On Friday, February 6th, the Gilbert High School Music Appreciation Club went on a 2 hour bus ride to Oxnard to enjoy a guided tour of the DW Factory lead by Joe, a drummer and site liaison for DW. The tour consisted of a walk through the factory. Joe lead the group from station to station whilst describing the process and steps they take to make drum shells.
The very beginning of the process begins with an online order as they only make drums based off of the orders they receive, once they receive an order they begin the steps to build the needs of the customer. They start by picking the different types of which wood from their inventory. Next up they measure and cut the different sections of wood based on the type of drum they received on the order. Onward they move the wood to be glued together and pressed into the round shape of a drum. Once the wood comes out of the press they then go to sand down the wood.
The sanding process is very time consuming, and is taken very serious. They often times send the drum back to get sanded correctly to precise measurements. Once the sanding process is done they move onto adding the paint or finish the customer ordered. Once the correct color is added they move on to tuning the drum. They place the drum in an isolated box to block outside noise where they use a microphone connected to a tuner. After being tuned they move the drum to have the lugs placed on. The last step is to photograph the drum or drum set to have documentation.
