
When speaking to John Good, DW’s master drum designer, one is treated to such a wealth of knowledge that you feel
like a kid again. No matter what level of player you are or type of music you play, you can rest assured that you’ll
walk away with a staggering amount of drum-related information while being inspired, re-charged and excited about the
instrument. John has innovated drum making in such a way that he’s paved entirely new manufacturing techniques within
the industry. I’m not the first to refer to him as a wood guru, as he travels the world searching for unique and beautiful
varieties of exotic woods, many of which have never been used before in a drum-building application. He’s fueled by
passion, loves sharing his discoveries, and our community is the better for it. As he says, “It’s all about education. The
more you know about your instrument and your drum shells, the easier it is to understand how to tune them.”
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we met with DW shell expert, Shon Smith.
He’s John’s right-hand man when it comes
to developing new shell technologies and
grain orientations. It was these two that
developed VLT, or Vertical Low Timbre,
and this ground-breaking discovery lead to
X-Shells (diagonal grain orientation), VLX
(a combination of VLT and X-Shells), and
eventually, HVX. The smell of raw wood
permeates the shell shop and, man, is it
hot in there! Actually, it’s hot AND humid
in there; they have to pump water in the
shop to make sure the moisture content
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EDGE 10 ||| 2012-2013