The picture without flash makes me salivate...

Jeez, man, this is so impressive!

Rollo, you are my hero!

That looks REALLY good! Monkey is right, some brass hardware would look beautiful on that!

So, when can I place my order for one?

AMAZING

that IS beautiful! but purple...

AWESOME work man!!!!

Thanks for all the input and various info, guys...

All the lug screws ended up short, so I had to make yet another trip to the hardware store. Looking at the massive thick shell makes me laugh. The lugs are sitting on top of two hard rubber washers to line up the screws with the hoop holes. Thanks for the heads up, Monk.

Very precise and clear sounding... can't get over how quickly the pitch goes up with a quarter twist on the turnkey... so easy to tune. I've never experienced or heard a reso "pop" until now... I forgot the candle wax, DD. Very helpful tip

This thing is loud with a lovely and controlled overtone... but overall, not as warm as I had hoped for... I'm not used to the bright attack. Loosening the snare wires seems to give it a darker deeper richer pop though (must be the ala Ludwig snare bed, thanks JW). Overall a big improvement from the standard shell for sure.

I may have to change the batter to a Remo to warm it up a bit... (always aspiring to nail that James Walker sound!)

Good stuff!!!

That is an awesome looking drum!

I would consider going for different hardware at some point, though. I understand that this drum is mainly an experiment, but if you end up liking this drum as much as it seems, then I would suggest a change from black hardware.

It's been a very interesting read, this thread!

That is a truly beautiful drum Rollo

The only thing I want to know, when are you going to start taking orders?

Superb work, she's a stunner.

I'm starting to wonder if I have enough wood floating around here to so something similar... It's actually a little disturbing how much oak and maple I find hanging around.

I'm thinking about doing something similar, but I feel the need to make a 10" diameter snare. That's only going to make it much harder to round everything out properly, especially the interior.

That's one tasty snaredrum! I still agree with Monk, some brass hardware would look awesome on that (if you're ever considering changing)!

O.K. I managed to find a rather large stash of oak in the spare room (don't ask - I often find interesting things like this around my house).

What I'm wondering now (and I know this is probably more academic at this point) ...does the orientation of the grain make any difference. Would there be a difference between a shell with the grain running axially (vertically) or laterally (horizontally)?

The lateral version will actually be easier to build, given a piece of stock of the right dimensions, but the oak I have isn't the right dimension unless I want another pancake.